Sexual harassment among peers

This study attempts to define sexual harassment among peers in the university setting and to evaluate the nature and scope of the problem among undergraduates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.). It also touches upon the topic of sexual harassment involving persons in authority.

Questionnaires were completed by 180 female undergraduates and by 152 male undergraduates randomly selected to participate in the study. The survey was conducted anonymously to facilitate the most honest and detailed responses.

The questionnaire addresses attitudes toward sexual behavior including sexual harassment; experiences with unwanted sexual attention at M.I.T. and reactions to this attention; definitions of sexual harassment; experiences with sexual harassment in the academic arena of M.I.T.; specific instances of peer sexual harassment; personal and formal actions taken against the harasser and their results; the effectiveness of potential personal and institutional actions; and policies of M.I.T. with regard to sexual harassment. Both precoded and open-ended questions were included.

The Murray Center holds the original questionnaires of the 332 respondents and computer-accessible data for all coded responses.