Gen Y Speaks: Combating sexual harassment in universities
A spotlight has been shone on sexual harassment cases in Singapore, with the recent #MeToo movement gaining traction in mainstream and social media.
Currently, efforts towards tackling sexual harassment here are centred on the workplace. In 2015, Singapore launched the Tripartite Advisory on Managing Workplace Harassment, which aimed to be a practical guide for employers and employees to improve the prevention and management of workplace harassment.
The Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) also publishes reports on sexual harassment at the workplace or among young people in general.
What is sorely lacking, however, is information on sexual harassment in our institutes of higher learning.
Singaporean universities do not yet have comprehensive anti-harassment policies in place, although most of them have honour codes that remind students to be respectful of one another.
While some schools explicitly forbid sexual harassment, it is only covered briefly in their student codes of conduct and do not go into details. For example, NTU’s Code of Conduct only mentions harassment in a single line – “All forms of harassment, including sexual harassment, and bullying are expressly forbidden in NTU, including by physical, verbal or electronic means” – in 11 pages of rules.
Universities can do more to acknowledge the severity of sexual harassment cases, take more measures to address them, and educate students on how they can protect themselves and others from sexual harassment. With this foundation, students will be equipped to manage this issue when they enter the workforce.
ANTI-HARASSMENT POLICY
A 2017 survey by the Australian Human Rights Commission showed that 94 per cent of students who were sexually harassed in Australia did not make a formal complaint to their university.
They feared that the university would not believe them or take any action, and some students thought that the situation was not serious enough to warrant a report, the study showed.
To address these fears, universities can enact an anti-harassment policy that emphasises their commitment towards protecting the well-being of the campus community, as suggested by a 2011 report on campus-based sexual harassment by the American Association of University Women (AAUW).
Besides stating the university’s position on the issue, the policy could also include examples of what constitutes sexual harassment.
Harvard University’s Sexual and Gender-Based Harassment Policy is a good example of a strong anti-harassment policy. For instance, it clearly details the following as sexual harassment: “sharing visual or auditory records of sexual activity or nudity without the knowledge and consent of all recorded parties and recipient(s)”. It also defines what constitutes unwelcome conduct, stating that conduct is “unwelcome if a person (1) did not request or invite it and (2) regarded the unrequested or uninvited conduct as undesirable or offensive”.
It also offers an assurance to its campus community that these cases of sexual harassment will be treated with sensitivity and confidentiality, which is perhaps the most crucial aspect of such a policy.
Of course, these assurances have to be seen through. AAUW’s report found that most harassed students did not turn to anyone for help because they did not perceive educators to be helpful.
To alleviate this, the report suggests that all school personnel dealing with students who have been sexually harassed must undergo training to learn how to communicate with them appropriately. They also need to be clear and prompt in redirecting the student to the appropriate authority.
Despite the benefits of an anti-harassment policy, some people might find its unclear out-of-bounds markers worrying. A research study done by Harvard Business Review found that anti-harassment policies seemed to suggest to participants that any behaviour could be sexual harassment if an irrational employee perceived it as such.
To mitigate against false allegations, universities should make clear that those who do so will face serious disciplinary action.
For the anti-harassment policies to be meaningful, they must include feedback from students to incorporate their experiences and concerns.
This is where student leaders have a role to play, by rallying the student body to support the process and organising focus group discussions for in-depth insights.
Involving students in the policy-making process will “guide universities towards a more proactive and coherent position, rather than a reactive and piecemeal approach, to address and prevent sexual violence,” said the former director of the Australian Human Rights Centre at the University of New South Wales Andrea Durbach in an article about university sexual violence guidelines published in July this year.
Universities will also be able to formulate policies that resonate strongly with students, leading to more effective outcomes.
EDUCATE BYSTANDERS
However, policies do not guarantee the complete prevention of sexual harassment, even if they are well-crafted. Universities also need to foster a campus culture that protects victims of sexual harassment.
Besides including information on positive bystander intervention in the anti-harassment policy, universities need to increase awareness about this and actively encourage people who have witnessed instances of sexual harassment to speak up. This is an area that Singaporean universities can do more of.
According to a 2015 AWARE report, only one in eight respondents who knew a victim of sexual harassment said they offered help. More often than not, these bystanders often merely advised victims to stand up for themselves, ignore their perpetrator’s actions, or be more careful in the future.
Victims often told no one, or only a close friend, about their experiences. The most frequent response that victims received when they actually confided in someone was that of dismissal. The other party either laughed, or told them to ignore it.
Educating students on how to deal with sexual harassment, especially when it happens to someone they know, can create a culture in which students understand that sexual harassment is something that should be dealt with formally.
Change will not happen overnight — in fact, research shows that changing the cultural norms about sexual harassment at a school can take years.
But change is necessary, and it needs to start now.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Michelle Racho is a third-year student at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University. This is adapted from a piece which first appeared in Nanyang Chronicle, the university newspaper.
