A meta-analytic review of gender differences in perceptions of sexual harassment

Research on gender differences in perceptions of sexual harassment informs an ongoing legal debate regarding the use of a reasonable person standard i nstead of a reasonable woman standard to evaluate sexual harassment claims. The authors report a meta-analysis of 62 studies of gender differences in harassment perceptions. An earlier quantitative review combined all types o f social-sexual behaviors for a single meta-analysis; the purpose of this s tudy was to investigate whether the magnitude of the female-male difference varies by type of behavior. An overall standardized mean difference of 0.3 0 was found, suggesting that women perceive a broader range of social-sexua l behaviors as harassing, However, the meta-analysis also found that the fe male-male difference was larger for behaviors that involve hostile work env ironment harassment, derogatory attitudes toward women, dating pressure, or physical sexual contact than sexual propositions or sexual coercion.