Blaming the target of sexual harassment: Impact of gender role, sexist attitudes, and work role

This study was conducted to examine factors associated with blaming the tar get of sexual harassment. Participants' experiences of sexual harassment, s exist attitudes, gender, gender role identity, age, worker or student statu s, and belief in a just world were included as independent variables. Level of blame was evaluated using a series of 12 vignettes that manipulated the gender of the target and harasser as well as the seriousness of the harass ing behavior. The sample comprised 30 female and 32 male workers from two w orkplaces, whose ages ranged from 18 to 65 (M = 35) years, and 102 female a nd 18 male university students whose ages ranged from 17 to 40 (M = 21) yea rs. Approximately 70% of the sample were from Anglo Australian background, and 30% from European, Middle Eastern or Asian background. Females experien ced more sexual harassment than males did, although the male rate was highe r than expected. Although the majority of subjects attributed little blame to the target, males blamed the target of sexual harassment more than femal es did, and workers blamed the target of harassment more than university st udents did. Worker status, sexist attitudes, and gender significantly predi cted blame for the total sample. Gender-typing increased the blame of the t arget by males but not by females. Attribution of blame was significantly i nfluenced by worker versus student status, which supports the social psycho logical perspective that gender-related behavior is context dependent. The findings from this study suggest that organisational culture and environmen t influence respondents' attitudes to sexually, harassing behavior.