| Popis: |
The aim of the article is to show how intertwined sexual misconduct and harassment is with power, in higher education institutions. The data we draw upon are 14 in-depth interviews with women working in 8 different Swedish universities. They were all a part of the Metoo movement in Swedish higher education and shared testimonies of sexual misconduct and sexism in #akademiuppropet. The interviews that this article is based on were made 6 months in May 2017. Some results have already been published in a report made by the Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR 2019). The issue of how sexual harassment is intertwined with the exercise of power in academia is very present in the interviews. In all interviews accept one the examples of sexual harassment, misconduct or sexism the perpetrator was a man in a higher position than the victim. This was not surprising as research on sexual harassment in academia have been dominated by studies on prevalence (Bondestam and Lundqvist 2020) and especially the prevalence of harassment among students (i.e. Klein and Martin 2021). We also know much about the underreporting of sexual harassment among university staff (i.e. Kirkner, Lorenz and Mazar 2020). More qualitative analyses of experiences of sexual harassment in academia that put power in the center of research is lacking. As Schultz (2018) points out in an analysis of the Harvey Weinstein case “explicitly sexual misconduct is typically only one manifestation of a broader pattern of sexism, harassment, and discrimination that is motivated less by sexual desire than by a drive to reinforce masculine workplace status and identity” (p.26). Based on the interview similar tendencies can be observed in the stories of sexually harassed women in academia. |
