Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Jun 3:49:101486.
doi: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101486. eCollection 2022 Jul.

Harassment as a consequence and cause of inequality in academia: A narrative review

Susanne Täuber  1 , Kim Loyens  2 , Sabine Oertelt-Prigione  3   4 , Ina Kubbe  5
Affiliations
Review

Harassment as a consequence and cause of inequality in academia: A narrative review

Susanne Täuber et al. EClinicalMedicine. .

Abstract

A growing body of literature suggests that over the past 30 years, policies aimed at tackling harassment in academia have had little discernable effect. How can this impasse be overcome to make the higher education sector a safe space for everyone? We combine the areas of harassment and inequality, intersectionality, policy-practice gaps, gender sensitive medicine, as well as corruption and whistleblower processes to identify lacunae and offer recommendations for how to apply our recommendations in practice. We have been searching the most influential, relevant, and recent literature on harassment and inequality in our respective fields of expertise. By studying conceptual overlaps between the different fields, we were able to create insights that go beyond the insights of the most recent reviews. Our synthesis results in three concrete recommendations. First, harassment and inequality are mutually reinforcing. Failure to adequately tackle harassment contributes to perpetuating and reproducing inequality. Further, the intersectional nature of inequality has to be acknowledged and acted upon. Second, enforcing anti-harassment policies should be a top priority for universities, funders, and policymakers. Third, sexual harassment should be treated as institutional-level integrity failure. The higher education sector should now focus on enforcing existing anti-harassment policies by holding universities accountable for their effective implementation - or risk being complicit in maintaining and reproducing inequality.

Funding: We have received no funding for this research.

Keywords: Corruption; Higher education; Inequality; Integrity; Intersectionality; Sexual harassment.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Susanne Täuber is a member of the Dutch Advisory Committee Diverse and Inclusive Higher Education and Research, which provides advice on promoting an inclusive, diverse and safe learning and working environment within the field of higher education and in scientific research and a member of the advisory board at the Academic Parity Movement, a nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing academic discrimination, violence and incivility. Sabine Oertelt-Prigione was a member of the EU Expert Group Gendered Innovations 2 and is the chairwoman of the current EU Expert Group Gender and COVID-19. She received a grant from the German Ministry of Health, Stichting Achmea Slachtoffers en Samenleving, Dutch Heart Foundation. Kim Loyens was part of the organizing committee of the International Whistleblowing and Research Network conference in Utrecht (2019). Ina Kubbe has not conflicts to report.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
An illustration of the different actors and forces affecting harassment and inequality in academia. Institutional factors, strategies used by bullies and enablers, as well as currently neglected factors provide insight into the most pressing current lacunae. If unaddressed, these lacunae contribute to the mutual perpetuation and reproduction of inequality and harassment in academia.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Cortina L.M., Areguin M.A. Putting People Down and Pushing Them Out: Sexual Harassment in the Workplace. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior. 2020;8 285-209.
    1. Bondestam F., Lundqvist M. Sexual harassment in higher education–a systematic review. European Journal of Higher Education. 2020;10(4):397–419.
    1. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Committee on the Impacts of Sexual Harassment . 2018. Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Washington, DC. - PubMed
    1. International Labour Organization (2019). C190 - Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190). Retrieved on January 8, 2022, from Convention C190 - Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190) (ilo.org)
    1. Jenner S., Djermester P., Prügl J., Kurmeyer C., Oertelt-Prigione S. Prevalence of sexual harassment in academic medicine. JAMA internal medicine. 2019;179(1):108–111. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources