Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2019 Jul 17;14(7):e0218313. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0218313. eCollection 2019.
Over the last two years, awareness about the sexual mistreatment of women has stunned the world. According to analysis by the New York Times, the defeat of Hilary Clinton and election of Donald Trump spurred a women's movement in the US that began in November of 2016 and resulted in protests across the country, including the largest single-day protest in history on January 21, 2017. Later that year, the #MeToo movement (starting in October 2017) and subsequent #TimesUp movement (starting in January 2018) galvanized women to unite against sexual assault and sexual harassment, which has become the hallmark of the current women's movement. But has anything changed over this time period in regard to the sexual harassment of women? Using a repeat cross-sectional survey from over 500 women collected at two points in time (September 2016 and September 2018), we found reduced levels of the most egregious forms of sexual harassment (unwanted sexual attention and sexual coercion) but increased levels of gender harassment in 2018. More importantly, sexual harassment had a weaker relationship with women's negative self-views (lower self-esteem, higher self-doubt) in 2018 compared to 2016. Qualitative interviews collected from women in the fall of 2016 and in the fall of 2018 from the same women, support the quantitative data. They suggest that the changes in sexual harassment are due to the increased scrutiny on the topic. The interviewees also emphasize that they feel better supported and empowered and are not ashamed to speak up about sexual harassment.
在过去的两年中，人们对女性遭受性虐待的认识震惊了世界。据《纽约时报》分析，希拉里·克林顿的失败和唐纳德·特朗普的当选在美国引发了一场始于 2016 年 11 月的女性运动，导致全国各地的抗议活动，包括 2017 年 1 月 21 日历史上最大的单日抗议活动。同年晚些时候，#MeToo 运动（始于 2017 年 10 月）和随后的#TimesUp 运动（始于 2018 年 1 月）激励女性团结一致反对性侵犯和性骚扰，这已成为当前女性运动的标志。但在这段时间里，女性遭受性骚扰的情况有任何变化吗？我们使用在两个时间点（2016 年 9 月和 2018 年 9 月）收集的 500 多名女性的重复横断面调查发现，最恶劣形式的性骚扰（不受欢迎的性关注和性胁迫）水平有所降低，但 2018 年性别骚扰水平有所上升。更重要的是，与 2016 年相比，性骚扰与女性负面自我看法（自尊心降低、自我怀疑增加）的关系在 2018 年较弱。2016 年秋季和 2018 年秋季从同一批女性收集的定性访谈支持了定量数据。这些访谈表明，性骚扰的变化是由于对该主题的审查力度加大所致。受访者还强调，他们感到得到了更多的支持和授权，并且不再羞于谈论性骚扰。
