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Challenging gendered power: How sexual harassment perpetrators respond to victim confrontation

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  • Jocelyn Elise Crowley

Abstract

Sexual harassment is a problem that continues to plague mostly women in the American workforce today. One tool that victims can use in these situations is confrontation, either through verbal or physical means. Yet, understudied to this point is how perpetrators respond to confrontation, which is highly salient as to whether this is an effective tool for victims. This study uses grounded theory methods to analyze 31 accounts of sexual harassment from within the fashion industry that recorded perpetrators' responses to victim confrontation to clearly unwanted, abusive behavior. I argue that specific features of the fashion industry, or a “display work culture,” embolden perpetrators to effectively thwart any type of confrontation. Indeed, this study finds that these predominantly male perpetrators of sexual harassment moved to reassert their dominant position over their female victims in the moment of confrontation, immediately after being confronted, and even later, well beyond confrontation, as they aimed to reestablish normal business practices as usual. This research thus dispels a significant sexual harassment myth that victims working within this culture are able to stop perpetrators simply by speaking up and/or fighting back and points to the need for the development of sexual harassment theory to incorporate work culture‐related risk factors and remedies.

Suggested Citation

  • Jocelyn Elise Crowley, 2023. "Challenging gendered power: How sexual harassment perpetrators respond to victim confrontation," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 112-128, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:30:y:2023:i:1:p:112-128
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12906
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. McDonald, P. & Backstrom, S., 2008. "Fighting Back: Workplace Sexual Harassment and the Case of North Country," Australian Bulletin of Labour, National Institute of Labour Studies, vol. 34(1), pages 47-63.
    2. Laura K. Brunner & Maryanne Dever, 2014. "Work, Bodies and Boundaries: Talking Sexual Harassment in the New Economy," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(5), pages 459-471, September.
    3. Sophie Hennekam & Dawn Bennett, 2017. "Sexual Harassment in the Creative Industries: Tolerance, Culture and the Need for Change," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 417-434, July.
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    1. Erynn E. Beaton & Maham Ali, 2025. "Subjected to Harassment: Deconstructing Power in an Encounter With Workplace Sexual Harassment," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(5), pages 1797-1811, September.

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