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The Banalization of Sexual Harassment That Produces Silencing in the Brazilian Academic Context of Management

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  • Juliana Cristina Teixeira
  • Caroline Rodrigues Silva
  • Juliana Schneider Mesquita
  • Adriana Vinholi Rampazo

Abstract

Sexual harassment remains a persistent and structural form of gendered violence in academic institutions. In this article, we investigate how its banalization operates as both a consequence and a mechanism of silencing in the Brazilian field of academic management. Drawing on six in‐depth interviews with women scholars and students, we employ coding‐based narrative analysis to explore how harassment is normalized, dismissed, and rendered invisible. We argue that banalization and silencing constitute a self‐reinforcing dynamic sustained by coloniality, which functions as an ontological structure. This triad: coloniality, banalization, and silencing, helps to explain how sexual harassment is normalized and rendered invisible within academic institutions. Our contribution includes a conceptual model that identifies four structural axes—symbolic‐cultural normalization, epistemological ambiguity, psychological internalization, and legal‐institutional voids—which mediate the trivialization of harassment. This paper calls for a shift from individualized understandings of violence to collective accountability and structural transformation, particularly in institutions historically shaped by colonial gendered norms.

Suggested Citation

  • Juliana Cristina Teixeira & Caroline Rodrigues Silva & Juliana Schneider Mesquita & Adriana Vinholi Rampazo, 2026. "The Banalization of Sexual Harassment That Produces Silencing in the Brazilian Academic Context of Management," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 300-314, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:33:y:2026:i:2:p:300-314
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.70022
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