IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/indgen/v33y2026i1p71-87.html

Institutional Patriarchy: Analysing Sexual Harassment in Workplace Policy Through the Theory of Institutionalism

Author

Listed:
  • Vinita Chandra

Abstract

It has been a decade since the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 was passed, but data shows that implementation of the law is unsatisfactory, and conviction is extremely low. Internal Complaints Committees that are set up to enquire into complaints have not even made a dent on this problem. This article attempts to analyse the policy through the theory of institutionalism. Institutional patriarchy, that is, patriarchal structures on which institutions are founded, makes it extremely difficult to bring about a change in the prevalence of sexual harassment of women through policies formulated by institutions that are themselves embedded in patriarchy. The root of sexual harassment is structural patriarchy, and, unless this issue is addressed, women will continue to be harassed. The issue of structural patriarchy cannot be confronted with one sexual harassment law alone; it needs radical rethinking of policymaking in order to bring about change.

Suggested Citation

  • Vinita Chandra, 2026. "Institutional Patriarchy: Analysing Sexual Harassment in Workplace Policy Through the Theory of Institutionalism," Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Centre for Women's Development Studies, vol. 33(1), pages 71-87, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:indgen:v:33:y:2026:i:1:p:71-87
    DOI: 10.1177/09715215251404312
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09715215251404312
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09715215251404312?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:indgen:v:33:y:2026:i:1:p:71-87. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.