Exploring Institutional Policies and Female Students’ Coping Strategies on Sexual Harassment: A Case Study of Adi Haki Campus, Mekelle University, Ethiopia

Abstract

Abstract The issue of sexual harassment is wide-spreading in higher education and becoming a central topic of public discussion and research. This thesis focuses on examining institutional policies and exploring female students’ coping strategies on sexual harassment. In doing so, socio-cultural and organizational theories of sexual harassment have been used as an analytical framework. A qualitative research approach was employed to explore the issue under investigation. More specifically, this research is a case study, and semi-structured interviews and policy analysis were used to collect the necessary data. This study disclosed that Mekelle University has been implemented clearly worded gender policy and anti-sexual harassment code of conduct to address the problem. In addition, the university organized structures or offices to implement the policies. Despite the existence of institutional policies and structures, the interviews with participants of this study disclosed that sexual harassment is pervasive. Female students are the main victims of sexual harassment while most of the perpetrators are male instructors. The study also shows that the female students’ choice of coping strategies has mainly been determined by the gender and power relationship between the perpetrators and victims. Most specifically, the strong patriarchal ideology and the unbalanced or unregulated hierarchical power of the perpetrators mainly determine the female students’ choice of coping strategies. The female students opted to deal with the sexual harassment through two different coping strategies. Very few female students managed to bring their sexual harassment cases either to the gender office and/or the police. The majority of female students opted to deal with sexual harassment through indirect strategies. Staying silent, normalization of the incident, withdrawing from the academic institution, sitting for re-exams, confront the perpetrators, transferring to other departments and accepting the sexual proposition of the perpetrators are some of the female students’ choices of indirect coping strategies. Moreover, interviews with female students show that fear of revenge and perceived of making false allegations, lack of confidence in the institutional structures, the absence of concrete evidence, and lack of awareness are some of the reasons behind the female students’ difficulty of reporting their sexual harassment cases. Normalization of the problem also exacerbates the female students’ reluctance to report.