A major factor contributing to mental health problems of students, faculty, and staff can be observing or experiencing unethical behavior in an academic setting. 听An extreme form of this is sexual harassment, which can be defined as 鈥渦nwanted conduct of a sexual nature, or other conduct based on sex affecting the dignity of women and men at work, which include physical, verbal and nonverbal conduct鈥 (Equal Opportunities Commission, 2005).

According to research, victims of sexual harassment may develop post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, suicidality, and other negative physical and mental health conditions (e.g., Campbell et al., 2009). Therefore, increasing awareness and preventing cases of sexual harassment in the Franklin community is one of the aims of the DEI Committee.

One of the challenges in dealing with sexual harassment cases is identifying the harassing behavior. Unwanted touching, sexual coercion, and threats of negative performance evaluations or status loss represent overt forms of sexual harassment and may be easier to identify. However, there are also subtle forms of sexual harassment, such as sexist jokes, comments, and language, intimate questioning, sexually suggestive gestures, comments about sexual orientation, etc. Both overt and subtle forms of sexual harassment represent a threat to individual and organizational well-being.

If you have ever experienced or witnessed any kind of sexual harassment, we encourage you to report this case. To do this, you can use a completely anonymous form created by Franklin鈥檚 Office of Student Life. The link to the form is provided below.

References:

  1. Campbell, R., Dworkin, E., & Cabral, G. (2009). An ecological model of the impact of sexual assault on women's mental health. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 10(3), 225-246.
  2. Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) (2005), Equal Opportunities Commission, London, available at: .
  3. Federal Office of Public Health FOPH (2022), Health equity, available at: https://www.bag.admin.ch/bag/en/home/zahlen-und-statistiken/zahlen-fakten-zu-chancengleichheit.html.