Skip to content
Surprising Science

How Women Cope with Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment may have become so commonplace for women that they have built up resistance to harassing behavior they consider merely “bothersome,” suggests a new study.

Is sexual harassment so widespread that women have developed an immunity of sorts? Isis Settles, psychology professor at Michigan State University, said: “‘When women view sexual harassment as bothersome, it doesn’t seem to be associated with distress. In some ways this suggests that sexual harassment is such a widespread problem that women have figured out ways to deal with it so it doesn’t interfere with their psychological well-being.’ For the study the researchers examined surveys of more than 6,000 women and men serving in all five branches of the U.S. military.”


Related

Up Next
Research conducted by Arizona State University anthropologists finds an increasing number of societies express negative attitudes towards overweight individuals—a reversal of earlier trends.