New publication by Dr. Seiki Tanaka at Dædalus, Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Power in the workplace does not stop women’s exposure to sexual harassment. On the contrary, women with supervisory positions are harassed more than women employees.  These are the results from a new study by Seiki Tanaka. The article Sexual Harassment of Women Leaders is published at Dædalus, Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

By analyzing the responses from three surveys, he, together with fellow Swedish and Japanese researchers, has studied the prevalence of sexual harassment across the organizational hierarchy. The study shows that women with supervisory positions experienced between 30 and 100 per cent more sexual harassment than other women employees. This was true across the United States, Japan, and Sweden, three countries with different gender norms and levels of gender equality in the labor market. Comparing levels of leadership, exposure to harassment was greatest at lower levels of leadership, but remained substantial and similar to the level of harassment for the highest positions. In all three countries, women with supervisory positions were subject to more harassment when their subordinates consisted of mostly men.  Additional survey data from the United States and Japan also showed that harassment of supervisors was not only more common than for employees, but was also followed by more negative professional and social consequences.

Dr. Seiki Tanaka is Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Department of International Relations and International Organization. Tanaka conducts research on how different groups of people can co-exist within a society in an era of globalization and technological advancement.