The effect of sexual harassment and sexual violence prevention education on gender sensitivity: Focus on Korean public officials

Abstract

Introduction. The Korean government has been making efforts to prevent sexual harassment and sexual violence by enacting the mandatory implementation of sexual harassment and sexual violence prevention education in 1999. Nevertheless, the rate of sexual harassment and sexual violence in the public service is continuously increasing. This study analyzed the effects of sexual harassment and sexual violence prevention education on gender sensitivity targeting Korean public officials, focusing on the effects of sex and age. Research method. The effectiveness of sexual harassment prevention education was compared with 108 people in the experimental group who completed sexual harassment prevention education and 91 people in the control group with a similar gender, age, and rank distribution who did not complete such education. Reliability, frequency, cross tab, ANCOVA, and paired t-test were conducted using SPSS 24.0. Results. First, it was found that sexual harassment and sexual violence prevention education had a positive effect on gender sensitivity. There were significant differences that the experimental group showed a lower level of misogyny (F=4.861, p