The sexual harassment of federal employees: Gender, leadership status, and organizational tolerance for abuses of power

Abstract

Theory and research suggest that sexual harassment is often a dominance strategy used to undermine women's power, but the precise relationships between government employees' workplace power, organizational climate, and vulnerability to particular types of sexual harassment remain under-specified. This study analyzes data from the 2016 US Merit Systems Protection Board survey of the federal civilian workforce (the most comprehensive and up-To-date national data on workplace sexual harassment) to test predictions about how employees' workplace power and their agency's efforts to mitigate abuses of power affect their likelihood of experiencing sexual harassment. Findings reveal that women in leadership positions report more sexual harassment than non-leaders, and that team leaders (i.e., those without formal supervisory authority) and executives (i.e., those with the most authority) report more sexual harassment than women in middle management. At the organizational level, sexual harassment occurs in workplaces with higher levels of non-sexual aggression and among employees who perceive their agency as less proactive in preventing and responding to social inequity. Taken together, findings suggest that sexual harassment is a dominance strategy not unlike other forms of aggression used to undermine women in power, and that workplace climates that are effective at mitigating abuses of power reduce the likelihood of experiencing sexual harassment. These results have implications for how government agencies can implement policies that not only prevent harassment but also promote democracy and equity among an increasingly diverse federal workforce.