Not OK: Ninety Percent of Teenage Girls Report Sexual Harassment

From the "things that should be unacceptable in the year 2008" file comes a recent study finding that 90 percent of teenage girls surveyed have experienced sexual harassment and/or sexism. The approximately 600 girls surveyed came from a range of ethnic and socioeconomic groups, but nearly all reported experiencing some form of harassment ranging from unwanted touching to demeaning comments about their gender to threats of physical violence by male peers. Seventy-six percent of girls also reported being on the receiving end of sexist comments about their abilities in math, science, computers or sports.

Study authors note that these findings are significant because if girls come to perceive harassment and sexism as the norm, they will internalize it as evidence of their own shortcomings instead of externalizing it as evidence of a screwed-up society. Interestingly, cultural factors appear to influence whether girls could identify sexism and harassment. Those exposed to feminist ideas through the media or adult role models were more able to recognize and report harassment. Girls who reported growing up with more patriarchal norms in their life were less likely to see harassment as an injustice.

Allison Elliott writes for Dollymix, and also wrote the linked news release for her day job

[Via EurekAlert]
[image via Getty]

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