The myth of equality: Sexual harassment behind a woman’s desk
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22373/equality.v10i1.22302Keywords:
Gender Inequality, Sexual Harassment, Women.Abstract
Sexual harassment is a significant problem in employment but is often underreported. Women are one of the most vulnerable groups to get harassment in the workplace. As well as gender inequality towards women in development, which is caused by patriarchal cultural factors, such as men are always placed above women. Sexual harassment in the work environment does not only refer to physical acts but to unwanted verbal behavior, which makes the victim feel uncomfortable. This study aims to determine the harassment that occurs in the work environment. Besides, this study also aims to show that sexual jokes during breaks, even in meetings or workspaces at a telecommunication company, are considered normal. This study used qualitative methods with five subjects. These subjects are female workers at a company in Surabaya. They were chosen based on their sexual harassment experience. The research used accidental sampling to determine the subject. This study used a semi-structured interview data collection method. This study is analyzed in the theory of power relations. The theory of power relations stands on two things: (1) the power spreads everywhere (dispersed) and cannot be localized, and (2) when there are structures and relationships between people, there is power. The result demonstrated in three founds. There are several sexual harassments that occurred in the work environment, the resistance of female workers, and the challenges they faced in carrying out their work. Sexual harassment that occurs is verbally based and disguised as a joke in the work environment.
References
Aslamiah, R., & Pinem, M. L. (2022). Kejahatan sunyi : Potret pelecehan seksual buruh perempuan. Jurnal Sosiologi USK, 14, 51–80.
Creswell, J. W. (2015). Penelitian kualitatif & desain riset. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar.
Foucault, M. (1978). The history of sexuality: An introduction. New York: Pantheon Books.
Foucault, M. (2000). Seks dan kekuasaan: Sejarah seksualitas. Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka Utama.
Haryatmoko, Leksono, K., Kebung, K., Adian, D. G., Sugiarto, I. B., & Balibar, E. (2002, No. 01-02, Tahun ke-51, Januari-Februari). Kekuasaan melahirkan anti-kekuasaan: menelanjangi mekanisme dan teknik kekuasaan bersama Foucault. Majalah Basis: Edisi Michel Foucault. 3–58.
Jalili Moayad, S., Mohaqeqi Kamal, S. H., Sajjadi, H., Vameghi, M., Ghaedamini Harouni, G., & Makki Alamdari, S. (2021). Child labor in Tehran, Iran: Abuses experienced in work environments. Child Abuse and Neglect, 117, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105054
Jeong, S., & Chang, H. E. (2022). Workplace sexual harassment toward male nurses in South Korea: a cross-sectional online survey. BMC Nursing, 21(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-022-01091-x
Lippel, K., Vézina, M., Bourbonnais, R., & Funes, A. (2016). Workplace psychological harassment: Gendered exposures and implications for policy. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 46, 74–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2016.05.001
Murphy, K., Strand, L., Theron, L., & Ungar, M. (2021). “I just gotta have tough skin”: Women’s experiences working in the oil and gas industry in Canada. Extractive Industries and Society, 8(2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2021.02.002
Neuman, W. L. (2018). Metodologi penelitian sosial: Pendekatan kualitatif dan kuantitatif. Jakarta: Permata Putri Media.
Nurbayani, S., Dede, M., & Widiawaty, M. A. (2022). Utilizing library repository for sexual harassment study in Indonesia: A systematic literature review. Heliyon, 8(8), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10194
Paradis, K. C., Ryan, K. A., Covington, E. L., Schmid, S., Simiele, S. J., Chapman, C. H., Jagsi, R. (2022). Gender-based discrimination and sexual harassment in medical physics. International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, 000(0), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrobp.2022.10.004
Parke, R., Bates, S., Carey, M., Cavadino, A., Ferguson, A., Hammond, N., Mason, K. (2022). Bullying, discrimination, and sexual harassment among intensive care unit nurses in Australia and New Zealand: An online survey. Australian Critical Care, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aucc.2022.08.010
Ritzer, G. (2003). Teori sosial postmodern. (Penerjemah: Muhammad Taufik). Yogyakarta: Kreasi Wacana.
Roy, S., & Bailey, A. (2021). Safe in the city? Negotiating safety, public space and the male gaze in Kolkata, India. Cities, 117, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2021.103321
Sarina, & Ahmad, M. R. S. (2021). Diskriminasi gender terhadap perempuan pekerja di kawasan industri Makassar. Pinisi Journal of Sociology Education Review, 1(2), 64–71. Retrieved from https://ojs.unm.ac.id/jser/article/view/21166
Sihite, R. (2007). Perempuan, kesehatan & keadilan. Jakarta: PT Raja Grafindo Persada.
Sumintak, & Idi, A. (2022). Analisis relasi kuasa Michel Foucault: Studi kasus fenomena kekerasan seksual di perguruan tinggi. Jurnal Intelektualita: Keislaman, Sosial Dan Sains, 11(1), 55–61. https://doi.org/10.19109/intelektualita.v11i1.11117
Suyanto, B., & Amal, M. K. (2010). Anatomi dan perkembangan teori sosial. Yogyakarta: Aditya Media Publishing.
Temesgan, W. Z., Endale, Z. M., & Aynalem, G. L. (2021). Sexual violence and associated factors among female night college students after joining the college in Debre Markos town, North West Ethiopia, 2019. Clinical Epidemiology and Global Health, 10, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cegh.2020.100689
Vijayalakshmi, A., Dev, P., & Kulkarni, V. (2022). Domestic workers and sexual harassment in India: Examining preferred response strategies. World Development, 155, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.105875
Worke, M. D., Koricha, Z. B., & Debelew, G. T. (2022). Development and validation of contextual measures of sexual harassment perceptions, experiences, and coping for women employees in Ethiopian hospitality workplaces. Archives of Public Health, 80(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13690-022-00828-z
Zhao, Y., Xiong, J., Wang, J., & Ye, N. (2022). CFO gender, corporate risk-taking, and information disclosure violations. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.902472
Zhu, L., Dongyan, L., Luo, Z., Mengqi, X., Sun, L., & Sanlian, H. (2022). Characteristics of workplace violence, responses and their relationship with the professional identity among nursing students in China: a multicenter cross-sectional study. BMC Nursing, 21(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-022-01037-3
Downloads
Additional Files
Published
Issue
Section
License
GENDER EQUALITY: International Journal of Child and Gender Studies allows the author(s) to hold the copyright and to retain the publishing rights without restrictions. Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
