Sexual harassment in UK Universities

In 1878 the University of London became the first university in the UK to admit women to its degrees.   The Langham Place Group campaigned  on a variety of women’s issues from around 1857 to 1866, and had Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first UK doctor, as one of its members.

Over these years, has university been a safe environment for female students to study?

In 2010 the UK National Union of Students published the ‘Hidden Marks’.  The report showed that 68% of respondents had been the victim of one or more kinds of sexual harassment on campus during their time as a student.

Recently Sara Ahmed, Professor of feminist studies at Goldsmiths College in London, resigned in “protest against the failure to address the problem of sexual harassment”.  Sara wrote a blog explaining her reasons for resigning.  Three years ago she was alerted to the problem by a colleague and this lead to further discussions with students.  Sara knew of six inquiries relating to four members of staff for which there was no record or knowledge about the allegations in the public domain because of confidentiality clauses.  Sara said “We are talking about how sexual harassment becomes normalized and generalized – as part of academic culture.”

On further investigation, Sara realised that “there have been many cases of sexual harassment in universities, but there is no public record of these cases. They have vanished without a trace.”  Why is there no record?  Sara goes on to say the cases are not recorded “because they are resolved with the use of confidentiality clauses.”.  “The clauses do something: they work to protect organisational reputation; no one gets to know about what happened. They most often protect the harassers: there is no blemish on their records; they can go on to other jobs. But they also leave those who experienced harassment even more isolated than they were before (harassment is already isolating). They leave silence. And silence can feel like another blow.”

Her resignation made the point “I will not work for an organisation that is not addressing the problem of sexual harassment. Not addressing the problem of sexual harassment is reproducing the problem of sexual harassment.”

Sara is author of a forthcoming book – Living a Feminist Life.

The UK National Union of Students 2015 survey has shown that the majority of new students are not aware of the process of reporting sexual harassment, and more concerning is that “17 per cent of respondents stated they had been victims of some form of sexual harassment during their first week of term, with a further 29 per cent having witnessed it directed at somebody else.”

Susuana Amoah, NUS Women’s Officer, said: “It’s extremely worrying, but not surprising, that so many students in their first term of university have experienced sexual harassment or seen it happen to somebody else. NUS has been working over the last five years to bring sexual harassment on campus to the forefront of the national conversation, and make sure institutions are taking it seriously.

“Reporting systems for sexual harassment are either lacking or not visible to students in a lot of cases, and this needs to change. We are working with nine students’ unions who have audited their own processes and those of their institutions, and we will be supporting many more to carry on this work until students feel aware of how to report sexual harassment, and safe and confident that their concerns will be taken seriously.”

It is totally unacceptable that university is not a safe and secure environment for women to study.

Read More:

Global women – sexual harassment at work

Global women – sexual harassment in schools