Female Nurses’ and Educators’ Reactions to Sexual Harassment Charges: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

Abstract

This study is a direct replication of a previous study involving Brazilian and U.S. college students’ reactions to a written account of sexual harassment accusations. In the current study, the participants were female middle class nurses and public school teachers. Specifically, 155 U.S. professional women (95% White) and 173 Brazilian counterparts read a fictitious newspaper article describing an alleged case of sexual harassment by a male instructor toward a female undergraduate, in which power, romantic interest, and discrimination concerns were manipulated. Next, participants rated the degree to which his actions were punishable. Overall, U.S. professional women advocated more punishment to the alleged harasser than did Brazilian professional women. These findings are in keeping with past studies using college students. Conditions that increase or reduce the punishment ratings are also discussed.