Examining the Victims’ Coping Strategies of Sexual Harassment from the Sociocultural and Organizational Perspectives: A Case Study of AdiHaqi Campus, Mekelle University, Ethiopia

Abstract

This paper mainly focused on exploring the female students’ coping strategies of sexual harassment. In doing so, sociocultural and organizational theories of sexual harassment have been used as an analytical framework. A qualitative research approach and case study research design was employed to explore the issue under investigation. Accordingly, the study disclosed that, the strong patriarchal tradition and the hardly questionable hierarchical power of the perpetrators mainly determine the female students’ choice of coping strategies. Very few female students managed to report, while the majority opted indirect coping strategies. Staying silent, normalization of the incident, withdrawing from the academic institution, sitting for re-exams, confronting the perpetrators, transferring to other departments, and to the worst scenario, accepting the sexual proposition of the perpetrators are some of the female students’ choices of indirect coping strategies. The fear of possible revenge and perceived of making false allegations, lack of confidence in the institutional structures, the absence of concrete evidence, and lack of awareness are some of the reasons behind the female students’ difficulty of reporting their sexual harassment cases.