Measuring Workplace Harassment Based on Gender Nonconformity

Abstract

The rise of research on workplace mistreatment in the past twenty years can be attributed to the realization that workplace mistreatment is associated with a host of deleterious outcomes for both the individual targets of the mistreatment and the organizations in which they work. However, the extant literature is failing to capture the full range of sex-based mistreatment that people may experience through a tendency to focus solely on sexual harassment and sex discrimination, which are very specific types of behavior based on one’s sex and gender stereotypes. This study introduces the construct of Not Woman Enough Harassment, or the extent to which women perceive that they are treated unfavorably because they do not meet traditionally held stereotypes of femininity. A scale was developed and validated in order to measure this type of harassment. Results demonstrated that not woman enough harassment was experienced by approximately 32.5% of the sample. The scale showed good psychometric properties, with two distinct factors of harassment based on physical and non-physical traits. Not woman enough harassment was demonstrated to be distinct from other forms of sexual and workplace harassment.