Sexism and Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Institutions

Abstract

Sexual harassment is a recurring decimal in tertiary institutions. The paper therefore investigates the effects of sexual harassment on the academic performance of female students, using Delta State University, Abraka, as case study. The participants were randomly selected 200level – 500level students from various faculties of the University. The instrument for data collection was a twenty (20) item questionnaire. Though 340questionnaires were distributed through class representatives but 320 were eventually retrieved. The study been a descriptive survey design adopted the use of mean and standard deviation to analyze data. The data however revealed a summated mean of means (3.585) lower than the mean of fourteen (14) items of the questionnaire. That is, each of the fourteen (14) items had means higher than the summated mean of means (see table 1). On this premise the only null hypothesis of the study was rejected. This indicated that sexual harassment has significant effect on the academic performance of female students. It was also noted that students enjoy being sexually harassed due to the benefits. Consequent upon the findings, it was recommended that students should be made to realize that education is not a slogan but a key to sustainable development. Therefore, management of higher institutions should introduce dress code that would abolish seductive and provocative dressing.