HCMC UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

HUTECH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION

BBRC4103

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

MAY 2019

NAME : DINH THE HUY

CLASS : 16BOBA03

STUDENT ID : 161401050

E-MAIL : [email protected]

INSTRUCTOR : KIEU ANH TAI

1. Abstact

To date there have been no studies of how both sex and ethnicity might affect the
incidence of both sexual and ethnic harassment at work. This article represents an
effort to fill this gap. Data from employees at 5 organizations were used to test
whether minority women are subject to double jeopardy at work, experiencing the
most harassment because they are both women and members of a minority group. The
results supported this prediction. Women experienced more sexual harassment than
men, minorities experienced more ethnic harassment than Whites, and minority
women experienced more harassment overall than majority men, minority men, and
majority women.

2. Intronduction

Abuse, sexual harassment at work has never been an old story. Recently, when the
information of a sex scandal in the workplace caused a stir in public opinion, people
mentioned it as a problem. But the fact that workplace abuse and sexual harassment
still silently takes place, some people are aware but are silent but there are victims
who do not know that they are sexually harassed.

“Sexual harassment in the workplace has existed for a long time, the more popular the
society is. However, preventive measures are weak. There is currently no specific
penalty for sexual harassment but only specific offenses such as rape, rape. That is,
only when sexual harassment acts constitute rape, rape, humiliation, or other
humiliation, does the person carrying out illegal acts be prosecuted for criminal
liability. While countries like Britain, the US, France, sexual harassment acts can be
imprisoned, our country only stops at administrative sanctions ”

With Vietnamese culture sexual harassment is still a sensitive issue, so many victims,
despite evidence, are still afraid to stand up for fear of being scrutinized, known or
affected by personal honor.

Sexual harassment in the workplace leaves great damage in the psychology of

victims, especially women. Many women are afraid and do not dare to work.
3. Problem

Most research and policy on discrimination at work has focused on sex

and race discrimination, which were outlawed 40 years ago in the
United States by the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Since that time, segregation
and wage disparities based on sex and race have declined, though
1
women and minorities remain underrepresented in high-paying and
high-status jobs. A major tool for maintaining this inequality is on-the-
job harassment: Women and minorities often face hostile receptions in
traditionally male- and White-dominated domains, which discourage
them from entering and remaining in those domains. Studies have
demonstrated that sexual and ethnic harassment at work pose significant
problems for women and minorities, respectively, and negatively affect
recipi-ents’ physical, psychological, and organizational well-being
(Schneider, Hitlan & Radhakrishnan, 2000; Schneider, Swan, &
Fitzgerald, 1997).

Though employees may experience both sexual and ethnic ha-rassment on the
job, to date there have been no studies that have examined how an
individual’s sex and ethnicity might jointly affect his or her experiences of
both types of harassment at work. Studies of sexual harassment have focused
on women’s experi-ences and have led to the development of theories and
measures that are largely based on White women’s experiences and that
overlook or even exclude those of minority women (Cortina, 2001; Mecca &
Rubin, 1999). Studies of ethnic harassment have com-pared the prevalence of
Whites’ and non-Whites’ experiences of ethnic harassment (e.g., Schneider et
al., 2000) but have ignored the influence of sex.

If most victims of sexual harassment are women and most victims of

ethnic harassment are minorities, it follows that minor-ity women face
double jeopardy with respect to harassment at work. It is ironic, however,
that we can find no study that has simultaneously compared the
harassment experiences of majority men, majority women, minority men,
and minority women, a fact that has left a gap in our understanding of
how double jeopardy for minority women might manifest in
organizations. With this article we aim to fill this gap. We begin by
noting how minority women have been largely omitted from discussions
of sexism and racism, and we examine the reasons why they are
disproportionately likely to be targets of prejudice. We tested this
prediction with a study of the sexual and ethnic harassment experiences
of both men and women employees at five ethnically diverse
organizations. The current research represents the first study to provide
comparative data on the relative incidence of both sexual and ethnic
harassment among minority women, minority men, majority women,
and majority men.

4. Identification and definition of the problem

The keywords in the post are: sex, gender, race, harassment

4.1 Sex/Gender/Race: is all unique characteristics that make up the difference

between men and women. These characteristics make it easy to distinguish between
men and women.

There are two origins that regulate the sex of the human being, the biological origin
and the social origin. Between men and women there are significant differences in
physiological anatomical characteristics, which leads to a clear psychological
difference.

4.2. Harassment not-man-enough harassment because prior theory and research

(Berdahl, Magley, & Waldo, 1996; Franke, 1997; Stockdale, Visio, & Batra, 1999;
Waldo, Berdahl, & Fitzgerald, 1998) described it as behavior that insults a victim for
not meeting ideals for men (e.g., dominant, tough, and courageous) or for being too
much like a woman (e.g., gullible, sensitive, and caring for children; cf. Bem, 1974;
Prentice & Carranza, 2002). Ultimately, we think not-man-enough harass-ment is
about reminding those who the harassers feel do not belong in the club of “real” men
that they are outsiders. Calling this type of harassment “enforcing the male gender
role” (Waldo et al., 1998) suggests that it aims to bring victims back into the club by
enforcing masculinity in them. This type of harassment may enforce masculinity in
other men by making an example of the victim, but it appears to socially alienate,
rather than reintegrate, the victim (Franke, 1997). Similarly, calling this type of
harassment “not-masculine-enough” harassment suggests that victims can end it by
being more masculine, but this may not work for some individ-uals, such as women,
who may experience even more negative repercus-sions if they act more masculine
(e.g., Heilman, Wallen, Fuchs, & Tamkins, 2004; Maass, Cadinu, Guarnieri, &
Grasselli, 2003; Rudman, 1998).

5. The “Oppression Olympics”: Who Has It Worse?

A longstanding debate exists regarding who has it worse: women or ethnic minorities.
One educator jokingly referred to this issue as “the oppression Olympics” (R. Ely,
personal communication, October 1994). Those taking the position that ethnic
minorities are more disadvantaged than women argue that the oppression of one
ethnic group by another takes on particularly violent forms (cf. Sidanius & Veniegas,
2000), and they point to the depressingly common examples of ethnic segregation,
slavery, and genocide. They argue that heterosexual interdependence prevents the
same level of brutality against women by men. It appears that ethnic minorities expect
to be discriminated against more than do women (Levin, Sinclair, Veniegas, &
Taylor, 2002).

Those arguing that women have it worse believe heterosexual

interdependence works against women because it provides more
opportunities for men to privately victimize women. The oppres-sion of
women is argued to be more universal, but at the same time less visible,
than the oppression of one ethnic group by another. Patriarchy is theorized
to be the original form of oppression (e.g., Engels, 1902/1942), and unlike
race-based inequality, is observed in some form in all societies (cf. Sidanius
& Veniegas, 2000). Work continues to be more segregated along sex lines
than race lines (cf. Blau et al., 2001), and minority men have made it farther
than women in most domains of power (e.g., the military, church, politics,
professional sports, the music industry, and the corporate world). Violence
against women is argued to be no less brutal than interracial violence but
merely to provoke less attention and out-rage (cf. Koss et al., 1994).

Clearly, severe forms of prejudice and discrimination occur against

women and ethnic minorities, and women from different ethnic groups
have much in common, as do men and women from the same ethnic
group. It is ironic, however, that comparing the relative status of women
and minorities often ignores the unique position of those who are likely to
have it the worst of all: minority women. The study of sex-based

prejudice and discrimination has primarily focused on White women’s

experiences (Cortina, 2001; Mecca & Rubin, 1999), whereas the study of
race-based prejudice and discrimination has overwhelmingly focused on
minority men’s experiences (Hull, Scott, & Smith, 1982). Comparisons
between women and minorities usually compare women with minority
men, omitting minority women from the latter or even both categories,
though they belong to each.

We have found no study that has examined how both sex and
ethnicity might affect the experience of both sexual and ethnic
harassment at work. Most comparative work remains focused on the
position of women compared with that of men or the position of
Whites compared with that of minorities. For example, the U.S. Merit
Systems Protection Board (1981, 1988, 1995), which has conducted
the largest studies of sexual harassment at work, does not separate
data by ethnic group. Studies that have focused on the experiences of
minorities often have studied minorities exclusively (e.g., Buchanan
& Ormerod, 2002; Cortina, 2001; Cortina, Fitzger-ald, & Drasgow,
2002; Essed, 1992; Pak, Dion, & Dion, 1991; Segura, 1992). Thus,
there is an absence of empirical data on the comparative experiences
of White women, minority women, White men, and minority men
with respect to sexual and ethnic harassment at work (Murrell, 1996).
6. Hypothesis

The Double Jeopardy Hypothesis

Women of color began to theorize about their uniquely disad-vantaged position in the
1970s and 1980s (Almquist, 1975; Hull etal., 1982; D. K. King, 1988; Moraga,
Anzaldu ´a, & Bambara, 1981). A major hypothesis coming out of considerations of
the joint effects of sex and ethnicity on discrimination was the double jeopardy
hypothesis. This hypothesis proposes that minority women face a double whammy of
discrimination (Beal, 1970; Bond & Perry, 1970; Chow, 1987; Epstein, 1973; Garcia,
1989; Jackson, 1973; M. King, 1975; Lorber, 1998; Reid, 1984): They are
discriminated against both as women and as minorities. According to this hypothesis,
minority women are the primary targets of harassment and discrimination because
they face both sexual and ethnic prejudice. Consistent with this hypothesis is research
showing that Black and Latina women earn the lowest wages (Browne, 1999),
have the least authority in the workplace (Browne, Hewitt, Tigges, & Green,
2001; Maume, 1999) and are the most concentrated in undesirable jobs (Aldridge,
1999; Spalter-Roth & Deitch, 1999). These outcomes represent the economic and
occupational segregation of minority women into the lowest ranks of the workforce.
However, it remains an open question whether minority women experience more on-
the-job harassment overall than do other employees in similar roles in the same
organizations. The double jeopardy hypothesis says they do:

Hypothesis 1: Minority women experience more overall ha-rassment than any other
sex– ethnic group

Additive Versus Multiplicative Double Jeopardy

There are two versions of the double jeopardy hypothesis (see Figure 1). The first is
additive and reasons that minority women and majority women experience equivalent
amounts of sex dis-crimination, that minority women and minority men experience
equivalent amounts of race discrimination, and that adding the two sources of
discrimination together (sex and race) leads to the result of minority women
experiencing the most discrimination. In terms of harassment, this additive version
predicts the following:

Hypothesis 2a: Sex of target has a main effect on sexual harassment: Women
experience more sexual harassment than men. Ethnicity of target has no effect on
sexual harassment, and there is no interaction between sex and ethnicity of target on
sexual harassment.

Hypothesis 3a: Ethnicity of target has a main effect on ethnic harassment: Minorities
experience more ethnic harassment than Whites. Sex of target has no effect on ethnic
harassment, and there is no interaction between ethnicity and sex of target on ethnic
harassment.

The main effects of sex of target on sexual harassment and ethnicity of target on
ethnic harassment combine to produce the following prediction for overall
harassment:

Hypothesis 4a: Sex and ethnicity of target have main effects on overall harassment:
Women experience more overall harassment than men and minorities experience
more overall harassment than Whites. There is no interaction between sex and
ethnicity of target on overall harassment: Minority women experience an amount
equivalent to the sum of the amounts experienced by White women and minority men.

The second version of the double jeopardy hypothesis is multiplicative (Almquist,

1975; Greene, 1994; Lykes, 1983; Ransford, 1980; Reid & Comas-Diaz, 1990; Smith
& Stewart, 1983). Representing an intersectional approach to the study of sex and
race, the multiplicative version of the double jeopardy hypothesis holds that sex and
race are not independent and additive categories (Browne & Misra, 2003; Weber,
2001). Instead, the disadvantages of race and sex compound or multiply each other,
making the detrimental effect of both belonging to an ethnic minority and being a
woman greater than the additive hypothesis would suggest.

Though both versions of the double jeopardy hypothesis predict that minority women
experience the most harassment, they differ in two ways (see Figure 1). First, the
additive version predicts a main effect for sex only on sexual harassment and a main
effect for ethnicity only on ethnic harassment, but the multiplicative version predicts
main effects for sex and ethnicity on both sexual and ethnic harassment. As
minorities, minority women should be more vulnerable than White women to sexual
harassment, and as women, minority women should be more vulnerable than minority
men to ethnic harassment. Second, the multiplicative version pre-dicts an interaction
between sex and ethnicity for both types of harassment, suggesting that the dually
subjugated position of mi-nority women amplifies their experience of both sexual and
ethnic harassment to a level higher than that suggested by the additive hypothesis (see
Figure 1). The multiplicative version of the double jeopardy hypothesis predicts the
following:

Figure 1: Predictions made by the additive and

multiplicative versions of the double jeopardy
hypothesis.
Hypothesis 2b: Sex and ethnicity of target have main effects on sexual harassment:
Women experience more sexual harassment than men, and minorities experience
more sexual harassment than Whites. There is an interaction between sex of target and
ethnicity of target on sexual harassment: The amount experienced by minority women
exceeds the sum of the amounts experienced by White women and minority men.

Hypothesis 3b: Ethnicity and sex of target have main effects

on ethnic harassment: Minorities experience more ethnic ha-

rassment than Whites, and women experience more ethnic

harassment than men. There is an interaction between ethnicity of target and sex of
target on ethnic harassment: The amount experienced by minority women exceeds the
sum of the amounts experienced by White women and minority men.

Hypothesis 4b: Sex and ethnicity of target have main effects on overall harassment:
Women experience more overall harassment than men, and minorities experience
more overall harassment than Whites. There is an interaction between sex of target
and ethnicity of target on overall harassment: The amount experienced by minority
women exceeds the sum of the amounts experienced by White women and minority
men.

Despite the intuitive appeal and widespread acknowledgment of the double jeopardy
hypothesis, remarkably little research has set out to systematically confirm or deny it
(Browne & Misra, 2003; Sidanius & Veniegas, 2000). To our knowledge, no study
has simultaneously examined sexual and ethnic harassment and com-pared minority
women’s experiences with those of minority men, majority women, and majority
men. This study thus provides a first empirical test of these hypotheses.
7. Conclusion

Discussions of discrimination often debate who has it worse: women or

minorities. It is ironic that those who really are likely to have it the
worst—minority women—are often left out of the discussion. As many
minority women scholars have pointed out, the oppression of women has
largely been discussed in terms of White women’s experiences, and the
oppression of one ethnic group by another has largely been discussed in
terms of men’s experiences. This study demonstrates that minority
women are particularly at risk when it comes to workplace harassment.
Re-searchers and practitioners interested in issues of workplace diver-
sity and discrimination should turn more of their attention to this very
important problem.
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