Abstract

The purposes of this study are to investigate Korean adults' perceptions of sexual harassment, and more specifically, to examine effects of gender differences and sex-role attitudes of the perception of sexual harassment. A total of 120 undergraduate students(67 male students, 53 female students) and 168 employees(75 male workers, 93 female workers) participated in this study. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. First, most participants perceive producing hostile environment as sexual harassment. Male workers are more likely to underestimate the seriousness of sexual harassment than students and female workers. Second, men tend to ascribe the responsibility of sexual harassment to women. Third, although there are some gender differences, both men and women consider the company's absence of policy on sexual harassment as the main cause. Finally, gender differences on sexual harassment are explained based on sex-role attitude. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed.