Skip to main content
Article
He Said, She Said, Let's Hear What the Data Say: Sexual Harassment in the Media, Courts, EEOC, and Social Science
Kentucky Law Journal
  • Joni Hersch
  • Beverly Moran
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2013
Keywords
  • sexual harassment,
  • Title 7
Disciplines
Abstract

We examine whether two national newspapers (The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal) provide a realistic representation of sexual harassment in the workplace by comparing media coverage to empirical evidence on sexual harassment drawn from three distinct sources: reports of workplace sexual harassment that emerge from employee self-reporting through a sexual harassment survey of government employees, charges of sexual harassment gathered through Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charge data, and federal district court complaints recorded by the Public Access to Court Electronic Records system. Whether intentional or inadvertent, the national media influences attitudes and subsequent behavior. We find that the national media presents a highly sanitized version, but fairly accurately reflects the demographic characteristics of both accused individuals and individuals who claim sexual harassment in the workplace.

Citation Information
Joni Hersch and Beverly Moran. "He Said, She Said, Let's Hear What the Data Say: Sexual Harassment in the Media, Courts, EEOC, and Social Science" Kentucky Law Journal Vol. 101 (2013) p. 753 ISSN: 0023-026X
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/beverly_moran/26/