In January around 150 people participated in the sexual harassment on the field survey. (Thank you!!) Unfortunately, I underestimated all that the past few months would hold and knew the topic would require time and space. 

I’m pleased to report a processing committee has been formed and we’re going through the data! 

Currently the three of us on the committee are personally going through the data. I thought you might be curious to see the questions that are coming up for me as I go through the Sexual Harassment Survey. I’m noting them as an act of curiosity and to slow myself down enough to ask them!

15 Questions

1. What “counts” as sexual harassment, abuse, or assault? (Notice some responders saying things like “I”m not sure if this counts . . . “)

2. What is reasonable to expect from your organization? Does your organization have policies and training in place to handle sexual harassment within your organization?

3.What does reporting sexual harassment within your organization look like? (Do you know? Are there policies in place?)

4. Does your organization train men and women about what sexual harassment might look like on your field? (Are you prepared for what you might encounter?)

5. How is someone’s experience with sexual harassment/abuse/assault different if they are not with an organization? (Pros and Cons of not being with an organization.)

6. What does support look like for one-time events vs ongoing sexual harassment/abuse?

7. What is the role (or balance or wisdom) between being culturally aware when it comes to clothing vs. “blame the victim.”

8. How can handling situations well with harassment/abuse/assault benefit processing?

9. How can handling situations well help to avoid burnout?

10. What is the role of men? What can they do? (Also understanding that sexual harassment can happen to men.)

11. What is the role between mental illness and sexual harassment? How are experiences where the perpetrator in a host culture has mental illness differ from experiences where the perpetrator does not have obvious mental illness? How are they similar to any other experiences of harassment?

12. How are organizations preparing and supporting racial minorities? From the survey responses, it seems that sexual harassment/abuse happens differently to minorities from the dominant racial or ethnic group in an organization.

13. Do your organization approach what I’m calling “two buckets” differently? Bucket one happens within an organization and should not be tolerated and have clear policies. Bucket two is the sexual harassment that happens within a host culture and may not be preventable, but can still be discussed and processed.

14. Why is sexual harassment and abuse tolerated in organizations? (Some organizations, not all, but I’m annoyed, so there you have it.)

15. A few people reported never experiencing or witnessing sexual harassment on the field . . . while I believe that they took the survey in good faith and are not lying, my question is two-fold. One, will the results we find overwhelm them? Two, how is it possible that they have never experienced or witnessed any form of harassment? (An honest question after reading response after response that reflects the broken world we live in.)

We’ll keep you posted on our progress. Please pray for us! Thank you :)! Back to processing the data.