Sexual Harassment, Victim Blaming, and the Potential Impact on Women in Cardiology

• Authors: Christina Mansour, Loma Linda University School of Medicine; Kamala P Tamirisa, Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia; Gina Lundberg, Emory University; Garima Sharma, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; Laxmi S Mehta, The Ohio State University; Roxana Mehran, The Mount Sinai Hospital; Annabelle Volgman, Rush University; Purvi Parwani, Loma Linda University Health
• Journal Title: JACC: Case Reports
• Volume: Volume 3, Number 6
• Publisher: Elsevier | 2021-06-01, Pages 978-981
• Type of Work: Article | Final Publisher PDF
• Publisher DOI: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccas.2021.05.002
• Subjects: Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery
• Keywords: ACCWIC; STEMM; VB; WIC

Abstract

Sexual harassment is a global issue. It is widespread among age groups, races, genders, cultures, political beliefs, religions, and diverse workplaces. After a thorough review of the social scientific and legal literature, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) defined sexual harassment as involving 3 components: gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention, and sexual coercion (2). Gender harassment is the most common type of sexual harassment. It refers to a broad range of verbal and nonverbal behaviors that convey hostility, objectification, exclusion, and degrading attitude towards members of 1 gender. Unwanted sexual attention entails unwelcome verbal or physical sexual advances without any professional rewards. Sexual coercion entails sexual advances with status or employment benefits conditioned on sexual favors (2). A meta-analysis focusing on sexual harassment in the workplace has shown that the prevalence of sexual harassment in U.S. academia is 58%, second only to the military at 69%, and outpaces that of government and industry settings (3). The prevalence of sexual harassment in academic medicine is almost double that of other science and engineering specialties, with nearly one-half of all trainees at surveyed institutions reporting harassment from faculty or staff (2).