Changing University Cultures and Responses To Sexual Violence: Using Feminist Research To Develop Educational Initiatives
Author(s):
Vanita Sundaram (presenting / submitting) Carolyn Jackson Pam Alldred Alison Phipps
Conference:
ECER 2017
Network:
22. Research in Higher Education
Format:
Paper (Copy for Joint Session)

Session Information

22 SES 07 F JS, Gender Issues in Higher Education

Joint Paper Session NW 22 and NW 27

Time:
2017-08-23
17:15-18:45
Room:
K3.02
Chair:
Chantal Amade-Escot

Contribution

This paper explores the issue of sexual violence in higher education, focusing primarily on research findings that highlight gaps in institutional knowledge about, perceptions of, and initiatives to address sexual violence. The paper draws on data from two major research projects; one representing the first of its kind in the UK, and the second, an EU project involving 6 partner countries. Both projects encompass an investigation of university staff perceptions and understandings of gender-based harassment and violence, with a view to informing future educational initiatives.

 

Higher education practices: individualism, evaluation and denigration.

The increasing commercialisation of higher education (Burke and Crozier, 2014), as expressed inter alia, by an increased focus on widening participation and diversification of the student body to illustrate institutional value has been linked to concerns about gender and ethnic equality, as well as developing the global citizen. The performative framework in which higher education now operates extends to concerns with social justice, such that the performance of ‘excellent inclusivity’ can now be measured through student (and other) data.

In a market-oriented higher education climate, where ‘excellence’, ‘competition’ and ‘employability’ are core values, universities might be seen to be contributing to the development of more individualistic learner identities. Linked to increasing neo-liberalisation and consumerism in higher education is the reaffirmation of gendered, classed and racialised hierarchies, in which some people are viewed as more ‘able’ to pursue and claim success and others’ seeming lack of ability is constructed as a matter of individual will/failure rather than as shaped by social, cultural, political and economic inequality. Phipps and Young (2015) have also argued that neo-liberal ‘rationalities’ in higher education foster an individualistic, competitive, and even adversarial culture (ibid. p305) that may also be linked to the degradation of certain groups of students, seen not to fit the mould of the desirable (white, male) ‘citizen’.

 

Phipps (2016) has recently linked the neo-liberalisation of higher education to institutional cultures that are generative of structural and interpersonal violences. Cultures of higher education have been described by students and staff as hostile’, (NUS, 2012) where people are continuously evaluating each other in different types of ‘markets. These are educational markets, institutional markets, and sexual markets. Rather than constituting spaces for radical change and challenge to traditional hierarchies of power and knowledge, universities are becoming characterised as spaces in which we are exposed for not complying with managerialist targets for success. This culture of evaluation and targets can be read as reinforcing gendered power relations.

 

Violence against women in higher education

Violence against women and girls is a key area of feminist research and is increasingly recognised as a pertinent global issue for higher education institutions. In the US, sexual violence on university campuses has been the subject of ongoing national and international attention, with particular scrutiny of violent, homophobic and racist initiation practices and activities initiated by campus fraternity societies and sports teams (Armstrong and Hamilton, 2015). In the UK, several studies have investigated the prevalence of sexual harassment and violence towards university students, perpetrated by fellow students and by staff. Sexual harassment, violence and abuse are reported to be widespread experiences for women students in particular (NUS, 2010, 2012, 2014).

 

Method

University responses to sexual violence have been found to be inadequate (UUK, 2016; Westmarland, 2017). Concerns to preserve ‘free speech’ and to uphold legal rights for perpetrators, and debates about the responsibility of universities to act in situations outside the context of the campus itself, or involving individuals unrelated to the university, have weakened the response of higher education institutions to sexual harassment and violence against women. There has been an international resurgence of concern around the harmful practices being enacted by some students in higher education and the negative and disproportionate impact on women students. Universities in the UK and other European countries are coming under increasing pressure to address sexual harassment and violence among students. A key element of developing inclusive institutional cultures is the knowledge and awareness of university staff around key global issues of inequality. Little research has been done on the knowledges of university staff and their perceptions of gender-based harassment and violence. This paper will discuss the findings of two distinct research projects which generated findings about staff perspectives and perceptions of sexual violence in higher education. Study 1 (Lad culture in higher education: exploring staff perspectives) used qualitative methods to explore the views of university staff working in six different universities across England. In total we interviewed 130 participants working across the institutions, in a range of roles, from deputy vice-chancellor to campus security staff. The main objectives of the project were to explore the existing knowledge of staff about gender-based harassment and violence at universities, to understand their perspectives and perceptions of these issues, and to gain knowledge about university initiatives to address gender-based violence. Study 2 (Universities Supporting Survivors of Sexual Violence) is a research and development project which aimed to conduct and collate research on sexual violence in universities in order to inform the development of training programmes for university staff. The training programmes are based on existing research about gender-based harassment and violence in higher education (including Study 1) as well as qualitative interviews conducted with staff across universities in six partner countries (a total of 13 institutions). Staff were interviewed about their knowledge and awareness of this issue, as well as initiatives that they were aware of to challenge gender-based violence in their own universities. This paper reports on research with staff in two of the participating UK institutions, totalling 50 staff in diverse student support roles.

Expected Outcomes

Our findings suggest that, generally speaking, gender-based violence is poorly understood by staff working in higher education. While some staff recognise that harassing behaviour can involve the objectification and degradation of women in a range of forms, the root causes and origins of such behaviour is not well-understood. The majority of staff tend to employ a discourse of individualism in their discussions of sexual violence, theorising instances they had personally experienced as ‘misunderstandings’ or ‘mis-negotiations’ between individuals. Links to wider social and cultural inequalities and power relations were rarely made in their analyses of gender violence. Some staff narrated ‘laddish’ behaviours, often associated with violent misogyny and objectification of women, as a typical – sometimes desirable - aspect of the ‘male student experience’. Many participants were in support of punitive measures for perpetrators of violence and none expressed sympathy for gender-based harassment or violent practices. However, the individualising narrative and punitive focus retains us in an reactive stance in relation to gender violence, dealing with incidents of violence ‘as they occur’, rather than seeking to influence the institutional cultures which may be generative of violence, and which certainly appear to excuse or rationalise violence. Overall, staff perceptions and perspectives on gender-based violence reflect a focus on the (pathologised) individual and an erasure of the structural. As Ahmed (2015) has noted, the institutionalisation of gendered power relations in universities means that experiences of sexism, sexual harassment and violence become easily dismissed as individual failures. We therefore conclude that a focus on changing institutional cultures is key to shifting perceptions and actions on sexual violence in higher education. This refers not only to the education of staff working within higher education institutions, but to a shift away from the marketised and individualistic focus in universities which reduces empathy and routinizes evaluation

References

Ahmed, S. (2015). Sexism – A Problem with a Name. New formations: a journal of culture/theory/politics, 86, 5-13. Armstrong, E.A. and Hamilton, L.T. (2015). Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality. Harvard University Press. Burke, J.P. and Crozier, G. (2014). Higher Education Pedagogies: Gendered Formations, Mis/Recognition and Emotions. Journal of Research in Gender Studies, 4(2), 52-67. National Union of Students (2010). Hidden Marks. London: National Union of Students. National Union of Students. (2013). That’s what she said. A study of women students’ experiences of harassment and sexual violence. London: National Union of Students. National Union of Students. (2014). Lad culture and sexism on campus: August-September 2014. London: National Union of Students. Phipps, A. and Young, I. (2015). Neoliberalisation and ‘lad cultures’ in higher education. Sociology, 49(2), 305-322. Phipps, A. (2016). Reckoning Up: an institutional economy of sexual harassment and violence. (https://genderate.wordpress.com/2016/06/22/reckoning-up/) Universities UK. (2016). Changing the Culture: Report of the Universities UK Taskforce examining violence against women, harassment and hate crime affecting university students. Universities UK. Westmarland, N. (2017). Independent Review into The University of Sussex’s Response to Domestic Violence. Documentation.

Author Information

Vanita Sundaram (presenting / submitting)
University of York, United Kingdom
Carolyn Jackson
Lancaster University, United Kingdom
Pam Alldred
Brunel University, United Kingdom
Alison Phipps
University of Sussex, United Kingdom

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