Material
The #MeToo movement in 2017 brought sexual harassment in the workplace into the spotlight in many ways, and a majority of sectors in Sweden launched their own campaigns, lists and personal accounts – including the higher education sector. This also led to increased interest in and efforts to raise awareness of sexual harassment in academia, resulting in research reviews, studies and seminars.
Research and Collaboration Programme
Another effect of the increased attention on sexual harassment in academia was the research and collaboration programme launched in 2018, in which four higher education institutions joined forces (Karolinska Institutet, Malmö University, the Royal Institute of Technology, and the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research at University of Gothenburg) to conduct the first-ever national survey in Swedish higher education. The aim of the research and collaboration programme was to increase knowledge about gender-based vulnerability and sexual harassment in the Swedish higher education sector.
National survey
On behalf of the collaboration programme, Statistics Sweden (SCB) conducted a national survey in 2021. The study was unique in several ways, but one aspect relevant to this project is that the survey was answered by three sub-populations: students, doctoral students and staff. This makes it possible to distinguish and analyse responses from each sub-population.
The survey was conducted online and sent out to a stratified, unbound random sample of 13,939 doctoral students. These accounted for 87% of the total number of doctoral students at the time. The survey consisted of 127 numbered questions regarding personally experienced, witnessed and perpetrated unwanted sexual attention, as well as questions about the working environment and health. It was possible to complete the survey in both Swedish and English. The doctoral student population was the group in which the highest proportion chose to respond to the English questionnaire (23% of doctoral students, compared with 4% of students and 8% of staff). The response rate for doctoral students was 37.7%, compared with 24.3% for students and 47.5% for staff.
You can read the report on the national prevalence study and the technical report for the survey below (available in Swedish only)
