New Research and Emerging Insights

IN THEORY

THE #MeToo
BACKLASH
I N T H E FA L L O F 2 0 1 7, when the
New York Times and other media
began reporting on widespread sexual
a management professor at the
University of Houston, had a different
response. “Most of the reaction to

New data shows harassment and assault by powerful

male entertainment figures, many
#MeToo was celebratory; it assumed
women were really going to benefit,”

negative effects
people were heartened. The con- she says. But she and her research
ventional wisdom was that bringing colleagues were skeptical. “We said,
the issue to light and punishing ‘We aren’t sure this is going to go as

for women. those responsible would have a

deterrent effect. Leanne Atwater,
positively as people think—there may
be some fallout.’”

Harvard Business Review

Illustrations by TIM BOWER September–October 2019  19
 In early 2018 the group began a study
to determine whether their fears were
founded. They created two surveys—
one for men and one for women—and
distributed them to workers in a wide
range of industries, collecting data from
152 men and 303 women in all.
First the researchers sought to
understand whether men and women
held different views about what con-
stitutes sexual harassment. They took
this tack because men accused of the
behavior frequently claim they didn’t
understand how their actions were being
perceived, while women who report it
are sometimes deemed overly sensitive.
The surveys described 19 behaviors—for
instance, continuing to ask a female sub-
ordinate out after she has said no, email-
ing sexual jokes to a female subordinate,
and commenting on a female subordi-
nate’s looks—and asked people whether
they amounted to harassment. For the
most part, the two genders agreed. For
the three items on which they differed,
men were more likely than women to
label the actions harassment. “Most men
Harvard Business Review
20 September–October 2019
know what sexual harassment is, and
most women know what it is,” Atwater
says. “The idea that men don’t know
their behavior is bad and that women are
making a mountain out of a molehill is
largely untrue. If anything, women are
more lenient in defining harassment.”
Next the researchers explored the
incidence of harassment in the work-
place. Sixty-three percent of women
reported having been harassed, with
33% experiencing it more than once.
A woman’s age, the supervisor’s gender,
whether the woman filled a blue-collar
or a white-collar role, and whether she
was married had no bearing on the like-
lihood that she had been harassed. Just
20% of women who had been harassed
reported the episode; among those who
didn’t, the chief deterrents were fear of
negative consequences and apprehen-
sion that they would be labeled trouble-
makers. Five percent of men admitted to
having harassed a colleague, and another
20% said that “maybe” they had done so.
The study’s biggest surprise has to do
with backlash. Respondents said they
Unintended
Consequences
The researchers’ 2018 survey results, below,
showed that in the wake of #MeToo, many
people expected men to become more
reluctant to engage with women at work in
certain ways—even though such activities
can be crucial for advancement. (A follow-up
survey in 2019 showed that the backlash was
even worse than anticipated.)
Men who agree Women who agree
I will/would be more reluctant to hire
attractive women.
16%
11%
I will be more reluctant to hire women for jobs
that require close interpersonal interactions
with men (for example, traveling).
15%
15%
The more women who come forward about
sexual harassment, the more likely it will be
that men blame women for the problem.
30%
43%
Men in general will be more likely to exclude
women from social interactions.
22%
44%
Men in general will be more reluctant to have
one-on-one meetings with women with no
others present.
41%
57%
expected to see some positive effects of
the #MeToo movement: For instance,
74% of women said they thought they
would be more willing now to speak out
against harassment, and 77% of men
anticipated being more careful about
potentially inappropriate behavior. But
more than 10% of both men and women
said they thought they would be less
willing than previously to hire attractive
women. Twenty-two percent of men
and 44% of women predicted that men
would be more apt to exclude women
from social interactions, such as after-
work drinks; and nearly one in three men
thought they would be reluctant to have
a one-on-one meeting with a woman.
Fifty-six percent of women said they
expected that men would continue to
harass but would take more precautions
against getting caught, and 58% of men
predicted that men in general would have
greater fears of being unfairly accused.
Because the data was collected soon
after the #MeToo movement gained
momentum, and because much of it
focused on expectations, the researchers
conducted a follow-up survey (with
different people) in early 2019. This
revealed a bigger backlash than respon-
dents had anticipated. For instance, 19%
of men said they were reluctant to hire
attractive women, 21% said they were
reluctant to hire women for jobs involv-
ing close interpersonal interactions with
men (jobs involving travel, say), and 27%
said they avoided one-on-one meetings
with female colleagues; only one of those
numbers was lower in 2019 than the
numbers projected the year before. The
researchers say that some of the behaviors
are manifestations of what is sometimes
called the Mike Pence rule—a reference
Harvard Business Review
22 September–October 2019
to the U.S. vice president’s refusal to dine
with female colleagues unless his wife is
present. “I’m not sure we were surprised
by the numbers, but we were disap-
pointed,” says Rachel Sturm, a professor
at Wright State University who worked
on the project. “When men say, ‘I’m not
going to hire you, I’m not going to send
you traveling, I’m going to exclude you
from outings’—those are steps backward.”
The researchers have several recom-
mendations for organizations looking to
reduce harassment, a number of which
involve prevention training. Their study
shows that traditional sexual harassment
training has little effect, perhaps because
much of it focuses on helping employees
understand what constitutes harassment,
and the data shows they already do.
Instead, the researchers say, companies
should implement training that educates
employees about sexism and character.
Their data shows that employees who dis-
play high levels of sexism are more likely
to engage in negative behaviors, and they
believe training can reduce those levels.
Their data also shows that people of high
character—those who display virtues such
as courage—are less likely to harass and
more likely to intervene when others do.
“Though character building in organiza-
tions is on the cutting edge and consul-
tants are just learning how to do this,
there are training resources available,” the
researchers write. HBR Reprint F1905A
ABOUT THE RESEARCH “Looking
Ahead: How What We Know About
Sexual Harassment Now Informs Us of the
Future,” by Leanne E. Atwater, Allison M.
Tringale, Rachel E. Sturm, Scott N. Taylor,
and Phillip W. Braddy (Organizational
Dynamics, forthcoming)
IN PRACTICE
“People Are
Trying to
Figure Out
How to
Respond”
In 2015 the Canadian Armed
Forces launched Operation
HONOUR, aimed at preventing
sexual misconduct and assault
among military personnel. As part
of that effort Denise Preston,
a psychologist who has worked
with victims and imprisoned
sex offenders, was hired in 2017
as the executive director of the
Sexual Misconduct Response
Centre, which operates outside
the military chain of command
to support victims of sexual
misconduct and lead prevention
efforts. She spoke with HBR
about the center’s work. Edited
excerpts follow.
Do you agree with one of
the findings of this research—
that most men and women
understand what constitutes
sexual harassment even
though the behavior persists? 
When you ask most people
about sexual harassment, sexual
assault, or issues around
consent, they understand on a
conceptual level when something
is wrong. But they don’t see
it so clearly when it’s their
own behavior. On a theoretical