Parallel Session Proceedings »
2.4.1 No Children’s Play: Early Childhood Sexual Harassment — Understanding, Coping, and Prevention in the Educational System and Community
Particularly in light of the #METOO campaign and more and more people, especially women, sharing their stories – in the US and across the world.Over the past decade sexual harassment has become a focus of international research. Although educational studies have shown that it is common in secondary schools and work places, there is a lack of empirical research that explores the potential for sexual harassment among children at younger ages.
This pioneering study used qualitative methods of observation to examine the concept of sexual harassment among children age 5 to 7.5 years in three educational settings in Israel. The goal was to establish whether sexual harassment occurs in Israeli preschool settings and, if so, to evaluate the extent of the phenomenon and to understand its importance among practitioners and parents.
The study found that sexual harassment is a feature of life among young children, and that it generally begins with boys’ crossing of so-called “gender borders” (Thorne, 1993). Thus, this study sought to redress the balance by illustrating how heterosexuality is part of the everyday experience of primary school children. Harassing boys seek to demonstrate power and to gain status among their peers, and usually act in informal situations where adult supervision is lacking. Young boys who harass are in the process of constructing their masculinities within a specific site (Skelton, 2001).