Part 3 GLOBAL ISSUES: HARASSMENT AND ABUSE RESEARCH

variables:1) formation of the sport – team or individual; 2)
amount of clothing coverage required for competition (a little, a
moderate amount and a lot); 3) gender structure (male-or female
dominated membership statistics); and 4) gender culture
(masculine, gender-neutral or feminine), the female elite athletes
who participated in masculine sports were the only group that
was more harassed and abused than women in the other
groups, particularly from peer athletes in sport v .
Performance level also seems to be related to the amount of
sexual harassment experiences. When the athletes were divided
into two groups: those who had participated in a world
championship and/or the Olympic Games, and those who had
not, it turned out that the ‘best’ athletes had experienced more
sexual harassment than the lower performance group. This was
true primarily for those that were 19 year of age and older.
There was no difference between the athletes and the controls
when experiences of sexual harassment and abuse in sport
were compared with similar experiences in school/at work.
There was, however, a distinct difference between how many
athletes (15%) who had experienced sexual harassment from an
authority figure in sport compared with the control group’s
experience of harassment from authority figures at work or in
school (9%). This percentage was larger among the older
subjects.
The forms of sexual harassment that the athletes had
experienced the most often were:
“Ridiculing of your sport performances and of you as an
athlete because of your gender or your sexuality (for
example,’ soccer is not suitable for girls’)”
“Unwanted physical contact, body contact (for example
pinching, fondling, being kissed against your will, etc.”
19