Who-Stole-Feminism.-How-Women-Have-Betrayed-Women

THE WELLESLEY REPORT 185rassment to the AAUW. How do you put a gender bias spin on that kindof finding? Once again, the AAUW was up to the challenge. Speaking tothe Boston Globe, Alice McKee argued that the effects of the harassmentdiffer: "The bottom line is that girls suffer adverse emotional, behavioraland educational impacts three times more often than boys as a result ofsexual harassment." The Globe writer, Alison Bass, explained and amplifiedthe point:Even though boys reported being harassed almost as often as didgirls, the survey . . . found that girls were far more likely than boysto want to cut class and stay home from school as a result of theharassment. Girls were also more hesitant to speak up in class andless confident about themselves after being sexually harassed, thesurvey found. 83So once again we are given to understand that "research suggests" thegirls are being shortchanged. The effects on them (in wanting to cutclasses and stay home) were markedly worse. But wanting to cut classesand actually cutting classes are not the same, and the latter effect is justthe sort of thing we can check. 84If McKee is right, girls should be showinghigh rates of absenteeism, cutting class, and getting lower grades. In fact,girls have better attendance and earn better grades than boys, and moreof them graduate. This is not to say that girls and boys react to harassmentin the same way. The response of girls to insults or slights may indeed bemore dramatic, leading them to express the desire to cut classes more thanboys do—a finding that would be in keeping with those of Wendy Woodand her colleagues at Texas A&M, that "girls are more aware of theirfeelings and more accurate in reporting on negative emotions."This time the AAUW's pollsters had come up with findings that didnot readily lend themselves to the "shortchanging" theme. And for thefirst time some skeptical voices began to speak up in the popular press.In a New York Times story, Felicity Barringer cited students who criticizedthe survey for "characterizing too many behaviors as sexual harassment."After the Boston Globe ran a story giving the exact spin the AAUW dictated,reporter Thomas Palmer had doubts about the validity of the harassmentsurvey. He and Alison Bass wrote a story questioning the AAUWfindings and incorporating outside opinions. Billie Dziech, an expert onsexual harassment and the author of one of the most respected books onthe subject, The Lecherous Professor, pointed out that the inexact terminologyvitiated the AAUW report. 85"There is a difference between somethingI would call 'sexual hassle' and 'sexual harassment.' "