Sexual Harassment and Hierarchical Workplace Relationships after #MeToo: Consequences for Women Subordinates

The #MeToo movement illustrated how higher-ups may abuse their power by engaging in sexual harassment and generated heightened concern about hierarchical workplace romantic relationships. In a survey experiment, the authors test whether sexual attention from a superordinate outside one's reporting chain (desired or not) leads to stereotyping and resultant career penalties. A woman employee who reported sexual harassment was seen as less warm and more attention seeking and cutthroat but also more assertive and willing to speak truth to power, although some perceptions varied by the harassment type. A woman who declared a romantic relationship with a superordinate was viewed as less committed to the organization. This stereotyping did not translate to workplace penalties apart from a marginally significant raise penalty against the woman who reported unwanted sexual advances. However, the authors find that experiencing sexual attention from a superordinate, whether desired or not, is damaging to working women's reputations.