From silence to collective action: Voices of women victims of sexual harassment in higher education institutions

In this article we analyze the reactions of the victims of sexual harassment in two universities in Medellin - Colombia. The research had a mixed design, with a gender focus. We implemented the following data generation techniques: surveys, in-depth interviews and reflective workshops. The results indicate that women are the main victims of this problem and that their responses range from avoidance (fleeing from the place of aggression), confrontation (explicit manifestation of rejection) to denunciation (complaint to superiors, activation of internal or external routes, among others). The most frequent reactions are avoidant and do not contribute to the transformation of the problem. On the other hand, denouncing responses encounter the barrier of institutional violence. As an alternative, we identified an emerging response from the victims: the collective action of young feminist women in universities.