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SEXUAL HARRASSMENT AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENT IN PUBLIC COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN SOUTH WEST NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    Background of the Study

Sexual harassment has plagued tertiary institutions of learning since women began to access higher education in Nigerian and the global world. Sexual harassment is an unwelcome behaviour of a sexual nature that is offensive, humiliating, intimidating and against the law. It can be written, verbal, physical, in- person or online. Men as well women are victims. It amounts to sex discrimination when it takes place in schools, at work, or in churches, communities and the university. The United Nations Development for Women defines sexual harassment as unwelcome or unwanted verbal, non-verbal, physical, or visual conduct based on sex or of a sexual nature, the acceptance or rejection of which affects an individual’s employment, promotion, employment, work, academic excellence and cordial relationship with his or her boss.

Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favours, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment thereby creating an intimidating hostile working relationship and academic environment when: (a) submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment or academic advancement; (b) submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions or academic decisions affecting such individual; (c) or when such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work or academic performance or creating in intimidating, hostile, or offensive working or academic environment (Adedokun, 2004).

Sexual harassment has been rampant in working environments, schools and colleges and very little has been done about it until recently. Associated Press interviews with officials and twelve female college students in Nigeria indicated that some female students were being held back and denied passing grades for rebuffing a lecturer’s advances, and of being advised by other lecturers to give in quietly. Another victim was a twenty-two-year-old college student who repeatedly failed political science for two years after refusing her lecturer’s explicit demands for sex (The Associated Press, 2009), while a postgraduate student of Obafemi Awolowo University, named Ile Ife was sexually harassed by her lecturer for two years. This situation was tagged as a sex-for-mark scandal with the lecturer subsequently sacked and jailed. He was released in March, 2020 after serving his prison term. (Saturday Punch, April 18, 2020, p. 23).

Sexual harassment can take the form of touching, grabbing, or having physical contact with men or women without his or her consent. Comments that have a sexual undertone, leering and staring at someone, displaying rude and offensive material for another person to see, displaying sexual gestures or making inappropriate body movements, cracking sexual jokes, questioning another’s sexual life, and phoning or sexually assaulting someone, can also be seen as forms of sexual harassment. The recipients or victims of this behaviour causes them to feel humiliation, pain, fear and intimidation. They may also feel stressed, anxious, and depressed, they may withdraw from social functions, lose confidence, lose self- esteem, develop headaches and sleeping problems. They may also become less productive and lack concentration (REACHOUT.com). Sexual harassment can also be persistent and unwanted sexual advancements in which the denial is potentially dangerous to the victims who are powerless and voiceless. In Nigeria, the Nigeria Senate, because of the rampant nature of sexual harassment in Nigeria universities, enacted a law in 2016 called the “Prohibition Act of 2016” (Cunning, 2002).

Sexual harassment is a complex issue as it is not always unidirectional, it is played down by all concerned and usually goes unreported even though it is considered a serious moral and social problem on the university campus. Sexual harassment in educational settings in Nigeria has, in the last two decades, received local and international attention and condemnation but it remains one of the least understood, documented and focused on forms of violence. Policies and legislation against it are yet to be put into place (Adedokun, 2004).

From research carried out by the NWSN (2004), sexual harassment and violations on Nigerian campuses takes place in six ways: male lecturers to female students, male students to female students, male lecturers to female non-academics staff, male non-academic staff to female students, male lecturers to female academic staff and male non-academic staff to female non-academic staff and vice-visa. Sexual harassment often through the use of language (Cunning, 2002), with female students especially, experiencing these behaviours in their everyday activities. The most common form reported by 65% of girls and 42% of boys was being the target of sexual comments, jokes, gestures or looks (Jega, 2000). Women and female undergraduate students reported the highest incidence of unwanted sexual attention (Jega, 2013). Most times, the most common response was to ignore the behaviour and avoiding the harasser and telling others about the harassment (Cochran et al., 2001; Adegboyega & Jacob, 2017).

Studies suggested that lecturers, administrators, and even parents often fail to respond appropriately to students’ complaints of harassment. Students have described being ignored, disbelieved and blamed when they report instances of harassment by lecturers and other adults (Adedokun, 2004). Students who admitted that they have been sexually harassed by peers identified a lack of support from adults as one of the most demoralizing aspects of the act. When lecturers and administrators witnessed the harassing behaviour, they sometimes declined to intervene or take corrective action (2004). Dodge, Coie and Lynam’s (2006) research indicated that poor peer relationships were closely associated with social cognitive skill deficits and reported that adolescents who had developed positive peer relationships generated more alternative solutions to problems, proposed more mature solutions, and were less aggressive than youth who had developed negative peer relationships. In some cases, women and female students who

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