Indonesian Journal of Innovation and Applied Sciences (IJIAS), 3 (1), 12-21 12 Volume 3 Issue 1 February (2023) DOI: 10.47540/ijias.v3i1.590 Page: 12 – 21 Prevalence of Sexual Harassment among Female Students of Khulna University Tuhin Roy1, Maleha Binte Rayhan1, Rina Aktar1 1Sociology Discipline, Khulna University, Bangladesh Corresponding Author: Rina Aktar; Email: rina13@ku.ac.bd A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Keywords: Harasser, Incident, Perpetrator, Sexual Harassment, Victim. Received : 24 June 2022 Revised : 13 February 2023 Accepted : 15 February 2023 In Bangladesh, the scenario of sexual harassment is a great problem in the academic sector as well as the prevalence is equally the same. Female students are the prominent victims of sexual harassment incidents in the educational environment. The main objectives of the study were to evaluate the nature of sexual harassment in academia as well as the impacts on female students and the consequences of the problem. The study was conducted in a qualitative research method and collected primary data with the help of a checklist of the undergraduate students of the Social Science School of Khulna University. Eight respondents and two key informants were selected purposively for the study that fulfilled the criteria of the unit of analysis. The findings of the study disclosed that females are frequent victims of gender-based sexual harassment in the academic sector. Female students constantly face verbal and non-verbal sexual harassment as well as the majority of the respondents don’t disclose or report the incidents to the authority because they cannot rely on perpetrators who will not get proper punishment for their crimes. For this, the victims suffer from various impacts on their mental and physical well- being. As a result, female students replace their career focus, skipping their educational journey and constantly feeling insecure. This research also revealed that society and culture greatly impact sexual harassment occurrences by men. The overall study found the negative impacts of sexual harassment, its consequences along with possible solutions. INTRODUCTION Sexual harassment is an uninvited sexual behavior or forced sexual activity conducted by a person who makes another person feel uncomfortable and abused (Krebs et al., 2016). The fundamental purpose of sexual harassment is to treat a person sacrilegiously humiliate their honor or create an offensive environment (UN Women 2019). This act violates human rights as well as hampers someone’s dignity and respect. Conceptually sexual harassment is a form of discriminated behavior that includes either verbal conduct or physical harassment and also various types of harassing acts (Cosentino & Banerjee, 2017). Moreover, sexual harassment is a universal matter and it can happen to anyone, but a woman has been dealing with this forever and still now the ratio of gender-based harassment is higher than any other type. Gender-based sexual harassment is most frequent, and it includes sexist comments, offensive sexual advances, threats or forceful touching, jokes or insults about sexuality, and so on (Kabat-Farr & Cortina, 2014). Women are constantly harassed by their co-workers, superiors, and even by their classmates or friends (Rosenthal et al., 2016; Kahsay, et al., 2020). Sexual harassment has always been a frequent phenomenon all around the world, but in the present time, it has gained considerable attention from researchers. There are so many studies and research about sexual harassment outbreaks, but it is still a very complex issue for its dynamic characteristics (Roehling & Huang, 2018). There is a lot of research out there about workplace occurrences or street or public place incidents, but the academic environment is also INDONESIAN JOURNAL OF INNOVATION AND APPLIED SCIENCES (IJIAS) Journal Homepage: https://ojs.literacyinstitute.org/index.php/ijias ISSN: 2775-4162 (Online) Research Article mailto:rina13@ku.ac.bd https://ojs.literacyinstitute.org/index.php/ijias http://issn.pdii.lipi.go.id/issn.cgi?daftar&1587190067&1&&2020 Indonesian Journal of Innovation and Applied Sciences (IJIAS), 3 (1), 12-21 13 important to study the problem. In the academic environment of higher study, organizational tolerance, and sanctions are extremely important for harassment behaviors because this matter is highly related to how these cases are being handled (Clodfelter et al., 2018). Sexual harassment incidents can affect the psychological as well as the physical well-being of a person, and there are several negative effects related to it (Langhout et al., 2015; Burn, 2019). Sexual harassment incidents can terminate a person’s focus on their career, education, passion, and even on themselves. Harassment incidents can hamper women's motivation, make them step down from their positions, or even force them to leave their career opportunities (Nelson et al., 2017). The scenario in Bangladesh is quite alarming, but there is no noticeable study regarding sexual harassment incidents in academia. In Bangladesh, the spread of sexual harassment is quite vast, and the majority of girls are the victims of it directly or indirectly (Odhikar, 2019). Bangladesh is a developing country, and like other developing nations, it struggles with this problem in a high ratio. Sexual harassment is not a new phenomenon, and neither is it specific to any culture, country, or society. Male domination in educational institutions and the environment can be a major cause of this problem. This is a very complex factor to analyze the causes and effects of sexual harassment but in general, it causes a great impact on victims’ physical and psychological insecurities (Glomb et al., 1997). Harassment incidents can hamper and take the victim backward from their career focus and it is important to recognize the situation to find systematic solutions. These unwanted incidents can be prevented if institutions imply policies and legal strategies which also include academic institutions (Willness et al., 2007). Developing or under- developing countries always face a high ratio of women’s unpleasant situations and assault incidents. In Bangladesh, we get these cases all time and women struggle with this almost on daily basis. In the higher education field, women have been facing discrimination even in the present day (Ergoçmen et al., 2013). Even though in some places gender-based differences are less but it still persists and a male-dominated environment is the risk place for women in academia. This study is trying to identify the nature and characteristics of sexual harassment as well as find out the causes and impacts of sexual harassment incidents faced by women in academia among female students. In Bangladesh, the knowledge of that such type of behavior is illegal and the need to deal with it in reality as being socially unacceptable has only very recently been acknowledged through several laws do exist that deal with offenses akin to sexual harassment. METHODS Observing the qualitative research design, this study is descriptive in nature as well as the study was carried out on female respondents who are the students of Social Science School who were chosen purposively under Khulna University in the Khulna district of Bangladesh. To achieve the study objectives, some specifications were made to identify the respondents, the data were collected from (1) the undergraduate female students of the Social Science School of Khulna University, and (2) the students who have experienced sexual harassment. The checklist contains both open and closed questions in English as well as designed for data collection. According to the aforecited criterion by the census conducted by the research, 698 female students were identified from the Social Science School of Khulna University selected through purposive sampling. The population of the study was eight female undergraduate students and two key informants were selected purposively who experienced sexual harassment as the sample of the study. Table 1. Population and sample size of the Study Areas at a Glance Name of the Discipline Number of Students Economics 173 Sociology 189 Development Studies 179 Mass Communication and Journalism 157 Total 698 Source: Field Survey, 2022 Primary data were collected from the respondents directly through Key Informant Interviews (KII) and Case Study methods through structured interviews using a checklist. To collect primary data from the field a checklist was prepared Indonesian Journal of Innovation and Applied Sciences (IJIAS), 3 (1), 12-21 14 to conduct a case study in the selected study area at Khulna University. Moreover, Key Informant Interviews (KII) were collected from other areas purposively in Khulna city. The data collection was conducted from 15 February 2021 to 10 January 2022. The aims and objectives of the study were clearly explained to the participants and they were assured that their information was only used for study purposes and their permission was taken before the interview and recording of the interview. They were informed that they could withdraw from the study if they wanted too so. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The information from 10 participants is presented under some defined themes. The obtained data from the discussion was recorded and proper notes were taken for the benefit of analyzing the raw data. The themes of the discussion are interpreted by keeping in mind the objectives of my study. Sexual harassment as unwelcomed behavior and unfair act Sexual harassment is always taking advantage of the victim without their concern and permission. Every sexually defined act is considered harassment if that is unwelcome by the opposite person. One participant mentioned the unwanted act as, ‚I am greatly disgusted by those situations that, he (perpetrator) tried to touch me in such an offended way. It is really a bad feeling and unwelcome touches are not tolerable for me. I think it is also not tolerable for any person by any means‛ (Participant from Case Study 5). When people try to harass someone, they highly cross the boundaries of a person’s freedom right. Every person has the legal right to their body and honor. Perpetrators always go overboard with disrespect and hit against their dignity. In a discussion, a participant mentioned that ‚It was absolutely unrecognized because some random person would touch my body offensively. It was a great hit to my dignity and still cannot process the fact in my mind. I wonder how people can do this with anyone and what the purpose of doing that is‛ (Participant from Case Study 8). Again, sexual harassment unreasonably inference in someone’s personal space gives them a hostile vibe and violent their situation. Sexual harassment acts are definitely the most heinous act conducted by someone. Characteristics of sexual harassment & sexually harassing environment In a simple form sexual harassment is either verbal or non-verbal. For verbal sexual harassment, it includes- disrespecting or offending someone with sexual words, commenting sexually related things about someone, body shaming, showing sexual organs, or passing sexual jokes to someone. Verbal harassments are a really frequent form of sexual harassment. In a discussion with a participant, she mentioned that ‘I have been verbally attacked so many times. I have heard some random stranger pass sexual comments and offensively stare at me. Then again, I faced body shaming and sexual jokes from my classmates. I have also seen my friends and sisters are verbally harassed by strangers‛ (Participant from Case Study 3). Another victim who was verbally harassed through the internet stated that ‚In a modern time, it is extremely easy to harass through social media and I’m a great victim of it. The perpetrator harassed me through social media by sending me offensive things and links to adult videos. I was more disgusted from the fact that he belongs to the same campus as mine‛ (Participant from Case Study 6). Participants experienced nonverbal harassment like unwanted touch, pushing offensively, pinching, or something that hurts the private parts of the body. One of the victims mentioned that ‚When I was coming back from my campus, he (perpetrator) pushed me so hard as well as dragged down me on the surface. Then he forcefully started to touch me. It took some moments for me to process the fact that he was physically harassing me. As soon as I realized that I started to panic and scream‛ (Participant from Case Study 8). One of the participants who have an experience in workplace harassment said that ‚This was a kind of new thing too as I have no previous work experience. In my part-time one of my colleagues said something so absurd and sexually offensive to me. He thought that women are meant to be in the kitchen and recommended to other colleagues not to marry a girl who is doing any job or work. I became as angry with the fact as he Indonesian Journal of Innovation and Applied Sciences (IJIAS), 3 (1), 12-21 15 indirectly pointed his speech toward me‛ (Participant from Case Study 5). Hostile environment harassments also encompass unwanted sexual overtures such as exposing one’s genitals, stroking and kissing someone and pressuring a person for dates even if no quid pro quo is involved. The difference between the two types is that quid pro quo harassments require harassment in exchange for any kind of reward or promotion whereas hostile environment harassment can be done by many people with many targets. A participant emphasizes that ‚I was a harassed girl by a person who exposed his genitals in front of me. He was looking unremorseful and unbothered which gave me panic. He was very calm about the incident and I’m sure he is a pro at doing this. I believe he has done this before with other girls too. The way he escaped the place and looked calm proved all those things. He created such a horrible environment for me and for several months I was in fear of facing someone like him on the way to my campus. I wasn’t even traveling alone anywhere for some time being‛ (Participant from Case Study 1). By far the most indicators of sexual harassment occurrence are related to organizations, individual level, or male-dominated environments. Victims are always harassed in kind of similar environment patterns or sets. In most cases, the harasser tries to do it privately where the possible witness is few. While discussing the issue one of the participants stressed that ‚I was very alone at those times when he (the perpetrator) forced me in various ways. He was following me wherever I used to go. He got me whenever I was alone or in a less crowded place on campus. He used to text me and literally forced me to meet and talk to him. He used so many tricks to scare me not to tell others and emotionally blackmailed me. As a newcomer in the university, I was too young and weak to protest against it‛ (Participants from Case Study 4). Gender harassment is the most common type of sexual harassment and men are mostly involved in this behavior Among all types of harassment gender-based sexual harassment is most frequent and it includes sexist comments offensive sexual advances, threats or forceful touching, jokes or insults about sexuality, and so on. Consenting to the matter one of the participants said, ‚As a woman, I have faced so many difficulties in life and sexual harassment is one of them. I find gender discrimination everywhere. Our society cannot be fully changed by this matter. I really feel hopeless thinking about the behavior we receive as a woman‛ (Participant from Case Study 6). Women are always the prominent victims of sexual harassment incidents and there are also many reasons behind it. Women find difficulties at every organizational level and also in society. They are always treated as the minority gender. One of the participants stressed that Women in our society are always objectifying for sexual activity. I am not the only victim of this problem. I have seen other women face this in many situations. One of my classmates commented that women cannot succeed like men even though they study more. That comment was indirect to me. Also, there is discrimination in judging based on gender (Participant from Case Study 3). Furthermore, in a majority of the cases of sexual harassment, there is always the presence of gender discrimination. Women have been facing harassment because of discrimination. The emergence of gender-based sexual harassment came from the workplace harassment of women and in the higher studies environment, this is equally the same. A participant in this matter said that ‚Workplace sexual harassment and educational place sexual harassment is equally important because I’m a victim in both places. In a workplace, a hostile environment degrades motivation similar to educational environment harassment. Women are always a target in every place and I the case of sexual harassment most of the victims are us‛ (Participant from Case Study 5). Participants believe that society is mainly responsible for their outlook and discrimination toward them. There can be other factors that are responsible for gender harassment. Male-dominated institutions and societies are one of a reason for that. A participant mentioned, ‚Men always want to show their masculinity through their dominance over us. Our society always praises a man when they sow their power and dominance on a woman. The culture is also reflected in our educational institutions. Men always think that they are better than us by all means. The harasser blackmailed me because he is a male and if I don’t get intimate with Indonesian Journal of Innovation and Applied Sciences (IJIAS), 3 (1), 12-21 16 him, he will spread false rumors about me‛ (Participant from Case Study 7). After that victim blaming is extremely common in our society. Most women don’t feel like to report about their incidents because of the fear of victim blaming. They feel extremely unsafe about this. About victim blaming a participant said that ‚I was very young and immature enough to report the incident to someone because I have seen society always poses a bad outlook on the victim. He took the advantage of it and forced me to talk to him‛ (Participant from Case Study 2). Again, another participant stressed this matter that, ‚The rumors about me were spread among my peer groups and they gossiped about those a lot. But they always blamed me and predict that I intended to get personal with him. Those were the most frustrating days of my life. No matter who is the culprit everyone will always blame a girl‛ (Participant from Case Study 2). Then again, the case studies reveal that participants believe that men are always involved in this behavior. Some believed that both men and women can be equally involved in the harassment. But the majority stressed the point that men are comparatively more engaged. A participant mentioned that ‚Both women and men can be responsible for sexual harassment I have faced harassment from women but men conduct harassment more often. Men are always there to sexually exploit women. All of my known persons are also harassed by men several times. I think the less morality and their supremacy as gender is the main reason behind this they are always privileged in our society and this mentality drives them to do all these hostilities‛ (Participant from Case Study 7). Sexual harassment of female students is common in academia and there are several impacts of sexual harassment Participants stressed out every type of sexual harassment is common in their campus area as in other places. Workplace harassments are noticeable but harassments in educational organizations are equally noticeable. Participants mentioned the possible reasons behind the incidents in their campus area. There are so many reasons which are responsible for the sexual harassment of women even in higher study fields. One of the major causes can be male-dominated authority and power. About this matter, one of the participants said that ‚In our society men are allowed to do anything but we always have to ask for permission or re-think our decisions. In a study area, there is an impact on the cultural practice of our society. As we live in a patriarchal society, men will always feel empowered for that‛ (Participant from Case Study 4). About the male-dominated factor, another participant said that ‚Although it is a modern era still there is a lot of prevalence of sexual harassment. People are educating and changing their lifestyles but they are not getting out of their traditional thinking of harassing women. Somehow society is responsible for their confidence and their motivation for doing such things‛ (Participant from Case Study 6). On another note participants also mentioned the organizational tolerance regarding harassment incidents. They think that their matter won’t be taken seriously by the organizational system. The way an organization handles harassment issues is also an important reason behind sexual harassment incidents. Trust issues toward legal authorities are also a cause of ignoring or remaining silent after harassment. On that one of the participants said that ‚I couldn’t rely on the system and believed in the authority that they take action against it. I was afraid that my reputation goes down and also the incident embarrassed me. This was the main reason that I did not report the matter to my institution’s authority‛ (Participant from Case Study 1). Participants discussed several impacts they have suffered so far and also; they have seen other people suffer from sexual harassment. They again stressed the matter that sexual harassments have so many impacts on individuals but these factors are also highly ignored by others. Sexual harassment can affect both physical and emotional well-being. Talking about the impact’s psychiatrist from KII said, ‚Sexual harassment cases are extremely common and I handle those often. I have seen patients dealing with depression, loneliness, anxiety, and even suicidal thoughts. It is not that they are only emotionally broke but their physical health is also included. For the mental breakdown they often stop having meals properly, self-harm themselves or feel weakness in their body‛ (Participant from KII 2). Indonesian Journal of Innovation and Applied Sciences (IJIAS), 3 (1), 12-21 17 Psychological or emotional breakdown is extremely common in surviving sexual harassment. A human cannot be healthy if he or she is only physically well, mental health is equally important. A participant on psychological well-being said that ‚I have always been a strong-minded girl and try to face everything with a reason but after the harassment incidents I dealt with mental breakdown several times‛ (Participant from Case Study 6). Again, another participant who suffered from severe depression stressed this matter, ‚I was so young and scared that I didn’t even try to report that to anyone. I was suffering from depression for a long time because of that incident. I never imagined myself to be harassed in this way by someone and this drove me to severe depression‛ (Participant from Case Study 3). From the case studies it was revealed that participants not only suffered from depression or anger issues but also suffered physically. It is often said that harassment or assaults can only bring mental breakdown but to be physically healthy mental health is the key. Mental stress always brings body suffering too. On this, a participant said that ‚It is not easy to deal with the sufferings. That incident hurt my dignity and caused stress in my mind. I was not able to eat my meal for several months and started to get insomnia. I got physically too weak so I have to take medicines for that. For that reason, I still feel physically weak sometimes‛ (Participant from Case Study 1). Furthermore, some participants mentioned having self-harm thoughts and fear of repeating the same incident with them. Then again some cut off their contact with their social circle and live in loneliness. Participants mentioned that no will be able to understand their situations so they maintained a distance from everything and passed their days in loneliness. On the matter of being physically affected another participant said, ‚Some incidents can cause you the loss of physical strength. I was physically harassed and that took my physical strength too. I thought about physically harming me because some stranger touching me. I was absolutely disgusted by that thought. Somehow, I managed to save myself‛ (Participant from Case Study 8). Consequences of sexual harassment is a barrier for female students in higher studies The consequences of sexual harassment are far worst that the bad impacts of it. Participants stressed the several consequences of sexual harassment incidents. One of the most common consequences was losing their motivation to carry out their study further. Some of them mentioned skipping their classes and distracting from their career focus. There are also so many other consequences of the behavior. One of the participants' statements matches with others in which she said, ‚I didn’t feel like going to campus every day because of the incident. I tried to skip my classes and miss my lectures. Of that my result fell down on that semester. After that, I was more stressed and sadder because I lost my consistency. I still regret that but that incident really shattered my confidence‛ (Participant from Case Study 2). Similarly, another participant on this matter similarly said that ‚It was not easy for me to face my harasser every day together with he was unremorseful and was not a bit guilty of his deed. This is what made me skip my classes. I even wanted to drop out. So, I came back to my home after the incident and hide like it was my fault‛ (Participant from Case Study 4). The consequences were discussed by the participants who were like harming their educational focus and changing their minds about their career goals. Those consequences marked a deep scar on their way to success in higher studies and created barriers. Even many of them did not disclose the matter because of the fear of her known people. They found it will decrease their honor. One of the participants shared her perception of that, ‚It is never an easy task not to be judged as a victim in this society. No matter what a victim goes through society will always blame them. This thought gave me more severe panic and I couldn’t share it at that time. I felt helpless about thinking no one would take my side. All this thinking blew away my focus for a better career and I started to feel lonely out here‛ (Participant from Case Study 5). Additionally, family is also an important factor to have the consequences of those incidents. Participants mentioned their fear of their families and this led them to more frustration. Family can play a vital role in this matter and most of the time their support is not active in this matter. About one Indonesian Journal of Innovation and Applied Sciences (IJIAS), 3 (1), 12-21 18 of the participants said, ‚Society makes the family involved in victim blaming too. For this reason, I could not even share that with my family. I was too scared that they will not support me and blame me anyway. For this reason, I got more stressed and cut off my contacts for several days. I felt lonely and devastated at that time. I was new to the city also and did not have any friends to share all these‛ (Participant from Case Study 2). Correspondently victims of sexual harassment face so many bad consequences because of this but it is really not a matter of fact for society and families many times. The consequences can even lead someone to die and nothing is more serious than this. Family support is extremely important for coping up with the consequences. Participants stressed the fact that the consequences had a visible impact on their life. One of the participants from KII said that ‚I became so worried to see the results of my daughter because of that incident. She behaved so differently than how she used to be. She didn’t want to talk with anybody and lock her in a room for a long time. She also became sick. Those reactions made me and my family really worried about her‛ (Participant from KII 1). Again, he added the importance of family support in this. His experience can be an example of this matter. He further said, ‚Delicate matters should be handled with love and support by family. I am happy and relieved that I helped my daughter to come over from this situation but I’m also stressed that it should need a permanent solution. Otherwise, so many victims will suffer and ruin their life‛ (Participant from KII 1). The study found that sexual harassment rates are extremely high and its prevalence is vast in the study area. It has been found that gender-based sexual harassment which means female students are the main victim of this harassment. Female students in higher studies field faced different forms of sexual harassment. Especially verbal and non-verbal harassments are extremely common in the study area. In verbal harassment victims faced body shaming comments, sexual jokes, indirect poking about personal life, spreading false sexual rumors, and so on. Again, non-verbal harassments are a similar form of physical harassment which includes intentionally touching private parts of the body, forcing others to do something, pushing and shoving down, and so on. Similarly (Kalra & Bhugra, 2013) discussed the forms of sexual harassment which include sexist comments offensive sexual advances, threats or forceful touching, jokes or insults about sexuality, and so on. The participation of women in the education sector is increasing it is almost equal to male participation but this also increases the chance of sexual harassment toward them (Cosentino and Banerjee, 2017). The study reveals that sexual harassment is common and frequently happening occurrence in the study area along with gender-based sexual harassment is also exceedingly happening in the educational environment. Females are the main victims of sexual harassment and gender discrimination is visible in sexual harassment occurrences. Women are constant victims of men as in every sector they are harassed by strangers, co- workers, classmates, and even their friends (Rosenthal et al., 2016). A study stated that undergraduate female students are greatly offended by their peers, batch mates, or faculty but they hardly reach out for any conclusions about those behaviors (Wood et al., 2018). Again, the study revealed about two major environments are responsible for most of the occurrences which are male-dominated environments or leadership and the organizations' contributions in tolerating the crime. Female students don’t find it reliable to report the incidents to their organizations' systems. Organizational tolerance regarding harassment incidents is the motivation behind the crime that occurs repeatedly and also female students don’t show reliability in the organizational system. (Lonsway et al., 2013) and (Jones et al., 2012) respectively discussed that institutions which highly influenced by male-dominated culture and the institutions that provide the least protection against harassment incidents tend to cumulate sexual harassment incidents. Female students cope with sexual harassment in a variety of ways, most often by ignoring or appeasing the harasser and seeking social support. A study by Kelley & Parsons (2020) reported that greater than 50 percent of women students encounter or experience sexually harassing conduct in academia and they mostly experience those from their faculty, seniors, juniors, and even classmates. The present study also found a similar situation as female students continuously harassed by peer Indonesian Journal of Innovation and Applied Sciences (IJIAS), 3 (1), 12-21 19 groups, superiors, or even strangers in their academic area. Again, sexual harassment can cause severe impacts on the victims. The study showed that female students greatly suffered from various impacts of sexual harassment. Psychological or emotional breakdown is an extremely common impact in surviving sexual harassment. On another note physical weakness and well-being are also related to the psychological state of the victims. Similarly (Foster & Fullagar, 2018) and (Tyson, 2019) respectively identified that sexual harassments are extremely hard to deal with for mental and physical well-being. Then again, the study discloses psychological impacts like depression, anger, fear, loneliness, stress, etc. shook off the female students. Physical impacts like weakness self-harm and less stamina are also endured by them as an impact of offensive occurrence. Again, victims blame the situation on the society in majority of cases. Bondestam & Lundqvist (2020) stated that women don’t report sexual harassment because of the stereotyping outlook, victim blaming in society, fear of decreasing honor, and so on. The present study consenting on that revealed that cultural practices of gender discrimination, victim blaming, and the dominance of men in society is responsible for their insecurities and they also do not feel safe sharing their situations. Previous studies mentioned fear of facing doubts, scrutiny, and fear of social stigmatization as reasons for suppressing voices, emotions, and delayed reports against those incidents (Foster & Fullagar, 2018) and (Tyson, 2019). Regarding the consequences or the outcomes of those impacts the study further revealed that sexual harassment in an educational organization can have a great scar on the victim’s study career. The major reveal of the outcomes was female students wanted to skip their classes, had lower grades, or even felt like dropping out. Likewise (Johnson et al., 2016) in their study found the psychological impacts faced by sexually harassed victims in their academic journey, losses in their performance, and bearing trauma throughout their life. They also revealed that the career focus of the victims got changed for the experience and some victims hardly find a way to survive in their academic journey. CONCLUSION Sexual harassment is a global issue and in the western world, it has reportedly established a higher epidemic in higher education environments. Similarly in Bangladesh social problems are increasing day by day. Harassments in academia are also a common phenomenon in our country. Young adults are assets for a country, especially for a developing country like ours. Furthermore, half of our population consist of a female which means the development of our nation highly depended on the growth of women. Women suffer a lot due to sexual harassment incidents in their day-to-day life. In the present time, everything is going forward except the fact that women are still discriminated against in every sector. Furthermore, female students are not even eager or brave enough to report the crime. Several factors are responsible for this and those factors should be acknowledged by all. 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