Strengthening Universities response to sexual harassment with an equity approach

ongoing

Uni4Equity general goal is to strengthen universities readiness to identify, map and respond to on-line and off-line sexual harassment (SH) at workplace and other relevant settings (classrooms, digital space), with an explicit but not exclusive attention to minority social groups. More specifically, it is aimed: 1) To reinforce universities teams, networks, and units in charge of gender equality issues through structural reforms, improved work processes and the engagement of key stakeholders for the prevention of SH; 2) To promote mutual learning and exchange of good practices to identify and tackle SH at the university among different target groups; 3) To increase the social awareness about the importance of rejecting all forms of SH and the need to contribute to its prevention and combat among university members; 4) To improve the skills and the capacity of professionals and the availability of tools and resources to address and follow-up it; 5) To reduce the exposition to SH risk factors at different levels of relations (interpersonal, institutional and social) for different target groups at the universities, including minority social groups; 6) To minimize the impacts SH may cause on victims; 7) To contribute to the acknowledge of the universities as an asset to prevent and response this problem; and, 8) To address prevention and combat of SH at university as a priority issue for gender equality promotion. Enhancing these aims requires an ecological approach that integrate strategies at different levels of prevention (primary, secondary and tertiary ones). The main target group will be students, teachers and administrative staff at the university, including social minority groups. It is proposed a multi-agency cooperation between universities and other relevant social actors to promote these changes through a mixed-method participative methodology.