In the scope of the bilateral cooperation with Norway, bridGEs – Alto Minho Companies for Gender Equality and RESET – Redesigning Equality and Scientific Excellence Together promoted, on September 20th a workshop on “Sexual Harassment in Higher Education Institutions”.
Aimed at the academic community, but open to other organisations and other interested people, it gathered 10 people in the room.
The session was led by Karin Hovde, from the KUN Centre for Equality and Diversity (Norway), and addressed the conceptual boundaries of the phenomenon and the difficulty of defining and acting in the grey areas between what is appropriate and what is not.
Hypothetical cases of sexual harassment in a university context were discussed, including the creation of the commission on harassment and the order approved at the FPCEUP days before.
The conclusion was that, above all, information and training are needed. That open debate, information of boundaries and the existence of support systems are essential to act on the various behaviours that may precede harassment (the harassment iceberg) and that allow the perpetrator to feel comfortable enough to cross the boundaries of acceptable behaviour and invade the space of another person.
BridGEs – Alto Minho Companies for Gender Equality, promoted by Faculty of Psychology and Sciences of Education of University of Porto and operated by the Commission for Citizenship and for Gender Equality, is a project of the Work-Life Balance Programme of the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism – EEA Grants.
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