Nan D. Stein

Wellesley College · Wellesley Centers for Women

Using a randomized controlled trial, we investigated changes in both sexual harassment (SH) perpetration and victimization of 2104 middle school students in New York City who received divergent saturation and dosage levels of Shifting Boundaries, an SH prevention program, which was represented by the length of the program. We assessed the saturatio...

An organized response to sexual harassment (SH) in K‐12 schools in the US traces its development as a social movement to the larger women's rights movement in the late 1970s. It was an outgrowth of the social movement of feminist activists who protested and filed lawsuits to draw attention to SH in the workplace to gain recognition for the problem...

I knew the outside Sally. We walked together for over 21 years, mostly around Lake Waban at Wellesley College; we could turn a 40-minute walk on the path around the lake into an extended 75-minute excursion by going off the path, then bush whacking our way back. In the winters, we walked on the nearby golf course and into the woods; and when we wer...

Sexual harassment has become so frequent and ubiquitous in schools that these behaviours have become normalised and expected. In order to prevent the re-enactment and perpetuation of this problem, it is important to explore processes that contribute to its existence. A high school sexual harassment lawsuit in Sweden is used as a case study to illus...

Objectives Prior research with the Shifting Boundaries (SB) prevention program suggests that it can prevent adolescent relationship abuse and sexual harassment. We assessed the relative impact of a combined set of SB classroom (SBC) and SB building (school-wide; SBS) interventions on adolescent relationship abuse and sexual harassment outcomes when...

This article argues that United States public policies have prioritized marriage and healthy relationship promotion over research and education about gendered violence in teen dating relationships, despite evidence of the prevalence of intimate partner and teen dating violence that disproportionately impacts women and girls. The lack of a gender-ba...

In this report we present the results of an experimental evaluation based on a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a dating violence and sexual harassment (DV/H) prevention program — called the Shifting Boundaries (SB) Program. We randomly assigned 23 public middle schools in New York City to one of four treatment conditions of SB varying by dosag...

In this report we present the results of an experimental evaluation based on a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a dating violence and sexual harassment (DV/H) prevention program — called the Shifting Boundaries (SB) Program. We randomly assigned 23 public middle schools in New York City to one of four treatment conditions of SB varying by dosag...

Purpose: We examine whether the Shifting Boundaries (SB) intervention, a primary intervention to prevent youth dating violence and sexual harassment (DV/H), is differentially effective for girls compared with boys or for youth with a history of DV/H experiences. Methods: We randomly assigned SB to 30 public middle schools in New York City, enrolli...

To pilot a study of social networks informing contextual analyses of sexual harassment and peer violence (SH/PV). Seventh and 8(th) grade students (N = 113) in an urban middle school were surveyed via a Web-based instrument. Boys and girls reported SH/PV victimization and perpetration at comparable rates. The proportion of nominated friends who rep...

This study fills a gap in the literature by examining how school staff members view bullying and sexual harassment and their role in preventing both. Given recent legislation, increasingly more attention is paid to bully prevention; however, student-on-student sexual harassment is less addressed. Four focus groups were conducted with 32 staff membe...

We randomly assigned the Shifting Boundaries interventions to 30 public middle schools in New York City, enrolling 117 sixth and seventh grade classes (over 2,500 students) to receive a classroom, a building, a combined, or neither intervention. The classroom intervention included a six-session curriculum emphasizing the laws and consequences for p...

In this study, we randomly assigned 123 sixth and seventh grade classrooms from seven middle schools in the greater Cleveland area to one of two five-session curricula addressing gender violence/sexual harassment (GV/SH) or to a no-treatment control group. A baseline survey and two follow-up surveys were administered immediately after the treatment...

In this experiment, 123 sixth and seventh grade classrooms from Cleveland area schools were randomly assigned to one of two five-session curricula addressing gender violence/ sexual harassment (GV/SH) or to a no-treatment control. Three-student surveys were administered. Students in the law and justice curricula, compared to the control group, had...

This article explores the role that the sex-gender system plays in shaping both the violence and victimization of girls. Taking first the issue of girls' violence, the article argues that steep increases in girls' arrests are not the product of girls becoming more like boys. Instead, forms of girls' minor violence that were once ignored are now bei...

In this issue: Jean Baker Miller Training Institute: 10th Anniversary Jean Baker Miller Training Institute Yet again? Women and science, the discussion goes on...and on... Reaffirming Rights in Our Nation's Schools Q&A with WCW Postdoctoral Research Fellows

Despite longstanding efforts towards gender equity and current yet intense focus on school safety, the simple right of boys and girls to an equitable and safe school environment-not to have to negotiate inequity or violence as part of their school day-has yet to be secured. In this article we review the development of ?gender equity? and ?school sa...

The array of articles in this special issue on bullying present new directions in research on bullying in the United States. Under the prevailing definition of bullying, almost anything has the potential to be called bullying, from raising one's eyebrow, giving "the evil eye," making faces (all very culturally constructed activities), to verbal exp...

Despite their individual creativity and achievements, many girls confront common obstacles (like sexual harassment) and expectations that limit accomplishments. Nonetheless, girls get better grades than boys, score higher on certain test measures, and attend college in greater numbers. Their resilience and resistance to cultural norms are inspiring...

This book uses evidence gathered from legal, anecdotal, and survey-based sources to explore sexual harassment in K-12 schools. The text is divided into seven chapters. Chapters 1 and 2 use material from surveys, salient lawsuits, and students' stories to describe harassment and to elaborate on the contradictions and confusions that surround this te...

Peer sexual harassment is rampant in elementary and secondary schools; discusses relevant surveys and lawsuits. School authorities must intervene and sanction student harassers. Silence represents negligence or possibly encouragement of such behavior. Educators should create age-appropriate, teacher-led, structured lessons that promote change in be...

In this article, Nan Stein argues that sexual harassment in schools is a form of gendered violence that often happens in the public arena. She presents the narratives of girls and boys about their experience of sexual harassment in schools and finds parallels with cases documented in court records and depositions. While highly publicized lawsuits a...

Describes the panic that typically arises when the First Amendment is invoked in charges of sexual harassment in schools. Contends that sexism is a fundamental part of school culture, that school administrators apply free speech rights differently to males and females in schools, and that the Constitution applies to girls too. (24 footnotes) (MLF)

Sexual harassment can range from touching, tickling, pinching, patting, or grabbing; to comments about one's body; to sexual remarks, innuendoes, and jokes that cause discomfort; to obscene gestures, staring, or leering; to assault and rape. This paper addresses student testimonies of harassment, provides a profile of harassment behaviors, and offe...

Sexual harassment in schools is a public event, which means that there are witnesses, bystanders, and spectators to many of these occurrences. This paper argues that because sexual harassment is a public event, it is very damaging to its targets as well as bystanders by teaching others that schools are not safe or just. Schools may also serve as tr...

In this issue: Q&A: The Changing World of Work and Family BalanceWork, Families, and Children Commentary: Sexual Harassment Left Behind: What the "bullying" framework is doing to the civil rights laws and framework Global Connections: WCW scholars connect and collaborate with colleagues across the globe

9-page PDF teacher's guide which accompanies 3 filmed programs on sexual harrassment, "two of the modules target students, and one targets teachers. Throughout the student programs, the host, an older sister character, provides definitions, explanations and insights based on her own experiences ... the two 15-minute classroom programs include break...