Harassment in Colleges: A Bottom-Up Approach

Sexual harassment is a widespread global issue disproportionately affecting women and girls.
Beyond its harmful impact on survivors' well-being, recent research has documented
substantial economic costs, with women often sacrificing career opportunities for safety—
accepting lower wages, choosing longer commutes, or enrolling in lower-ranked universities
(Borker, 2021; Adams-Prassl et al., 2024; Folke and Rickne, 2022). Although awareness
campaigns have increased reporting and accountability (Levy and Mattsson, 2023; Gauthier,
2022), evidence suggests that without careful design, such campaigns may backfire—leading
to victim-blaming and workplace gender segregation (Gertsberg, 2022; Dobbin and Kalev,
2020).
Given that men are typically the perpetrators of harassment, interventions targeting male
behavior change may be more effective than those focused solely on victim protection. Yet
we have limited evidence on how men respond to harassment-related information. Do participatory approaches outperform traditional information campaigns? Is targeting men and
women together more effective than targeting men only?
We propose to develop and pilot a novel, bottom-up intervention to reduce peer-to-peer
sexual harassment in college settings. The intervention will compare three approaches: (1)
standard awareness training, (2) male-only perspective-taking and co-creation workshops, and
(3) mixed-gender co-creation workshops.
The CVI Travel Grant will support preparatory activities: conducting focus groups and
surveys with university students, assessing institutional capacity for implementation, and
establishing partnerships with local actors such as Raising Voices and Professor Bantebya
Kyomuhendo at Makerere University. Findings will inform the design of a full-scale RCT and
provide practitioners with evidence-based alternatives to conventional harassment prevention
campaigns.