Development of Metrics to Assess the Impacts of Sexual Harassment Interventions in STEM Academic Environments

This project aims to improve equity by developing a comprehensive "matrix of metrics" to evaluate anti-harassment interventions aimed at STEM faculty and graduate students. The metrics will consider the range of contextual and systemic factors that enable or hinder harassment, as well as the intersecting personal and professional identities of individuals involved.

As institutions develop and implement anti-harassment trainings, policies and prevention mechanisms, a well-tested evaluative tool will be valuable, especially with a focus on institutions of higher education. Much of the evaluation research on anti-harassment trainings have focused on non-academic environments (corporations, military) and on programs developed for undergraduate students, and less so on other communities within academia and in STEM.

The matrix of metrics will be the product of a four-phase research project: (1) conduct a series of in-depth qualitative interviews with key experts and stakeholders to learn about current anti-harassment efforts in STEM and their evaluation; (2) using information from those interviews, design and administer a survey to a broad and diverse array of institutions to gain further data about anti-harassment efforts and how those efforts are evaluated; (3) develop a matrix of metrics that institutions can use to evaluate anti-harassment efforts, and (4) convene a meeting of experts and stakeholders to review the results and further refine the matrix of metrics to maximize their usefulness. The resulting matrix of metrics should enable STEM institutions and departments to be wiser stewards of their resources, by helping to distinguish between effective and ineffective interventions.

This project builds on and advances prior efforts to evaluate anti-harassment efforts in numerous ways: (1) it has a strong theoretical foundation based on social ecology theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) and intersectionality theory's matrix of power domains (Collins, 2000); (2) it is grounded in the specific empirical findings and recommendations for combating harassment in STEM academic settings issued by the National Academies of Sciences, Mathematics, and Engineering in 2018; (3) it addresses the larger, systemic factors contributing to harassment by encompassing metrics designed to assess departmental, institutional, and socio-cultural impacts, rather than just measuring individual attitudes and knowledge; and (4) it specifically recognizes that the incidence and impact of harassment vary based on the intersecting personal and professional characteristics of the individuals involved. The matrix of metrics will empower institutions to measure their anti-harassment efforts on a range of criteria that account for the numerous socio-cultural, institutional, departmental, interpersonal, and individual factors influencing the efficacy of anti-harassment interventions.

The NSF ADVANCE program is designed to foster gender equity through a focus on the identification and elimination of organizational barriers that impede the full participation and advancement of diverse faculty in academic institutions. Organizational barriers that inhibit equity may exist in policies, processes, practices, and the organizational culture and climate.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.