Abstract:
This article aims to provide a conceptual framework for elucidating how and under what
circumstances women interpret social-sexual behaviours they experience at work as sexual
harassment, by reviewing journal articles related to the interpretation of sexual conduct and
harassment published between 1990 and 2016. By appraising, expanding, synthesising and
collating extant literature in the area, it is proposed that social-sexual behaviour experienced
by women at the workplace will be interpreted as harassing or not depending on: a) how they
perceive the appropriateness of the intentions of the harasser, b) their sensitivity to the issue
of sexual harassment, c) how personally vulnerable they are, d) the context within which the
behaviour occurred and c) the behaviour itself. The proposed framework adds to existing
knowledge by building on and expanding the prior understanding of how social-sexual
behaviour at work is interpreted, going beyond the constricted attention paid to one or few
factors affecting interpretation in a piecemeal fashion.
