ILORIN JOURNAL OF HEALTH PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND RECREATION (IJOHPER) (VOLO. 4, 2005)
SEXUAL HARASSMENT AMONG ATHLETES IN HIGHWE INSTITUTIONS IN ILORIN KWARA STATE
BY
TAJUDEEN OLANREWAJU IBRAHIM
&
BOLA, O . OGUNSANWO
PHYSICAL AND HYEALTH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT ,
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN, ILORIN.
ABSTRACT.
The study was a survey of sexual harassment among athletes in higher institutions in Ilorin, kwara
state. It is often said that lack of interest by female and their parents in sports is a result of sexual
harassment against them while engaging in one sports or the other. It is there for on this note that the
researchers therefore found it necessary to find out those areas of sexual harassment of the female
athletes when participating in sports in higher institutions in Kwara state. A structured questionnaire
was prepared in conducting this research work. On e hundred athletes through sample random sampling
were used comprising of 34.28 and 38 athletes each from university of Ilorin, Ilorin and Kwara State
Polytechnic Ilorin and Colleges of Education , Ilorin respectively who must have represented the
College in one sports or the other. The questionnaires were administered by female research assistants
from each of the institution so as to respond as free as possible during their training sessions. Pearson
Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) was adopted in the presentation of the information collated
. The result of the findings indicated that, some people indulged in sexual harassment to take advantage
over athletes, to admit athletes into higher institutions, to employ athletes into various field and to
promote athletes at their various working place. Recommendations made include: decent dress must
be adopted by all female athletes , favourism should not be requested from superior male person and
many more.
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, sexual harassment as become a phenomenon in field of sport and physical education. This
may be seen from that fact that, those that are involved in physical education and s[ports see
themselves to be one and do not discriminate between sexes. So, whatever they do, they do in
common. This attitude of those in the discipline are not seen the same way by those people outside the
discipline. This is mostly observed in the way they cuddle each other, run after each other and even sit
on each other’s laps in public places. This attitude and others make people to conclude that sexual
harassment are more likely or rampant with people involves in physical education and sports and that
is why female athletes and their parents are not interested in sports (Maloney, 1997)
According to Allgeier (1986) sexual harassment is the use of physical violence, threats of bodily harm, or
psychological, economic , or evaluative pressure to force , or attempt to force, into engaging in sexual
intercourse, oral sex or anal sex. Sprecher & McKinney (1996) saw sexual harassment as behavior in
which one person forces or attempt-t to force sexual behavior on another. In the same vein, Horine
(1999) defined sexual harassment as unwelcome sexual and verbal, non-verbal or physical conduct of a
sexual nature.
There are different types of sexual harassment according to different researchers.
Finkelhor and Yllo (1985) classified sexual harassment into:
(i) Battering sexual harassment::- this forced sex combined with physical beating.
(ii) Force only sexual harassment:- this is forced sex by male (husband) onto the female (wife) which
is common among the educated, middle class and professionals than it is with the battering
sexual harassment.
(iii) Obsessive sexual harassment :- this is the situation where the man uses force to involve or gain
the female’s participation in unusual sexual activities.
Muchlenard, Goggins, Jones & Satter Field (1991) classified sexual harassment into the following:(i) Violent sexual harassment or sexual assault through the use of physical force or threats of
physical force.
(ii) Non-violent sexual harassment :- this include both verbal sexual harassment i.e., threatening to
terminate the relationship and non-verbal sexual harassment that results from social norms,
gender roles, and the relative power of women and men in the society.
Howe (1989) noticed the following why people indulge in sexual harassment.
The reasons ranged from the following:(i) The manner of dressing of people that expose almost all the parts of their body.
(ii) Some indulge in it because they have strong sexual feelings that they cannot express themselves
to the opposing sex appropriately.
(iii) Some indulge in it because others are doing it within own domains.
(iv) Some indulge in it because of the advantage they have over the opposite sex.
Brancy (1997) listed the following reasons for some people indulging in sexual harassment.
(i) It grows out of trauma that causes the victim to lose his ability to empathize .
(ii) The abuse of power in an organization.
(iii) The societal power of male which tends to be seen as more powerful than female.
Some researchers were conducted on sexual harassment at Purdue university by Kanin (1957).
It was reported that out of subjects used for the study, 20% of the college women indicated
someone had attempted to force sexual intercourse on them during a date in the year prior to the
research work. So also 60% indicated that they were victim of some form of sexual aggression (e.g.,
force kissing, petting, oral sex, intercourse) on a date prior to the research. Kanin & parcel (1977)
conducted the same research at the same University Twenty years later and found essentially same
rate of sexual harassment.
Male sexual harassment is studied much less frequently than female victimization .
Struckman- Johnson (1988) surveyed 623 students at a large public University with a total sample
of 162 men 268 reported or more experiences during their lifetime. According to the detailed
descriptions most of these men were force into sex through the use of psychological strategies (e.g.,
verbal pressure or threats from the woman, expectations of the male role). Some physical
harassment like unwanted kissing, petting and intercourse were also used by women against the
men.
Muchlenhard and Cook (1988) administered 507 questionnaire on men in introductory
psychology classes. Unwanted kissing, petting, or intercourse was experienced by 63% of the men.
The most common reasons given by the men for engaging in unwanted intercourse were
enticement or seduction (reported by 57% of the male victims), altruism (35%) inexperience (34%)
and intoxication (31%).
There are so many ways or methods of preventing sexual harassment within an environment.
Along this line, O’Brine & Overb (1993) suggested that, there should be sexual harassment policy
that should be clear and concise, defined. They must be corroborated and it should reflect that the
conduct was unwelcomed.
Anderson (1993) identified some protective strategies for teachers against sexual harassment
that they:(i) Should not close-door meeting with students
(ii) Should not hold after school meeting with student(s) unless other adults are in the area.
(iii) Should treat all students equally
(iv) Do not touch students.
(v) Do not invites students to their dwellings or take over night trips unless other adults are
present.
(vi) Should be professional in behaviour and dressing. In the same manner , miller (1997) enjoyed
spots administrators to be on the lookout for evidence of sexual harassment.
Unwelcome situation with a sexual undertone can be construed as sexual harassment .
these situation include sexual invitations, degrading language, insulting jokes or sounds, in
appropriate touching, consensual relationships that lead to favoritism or affect others
adversely, and placing sexual materials like pictures, videotape or literature in a place of
work or practice area.
RESEARCH PROCEDURE
Descriptive survey was used in gathering information for this study. Simple random
sampling technique was adopted in selecting the subjects from each school that must have
represented the institution in one competition or the other. These made up of twenty eight
(28) from Kwara state polytechnic, thirty-eight (38) from college of education Ilorin and
thirty-four (34) from University of lorin, Kwara state . to form the one hundred (100)
subjects for the study.A structured questionnaire was adopted by researcher as the
instrument used in conducting the research. The questionnaire elicit information on
identified variables like sexual intercourse, seeking outing before given admission and
making a team, beating for refusing sexual intercourse and so on.
Four experts in Physical and Health Education department
validated the
questionnaire before the test-re-test method of two weeks interval was used to determine
its reliability on twenty athletes from Federal College of Education Osiele, Abeokuta, Ogun
state. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient formula was adopted and a
correlation of 0.80 was derived. This indicated that the instrument was reliable in the
conduct of the research work. The questionnaire was administered by research assistants,
who were female athletes from the three higher institutions in Ilorin, Kwara state. The
questionnaire copies were collected back immediately after giving necessary assistance
where possible to the respondents.
RESULTS AND DISCUSION
Results
The results on sexual harassment among athletes in higher institutions in Ilorin,
Kwara State as follows:
Table 1: Sexual harassment among female athletes in higher institution in Ilorin, Kwara
State.
Variables
-
Cases
x
Individual
Manner of
100
5.10
Dressing
Seeking of
100
4.28
Admission
Making up a 100
4.17
team
@0.05 level of significant
Sexual
harassment
X
4.11
Cross.
Prod.
Dev.
14.90
Variance
Cover
Criteria
Value
Calculated
value
0.15
0.16
0.15
4.11
55.92
0.56
0.16
0.50
4.11
43.13
0.46
0.16
0.39
The result obtain in table 1 indicate an individual mean of 5.10 for manner of dressing of
athletes whereas, the relationship between m manner of dressing of the athletes sexual
harassment in higher institutions indicates mean of 4.11. the result of analysis indicates critical value
of 0.16 and calculated value of 0.15 at o.05 level of significant which indicate that the calculated
value is lesser than the critical value. Therefore, the hypothesis was accepted. It means that here
was no significant relationship between manners of dressing of athletes and sexual, harassment
among athletes in higher institutions in Ilorin, Kwara state. Table 1 also reveals an individual mean
of 4.28 for seeking of admission of athletes whereas, sexual harassment in higher institution
indicates a mean of 4.11. the result of the analysis shows critical value of 0.116 and calculated value
of 0.50 which shows that the calculated value was grater than, critical value. Therefore, the
hypothesis was rejected. It means that there was significant relationships between seeking
admission of the athletes and sexual harassment among athletes in higher institutions in Ilorin,
Kwara state since the hypothesis was rejected at 0.05 o level of significant at 100 degree of
freedom.
Table 11 finally indicates an individual mean of 4.17 for making up a team of athletes whereas,
sexual harassment in higher institutions indicated value of 0.39 which shows that the calculated
value was greater than the critical value. Therefore , the hypothesis was rejected. It means that
there was significant relationship between making up a team of athletes and sexual harassment
among athletes in higher institutions in Ilorin Kwara state since the hypothesis is rejected at 0.05
level of significant at 100 degree of freedom.
DISCUSSION
Manner of dressing: the result revealed that there was no significant relationship between the
manner of dressing of athletes and sexual harassment among athletes in higher institutions in Ilorin.
Kwara state. This could be seen from the responses of the respondents where majority of them claim
that, nobody has ever made an attempt to have sexual intercourse with hem respectively , the fact that
majority of them put on mini-skirt and admiring their mode of dressing. The result of this finding did
not support one of the reasons why people indulge in sexual harassment according to Howe (1989) ,
which is the manner of dressing of people that expose almost all the parts of their body.
Seeking of admission: the result revealed that there is significant relationship of female athletes
seeking admission and sexual harassment among athletes of one person or the other at various higher
institutions at Ilorin, Kwara state. This could be notice from the respondent’s responses, where many o f
them indicated been requested for outing while seeking admission into higher institutions. The result of
this finding tallied with the findings of Kanin and parcel (1977) at Purdue University where 60% of the
women used for their study indicated that they were victims of some form of sexual aggression raging
from force kissing, petting and intercourse.
Making up a team: the result revealed that there was significant relationship of the other at various
higher institution at Ilorin, Kwara state. This could be seen from the respondent ‘s responses, where
majority of them indicated of been admire by their mode of dressing and insulted by peck because of
their manner of dressing while in training or camp this could also be noticed when 55% of them
indicated of been requested for an outing before making a team. The result of this finding tallied with
the reason identified by Howe (1989) of people indulging in sexual harassment to include the following,
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
As a result of the advantages they have ever the opposite sex.
The abuse of power in an organization and
As a result of others are doing it within their own domains
CONCLUTION
The researcher therefore, concluded that, the areas here sexual harassment were noticed at
higher institutions in Ilorin, kwara state were in admiring the mode of dressing, pecking
because of manner of dressing and choice of putting on mini skirt, seeking admission and
requested for outing before making up a team. Meanwhile. The following sexual harassment
were not noticed against the female athletes:







Force sexual intercourse
Beating for refusing sexual intercourse
Forced into participation in sexual intercourse.
Drugged to have sexual intercourse
Threat to fail them for refusing sexual intercourse
Threat to terminate relationship with them for refusing sexual intercourse.
Request for sexual intercourse before making up deficiency in academic performance
 Request for a date before been promoted at the place of work.
RECORMENDATIONS
Based on the finding of the study, the following recommendations are made:
(i)
The athletes should always decently and prevent parts of their body been exposed
outside.
(ii)
The sexual drives of sex partner (married couple) should be studied, understood and
adjusted to by both party.
(iii)
Private places should be avoided with male admires
(iv)
Unproductive relationship should be avoided by female athletes.
(v)
Favourism should not be requested from superior male person.
(vi)
Outing should be avoided with admires
(vii)
Government should enact laws and penalties against sexual harassment of any form.
(viii)
Close door after school and dwelling places meetings should not encourage with female
athletes.
(ix)
Sexual drives materials should not be encourage within the sports arena.
(x)
Unnecessary gifts should not be accepted from admires.
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