Impact of a Program to Diminish Gender Insensitivity and Sexual Harassment at a Medical School

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Abstract
To measure the effect of an intervention to reduce gender insensitivity and sexual harassment at one medical school. Stanford University School of Medicine undertook a multifaceted program to educate faculty and students regarding gender issues and to diminish sexual harassment. The authors developed a survey instrument to assess the faculty's perceptions regarding environment (five scales) and incidences of sexual harassment. Faculty were surveyed twice during the interventions (1994 and 1995). Between the two years, the authors measured significant improvements in mean ratings for positive climate (p =.004) and cohesion (p =.006) and decreases in the faculty's perceptions of sexual harassment (p = 0006), gender insensitivity (p =.001), and gender discrimination (p =.004). The faculty also reported fewer observations of harassing behavior during the study period. An intervention program to diminish gender insensitivity and sexual harassment can measurably improve a medical school's environment.

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