The Sexual Harassment of Female Active-Duty Personnel: Effects on Job Satisfaction and Intentions to Remain in the Military

Transcription

1 DISCUSSION PAPER SERIES IZA DP No. 379 The Sexual Harassment of Female Actve-Duty Personnel: Effects on Job Satsfacton and Intentons to Reman n the Mltary Heather Antecol Deborah A. Cobb-Clark October 2001 Forschungsnsttut zur Zukunft der Arbet Insttute for the Study of Labor

2 The Sexual Harassment of Female Actve-Duty Personnel: Effects on Job Satsfacton and Intentons to Reman n the Mltary Heather Antecol Department of Economcs, Claremont McKenna College Deborah A. Cobb-Clark SPEAR Centre, RSSS, Australan Natonal Unversty, Canberra and IZA, Bonn Dscusson Paper No. 379 October 2001 IZA P.O. Box 7240 D Bonn Germany Tel.: Fax: Emal: za@za.org Ths Dscusson Paper s ssued wthn the framework of IZA s research area The Future of Work. Any opnons expressed here are those of the author(s) and not those of the nsttute. Research dssemnated by IZA may nclude vews on polcy, but the nsttute tself takes no nsttutonal polcy postons. The Insttute for the Study of Labor (IZA) n Bonn s a local and vrtual nternatonal research center and a place of communcaton between scence, poltcs and busness. IZA s an ndependent, nonproft lmted lablty company (Gesellschaft mt beschränkter Haftung) supported by the Deutsche Post AG. The center s assocated wth the Unversty of Bonn and offers a stmulatng research envronment through ts research networks, research support, and vstors and doctoral programs. IZA engages n () orgnal and nternatonally compettve research n all felds of labor economcs, () development of polcy concepts, and () dssemnaton of research results and concepts to the nterested publc. The current research program deals wth (1) moblty and flexblty of labor markets, (2) nternatonalzaton of labor markets and European ntegraton, (3) the welfare state and labor markets, (4) labor markets n transton, (5) the future of work, (6) project evaluaton and (7) general labor economcs. IZA Dscusson Papers often represent prelmnary work and are crculated to encourage dscusson. Ctaton of such a paper should account for ts provsonal character.

3 IZA Dscusson Paper No. 379 October 2001 ABSTRACT The Sexual Harassment of Female Actve-Duty Personnel: Effects on Job Satsfacton and Intentons to Reman n the Mltary Ths paper examnes the relatonshp between sexual harassment and the job satsfacton and ntended turnover of actve-duty women n the U.S. mltary usng unque data from a survey of the ncdence of unwanted gender-related behavor conducted by the U.S. Department of Defense. Overall, 70.9 percent of actve-duty women reported experencng some type of sexually harassng behavor n the 12 months pror to the survey. Usng sngleequaton probt models, we fnd that experencng a sexually harassng behavor s assocated wth reduced job satsfacton and heghtened ntentons to leave the mltary. However, bvarate probt results ndcate that falng to control for unobserved personalty trats causes sngle-equaton estmates of the effect of the sexually harassng behavor to be overstated. Smlarly, ncludng women s vews about whether or not they have n fact been sexually harassed drectly nto the sngle equaton model reduces the estmated effect of the sexually harassng behavor tself on job satsfacton by almost a half whle vrtually elmnatng t for ntentons to leave the mltary. Fnally, women who vew ther experences as sexual harassment suffer addtonal negatve consequences over and above those assocated wth the behavor tself. JEL Classfcaton: J16, J28 Keywords: Job satsfacton, sexual harassment, mltary employment Deborah Cobb-Clark Research School of Socal Scences The Australan Natonal Unversty Canberra ACT 0200 Australa Tel.: Fax: Emal: dcclark@coombs.anu.edu.au None of the vews expressed n ths paper represent the offcal vews of the U.S. Department of Defense. The authors would lke to thank the partcpants of the 2001 Labour Econometrcs Workshop n Sydney Australa for helpful comments. All errors reman our own.

4 1. Introducton: In 1995, approxmately 195,000 women 13 percent of the total force were on actve duty n the U.S. mltary. Ths represents a sx-fold ncrease snce 1973 when the all-volunteer force was establshed (DoD, 1996). Intrnsc dfferences between mltary and cvlan employment make sexual harassment a partcularly complex ssue for the U.S. mltary. As many as one n two women employed n the cvlan workforce may experence sexual harassment at some pont n ther work lves and there s growng evdence that ths mposes substantal costs on both workers and frms (Schneder, et al., 1997). 1 Mltary personnel, however, often lve on mltary bases and are on duty 24 hours per day. The blurrng of professonal and personal relatonshps whch results from ths hgh degree of proxmty s lkely to ncrease both the ncdence and subsequent psychologcal costs of sexual harassment n mltary employment (DoD, 1996). At the same tme, a boomng economy and a tght labor market made attractng and retanng hgh-qualty personnel a challenge for the U.S. mltary throughout much of the 1990s. Concerns about mltary readness and mssed recrutng goals have resulted n Congress recently approvng large ncreases n mltary pay (Hosek and Sharp, 2001). Whle relatve compensaton s clearly an mportant ssue, the nature of mltary employment must also play a part n ndvduals decsons to enter and reman n mltary employment. If sexual harassment results n men and women falng to enlst or once enlsted, choosng to end ther mltary careers, the costs of sexual harassment for the U.S. mltary are lkely to be substantal. 2 1 The U.S. Mert Systems Protecton Board (USMSPB), for example, estmates that between 1992 and 1994 sexual harassment n Federal agences cost the Federal Government $327 mllon (USMSPB, 1995). See Schneder, et al. (1997) and Ftzgerald, et al. (1997) for revews of the lterature regardng the ncdence and consequences of sexual harassment n the workplace. 2 The recrutng and retenton of female personnel are lkely to be especally problematc because women report a hgher ncdence of sexual harassment than do men (Antecol and Cobb-Clark, 2001). In addton, projectons 1

5 Our objectve s to examne the relatonshp between sexual harassment and the job satsfacton and ntended turnover of actve-duty women n the Armed Forces. We begn by ncorporatng measures of unwanted gender-related behavors nto sngle-equaton models of the determnants of job satsfacton and ntentons towards future mltary employment. Ths allows us to drectly compare our results to those n the lterature. Ths estmaton strategy, however, mplctly assumes that reports of sexually harassng behavors are exogenous whch s unlkely to be the case. In partcular, unobserved personalty trats may nfluence reports of sexually harassng behavors on the one hand and reported satsfacton wth and ntentons to reman n mltary employment on the other. We therefore adopt two alternatve strateges for accountng for the role of unobserved characterstcs. Frst, we specfy a bvarate probt model that allows us to take nto account any correlaton between the error terms n the reports of sexually harassng behavors and job satsfacton equatons. Secondly, we ncorporate women s vews about whether they have n fact been sexually harassed drectly nto the model. Overall, 70.9 percent of actve-duty women reported experencng some type of sexually harassng behavor n the 12 months pror to the survey. Usng sngle-equaton probt models, we fnd that experencng a sexually harassng behavor s assocated wth reduced job satsfacton and heghtened ntentons to leave the mltary. However, falng to control for unobserved personalty trats causes sngle-equaton estmates of the effect of the sexually harassng behavor to be overstated. Bvarate probt results suggest that experencng a sexually harassng behavor does not sgnfcantly ncrease dssatsfacton wth mltary employment once the correlaton n the unobserved factors assocated wth reportng a sexually harassng behavor and job satsfacton are taken nto account. Smlarly, drectly controllng for women s vews suggest that relatve mltary-cvlan pay wll not rse as much for enlsted women as enlsted men due to the relatvely hgher wage growth for women n the cvlan sector (Hosek and Sharp, 2001). 2

6 about whether they have been sexually harassed substantally reduces the estmated negatve effect of the sexually harassng behavor tself on overall job satsfacton and suggests that there s no sgnfcant effect of sexually harassng behavors on the ntenton to reman n mltary employment. At the same tme, women who vew ther experences as sexual harassment suffer addtonal negatve consequences over and above those assocated wth the behavor tself. Ths s at odds wth prevous results that suggest that women exposed to sexually harassng behavors report smlar negatve consequences whether or not they label ther experences as sexual harassment (Magley, et al., 1999). In the next secton we summarze the prevous lterature on the job satsfacton, ntentons to qut and the role of sexual harassment. Secton 3 provdes the detals of the data used n the analyss, whle Secton 4 examnes the determnants of reported unwanted gender-related behavors n mltary employment. Subsequently, the estmaton results from the sngle-equaton models are dscussed. The potental endogenety of reported sexual harassment s examned n Secton 6, whle our conclusons and drectons for future research are presented n Secton Job Satsfacton, Intentons to Qut, and the Role of Sexual Harassment: Although economsts frst consdered the relevance of job satsfacton for economc models twenty fve years ago (Hamermesh, 1977; Freeman, 1978), n the ntervenng years the study of job satsfacton has manly remaned the purvew of psychologsts and socologsts. Economsts have had relatvely lttle to say about job satsfacton. In large part ths results from the ambvalence that economsts feel toward analyzng subjectve varables. In partcular, Freeman (1978, p. 140) concluded that subjectve varables lke job satsfacton contan useful nformaton for understandng behavor, but they also lead to complextes due to ther 3

7 dependency on psychologcal states. In recent years many authors have noted a surge of nterest on the part of economsts n studyng subjectve outcomes generally (Clark, 1996) and job satsfacton n partcular (Heywood and We, 2001; Shelds and Ward, 2000). The result has been a growng lterature assessng the determnants of job satsfacton and to a lesser extent the mplcatons of job satsfacton for other outcomes of nterest. 3 Studyng the effect of sexual harassment on job satsfacton s of nterest because job satsfacton s a measure of overall well-beng (Clark, 1996 and 1997) as well as an mportant predctor of ndvdual behavor. In partcular, the psychology lterature provdes evdence that low job satsfacton s correlated wth ncreased absenteesm (Clegg, 1983), lower worker productvty (Mangone and Qunn, 1975), and ncreased ncdence of mental and physcal health problems (Locke, 1976). More mportantly for our purposes here, job satsfacton s also related to both ntentons to qut (Laband and Lentz, 1998; Gordon and Dens, 1995) and actual qut behavor (Freeman, 1978) wth estmates derved from panel data demonstratng that the causalty runs from job satsfacton to future quttng behavor. 4 Of course any study of job satsfacton does rely on there beng some commonly perceved noton of what t means to be satsfed. Whle t s certanly not the case that all ndvduals would scale ther satsfacton n the same way, systematc dfferences n reported levels of job satsfacton among dfferent groups of workers do suggest that ndvduals reported job satsfacton levels are not completely dosyncratc (Clark, 1997). 5 Women and blacks report hgher levels of job satsfacton even though on many objectve measures ther jobs are worse, a fndng whch s thought to result from the fact that these groups have lower expectatons (Bartel, 3 For extensve revews of the emprcal job satsfacton lterature see Clark, (1996); Clark and Oswald, (1996); Heywood and We, (2001); and Shelds and Ward, (2000). 4 See Shelds and Ward (2000) for a revew of the lterature assessng the relatonshp between job satsfacton on the one hand and quts and ntentons to qut on the other. 4

8 1981; Clark, 1997). Job satsfacton s also systematcally related to both worker characterstcs (such as age) and job characterstcs (such as unon status, establshment sze, and selfemployment status). 6 In spte of the growng job satsfacton lterature, few studes have explctly examned the effect of sexual harassment on job satsfacton and ntended turnover of female employees. 7 One excepton s the work of Laband and Lentz (1998) whch fnds that female lawyers n the Unted States are more lkely to be dssatsfed wth ther job and more lkely to report the ntenton to leave ther job f they also report experencng sexual harassment. 8 To the extent that these patterns hold also for female mltary personnel, any wdespread pattern of sexual harassment would be at odds wth the mltary s efforts to acheve recrutng goals and to retan traned mltary personnel. Laband and Lentz, however, dd not explctly address the potental endogenety of reported sexual harassment leavng open the queston of what role unobserved characterstcs mght play n drvng the results. 3. Data Ths paper examnes the relatonshp between sexual harassment and the job satsfacton and ntended turnover of actve-duty women n the U.S. Armed Forces usng data from the 1995 Status of the Armed Forces Surveys: Form B Gender Issues conducted by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The data generalze to men and women n the Army, Navy, Marne Corps, Ar Force, and Coast Guard wth at least sx months of actve-duty servce who were not flag 5 Clark (1997) also ponts to the fact that psychologsts and socologsts have repeatedly valdated job satsfacton measures as evdence that t s useful to analyze job satsfacton. 6 See Shelds and Ward (2000) and Heywood and We (2001). 7 See Ftzgerald, et al. (1997) for references to the psychology lterature on the effects of sexual harassment on job satsfacton. 5

9 rank offcers. Non-proportonal, stratfed random samplng was used to ensure that there were adequate numbers of women and mnortes avalable for analyss. Questonnares were maled to sample members between February and September of From an ntal sample of 49,003 ndvduals, usable questonnares were returned from 22,372 women and 5,924 men for an overall response rate of 58 percent (DoD, 1996; Hay and Elg, 1999). Although the data generalze to all actve-duty personnel, we focus here on a fnal sample of 19,467 actve-duty women wth non-mssng values for all of the varables of nterest. Women n the sample were asked whch of 24 separate unwanted gender-related behavors they had experenced n the prevous 12 months. These behavors ranged from beng subjected to offensve sexst remarks and beng told sex jokes to experencng unwanted physcal contact and sex wthout consent. Responses to the 24 separate tems n Form B are generally combned nto fve broad categores: 1) sexst behavor, 2) crude or offensve behavor, 3) unwanted sexual attenton, 4) sexual coercon, and 5) sexual assault. 9 Gven that our nterest s n sexual harassment, we confne our attenton to the mddle three categores and defne four types of sexually harassng behavor: 1) crude or offensve behavor, 2) unwanted sexual attenton, 3) sexual coercon, and 4) any of the above. 10 It s mportant to note that these defntons of sexual harassment do not necessarly ft wth legal defntons. Table 1 provdes a detaled lst of the specfc behavors that make up each type of unwanted gender-related behavor. Overall, 70.9 percent of actve-duty women reported 8 In related work Shelds and Prce (2001) use sngle-equaton models to examne the effect of racal harassment on job satsfacton and ntentons to reman n the Brtsh nursng professon. They fnd that job dssatsfacton and ntentons to qut ncrease wth racal harassment. 9 The questons ncluded n Form B were based on a survey nstrument The Sexual Experences Questonnare (SEQ) developed by psychologsts at the Unversty of Illnos (Lancaster, 1999). Ftzgerald, et al. (1999) provde nformaton about the valdty and relablty of the survey nstrument and dscuss optons for scorng responses to the ndvdual behavors. 6

10 experencng some type of sexually harassng behavor. Ths ncdence of experencng sexual harassment among women n mltary employment appears hgh relatve to the rates reported n the cvlan workforce, though dfferences n survey desgn and the exact behavors consdered to be sexual harassment make drect comparsons dffcult. Most mportantly, the tme frame dffers. Whereas the DoD data reflect experences over the prevous 12 months, most surveys of cvlan workers ask about the prevous two years. In 1994, 44 percent of women employed by the U.S. Federal Government reported experencng unwanted sexual attenton at some pont n the prevous 24 months (USMSPB, 1995). Other estmates ndcate that 68 percent of women employed at a large prvate-sector organzaton n the northwest and 63 percent of women employed n a md-western unversty experenced sexual harassment over a two-year perod (Schneder, et al., 1997). Smlarly, 65.7 percent of female lawyers n prvate practce and 45.5 percent of female lawyers employed n a corporaton or publc agency reported experencng sexual harassment n the two years pror to the survey (Laband and Lentz, 1998). Table 1 Here Crude or offensve behavor s the most frequently reported form of unwanted genderrelated behavor among female actve-duty personnel (69.2 percent), wth unwanted sexual attenton (40.8 percent), and sexual coercon (12.3 percent) occurrng less frequently. One n two women (49.0 percent) sad that n the past year they had often been told jokes about sex. In addton, almost 40 percent of female actve-duty personnel reported that they had been whstled or stared at n a sexual way, experenced unwelcome sex dscussons, or had been subjected to sexual remarks. Furthermore, approxmately one n four actve-duty women reported that they had repeatedly been asked for dates after declnng or touched n a way that made them feel 10 Sexst behavor ncludes, for example, beng treated dfferently or put down because of one s sex, whle sexual assault ncludes rape and attempted rape. As such, nether category would usually be consdered sexual harassment 7

11 uncomfortable. Fnally, 7.6 percent of actve-duty women sad that t had been mpled that they would be rewarded f they had sex whle 7.0 percent responded that they had been badly treated because they had refused to have sex wth someone. 11,12 In addton to askng actve-duty personnel about the ncdence and nature of unwanted gender-related behavor n the mltary, the DoD survey also collected nformaton about how satsfed ndvduals were wth certan aspects of mltary lfe. 13 Specfcally, ndvduals were asked the followng questons. Frst, how satsfed are you wth your job as a whole? Second, suppose that sx months from now you wll be faced wth the decson about whether to reman n mltary servce. Assumng that you could reman, how lkely s t that you would choose to reman n the mltary? 14 We consder two alternatve dscrete measures of job satsfacton. (Very) dssatsfed equals one for ndvduals reportng that they are ether dssatsfed or very dssatsfed wth ther job as a whole and zero otherwse. (Very) satsfed equals one only for those women reportng that they are ether satsfed or very satsfed wth ther jobs. Smlar measures are defned for ntentons to reman n mltary employment. Table 1 (row 1) suggests that n general satsfacton wth mltary employment s hgh wth 62.6 percent of women on actve duty reportng that they are (very) satsfed wth ther jobs. per se. 11 Not surprsngly, there are large gender dfferences n the ncdence of sexual harassment, wth reports of sexual harassng behavors much more common among women than among men (Antecol and Cobb-Clark, 2001). Whle almost three-quarters of women on actve duty reported experencng some form of sexual harassment, only one thrd of male actve-duty personnel sad that they had experenced any sexually harassng behavors n the prevous 12 months. Women were two tmes more lkely than men to report crude/offensve behavor and more than fve tmes as lkely to report experencng unwanted sexual attenton or sexual coercon. 12 Despte hgher reports among female actve-duty personnel, male and female reports of sexual harassment by servce type (90 dfferent sexual harassment contexts) are postvely correlated (0.8260) at less than the 1 percent level (0.000). Ths s consstent wth the results presented n Laband and Lentz (1998) who fnd a postve correlaton of (0.000) between male reports of observed sexual harassment aganst women and women s reports of sexual harassment by job settng (30 dfferent sexual harassment contexts). They argue that ths postve correlaton suggests that female reports concde wth actual sexual harassment. 13 The DoD survey also has detals on demographc, human captal, job, work group, and duty staton characterstcs. 14 Possble responses to the frst queston nclude: very dssatsfed, dssatsfed, nether, satsfed, and very satsfed. Possble responses to the second queston are: very unlkely, unlkely, nether, lkely, and very lkely. 8

12 Furthermore, 57.9 percent report that they are (very) lkely to reman n the mltary. Not surprsngly, however, female actve-duty personnel are much less lkely to report beng (very) dssatsfed or (very) unlkely to reman n the mltary f they dd not experence sexually harassng behavors. Furthermore, the ncdence of job dssatsfacton and lkelhood to leave the mltary are hghest among female actve-duty personnel who experence sexual coercon, wth crude or offensve behavor havng the least effect. 4. The Determnants of Sexually Harassng Behavors Who reports experencng unwanted gender-related behavors? How do the determnants of reports of sexually harassng behavors dffer by type of behavor? To consder ths, we model * the propensty to report sexually harassng behavors ( H ) as: H = * j X β + ε (1) where ε ~ N(0,1), ndexes ndvduals, and j ndexes three dscrete measures of reported sexual harassment. The frst ( any sexually harassng behavor ) equals one when a women reports any sexually harassng behavor ncludng crude/offensve behavor, unwanted sexual attenton, or sexual coercon, and equals zero otherwse. The second ( sexual attenton/coercon ) equals one f a woman reported that she experenced ether unwanted sexual attenton or sexual coercon. The thrd measure, sexual coercon, equals one only for those women reportng some form of sexual coercon. These measures account for the dfferng degrees of severty of sexual harassment evdent n Table Our model ncludes a vector ( X ) of demographc characterstcs (martal status, race) and human captal characterstcs (educaton, years of actve duty) thought to be related to the 15 Magley, et al. (1999) note that because ncdents of sexual harassment are not ndependent random events, the severty of sexual harassment may also serve as a proxy for the frequency of sexual harassment. 9

13 propensty to report sexual harassment. In addton, X ncludes current job characterstcs (branch of servce, pay level) along wth ndcators for whether or not a respondent s currently a supervsor, servng aboard a shp, located n the Unted States, and on a tranng-related assgnment. Because male-domnated workplaces are assocated wth hgh levels of sexual harassment (USMSPB, 1995; Ftzgerald, et al., 1997), X also ncludes an ndcator of the gender of a woman s supervsor as well as measures of the gender composton of the mltary occupaton and duty staton n whch she s employed. 16 Fnally, organzatonal factors may also facltate or nhbt the occurrence of sexual harassment (Wllams, et al., 1999). Gven ths we have ncluded n equaton (1) varables capturng a respondent s sexual-harassment-related tranng durng the past twelve months as well as the exstence of an establshed offce to nvestgate sexual harassment complants, publczed formal complant channels, and a sexual harassment hotlne at the duty staton. 17 The probablty that a woman reports a sexually harassng behavor ( H ) s gven by Pr( H j = 1) = Pr( X β + ε > 0) = Φ( X β ) (2) where Φ s the standard normal cumulatve densty functon. Table 2 reports the estmated determnants of sexual attenton/coercon, sexual coercon, and any sexually harassng behavor. For ease of nterpretaton, we report the margnal effects (evaluated at means) and standard errors (calculated usng the delta method). 18 Our results ndcate that beng marred sgnfcantly decreases the probablty of experencng all types of sexually harassng behavors. For example, marred female actve-duty 16 In partcular, respondents ndcated whether ther work groups were male-domnated, female-domnated or of equal gender mx (the omtted category). Respondents also were asked to ndcate whether or not they were n a current mltary occupaton specalty that s not usually held by persons of ther gender. 17 The sexual harassment tranng measure s a dummy varable that s coded as 1 f the ndvdual receved more than one hour of sexual harassment tranng and 0 otherwse. 18 All estmaton was performed n STATA 7.0. Coeffcent estmates are avalable from the authors upon request. 10

14 personnel are 8.3 percentage ponts less lkely to report any sexually harassng behavor, and 14.5 percentage ponts less lkely to report sexual attenton/coercon than are ther sngle counterparts. Interestngly, relatve to whtes, blacks are sgnfcantly more lkely to report sexual coercon, though they are less lkely to report experencng unwanted gender-related behavors generally. There are no sgnfcant dfferences n the reports of sexually harassng behavors by Hspancs and whtes, though ndvduals dentfyng ther race as other have a hgher probablty of reportng sexual attenton/coercon and sexual coercon. Table 2 Here Furthermore, wth the excepton of sexual coercon, the ncdence of unwanted genderrelated behavors sgnfcantly decreases wth years of duty at an ncreasng rate. Reports of any sexually harassng behavor sgnfcantly ncrease wth educaton, however. 19 For example, female actve-duty personnel who have some college educaton (but less than a B.A.) are 7.8 percentage ponts more lkely to report any sexually harassng behavor. 20 Ths s consstent wth the prevous research that suggests that among cvlan Federal Government employees the typcal vctm of sexual harassment s college educated (See USMSPB, 1995). The ncdence of unwanted gender-related behavors s sgnfcantly lower among all servces relatve to the Army, wth the excepton of Marnes who report smlar rates of sexual harassment generally and sexual attenton/coercon n partcular. For nstance, female actveduty personnel n the Coast Guard are 8.7 percentage ponts less lkely to report any sexually harassng behavor and 5.2 percentage ponts less lkely to report sexual coercon than female actve-duty personnel n the Army. Gven that the overall ncdence of sexual coercon n the 19 The omtted educaton category s those wth no college educaton. 20 Interestngly, female actve-duty personnel who have a Bachelors degree or greater than a Bachelors degree are 1.4 and 2.1 percentage ponts, respectvely, less lkely to report sexual coercon than female actve-duty personnel 11

15 sample s 12.3 percent (see Table 1), ths consttutes a very large dfference n the relatve probabltes of reportng sexual coercon. Personnel at the very bottom of the pay scale are also more lkely to report sexual attenton/coercon (20.3 percentage ponts) than are women at the top of the pay scale. Once women move beyond the frst three or four rungs of the pay ladder there s lttle dfference n ther probablty of reportng sexually harassng behavors. Unwanted gender-related behavors are related to the nature of ones current job assgnment. In partcular, reports of sexually harassng behavors are slghtly lower among women on actve-duty n the Unted States than among those statoned overseas. These dfferences are relatvely mnor, however, suggestng that the varaton n nsttutons, polces, and socal norms reflected n postngs overseas have lttle effect on reports of sexually harassng behavor. Furthermore, ndvduals who are currently nvolved n supervsng others or who are currently servng on a shp are sgnfcantly more lkely to report experencng sexually harassng behavors. For nstance, female actve-duty personnel currently servng on a shp are 11.7 percentage ponts more lkely than other women to report any sexual harassment and are 2.8 percentage ponts more lkely to report sexual coercon. These results may not be partcularly surprsng gven the close quarters that would typcally defne ths type of duty. Consstent wth prevous evdence (USMSPB, 1995; Ftzgerald, et al., 1997), women workng n male-domnated work groups are 6.4, 3.3, and 2.5 percentage ponts more lkely to report experencng any sexually harassng behavor, sexual attenton/coercon, and sexual coercon, respectvely. Whle prevous researchers have only consdered the dchotomous dstncton between male-domnated and female-domnated workplaces, we fnd that women employed n female-domnated work groups are also more lkely (2.4 percentage ponts) to wth no college educaton. In contrast, wth the excepton of some college, educaton has lttle effect on sexual attenton/coercon. 12

16 report sexual coercon than those employed n groups wth equal gender mxes. Thus t appears that women employed n the U.S. mltary may experence more (or may be more lkely to report) unwanted gender-related behavors n work groups that have unequal gender mxes. Fnally, our results also ndcate that havng at least one hour of tranng on topcs that relate to sexual harassment sgnfcantly decreases the probablty of reportng sexually harassng behavors. For nstance, women who had had at least one hour of sexual harassment tranng are 3.8 percentage ponts less lkely to report experencng any sexually harassng behavor and 2.5 percentage ponts less lkely to report sexual attenton/coercon than women havng no sexual harassment tranng. Women servng at duty statons wth sexual harassment hotlnes, offces devoted to the recordng and nvestgatng reports of sexual harassment, or publczed formal complant channels are n general less lkely to report experencng sexual harassment. Thus, consstent wth prevous research, sexual harassment appears to be related to the extent to whch the organzaton s successful n creatng a clmate n whch sexual harassment s not tolerated (Wllams, et al., 1999). 5. Sngle Equaton Estmates of the Effect of Sexually Harassng Behavors on Job Satsfacton and Lkelhood of Remanng n the Mltary We begn by assumng that reports of unwanted gender-related behavors are exogenous to job satsfacton and ntentons of remanng n the mltary. Ths assumpton wll be consdered further below. Suppose * D measures a propensty to report beng (ds)satsfed wth mltary employment and (un)lkely to reman n the mltary. D * k = Z γ + H δ + η (3) 13

17 where η ~ N(0,1), k ndexes the four dscrete (0/1) outcome measures. Specfcally, D 1 for women reportng beng dssatsfed or very dssatsfed wth ther job; D = 2 1 for women reportng beng satsfed or very satsfed wth ther job; D = 3 1 for women reportng beng unlkely or very unlkely to reman n the mltary; and D = 4 1 for women reportng beng lkely 1 = or very lkely to reman n the mltary. In addton, Z s a vector of varables related to job satsfacton and ntentons to reman n the mltary (see the notes to Table 3 for a lst of the varables ncluded n Z ) and H j are the varous measures of sexually harassng behavors dscussed n Secton 4. The probablty that an ndvdual reports beng (ds)satsfed wth or (un)lkely to reman n mltary employment s then gven by Pr( D = 1) = Pr( Z γ + H δ + η > 0) = Φ( Z γ + H δ ). (4) k The estmated margnal effect of sexually harassng behavors on overall job dssatsfacton and ntentons to leave the mltary and the assocated standard errors and p- values are reported n Table Irrespectve of the measure of unwanted gender-related behavor consdered, experencng a sexually harassng behavor sgnfcantly ncreases dssatsfacton wth mltary employment and heghtens ntentons to leave the mltary. Smlarly, experencng a sexually harassng behavor sgnfcantly decreases satsfacton wth mltary employment and rases ntentons to reman n the mltary. 22 Interestngly, sexually harassng behavors have a larger effect on job (ds)satsfacton than on the ntentons to reman or leave the mltary. For example, female actve-duty personnel are 5.3 percentage ponts more lkely to report they are (very) dssatsfed and 8.6 percentage ponts less lkely to report they are 21 Margnal effects for the complete model are avalable from the authors upon request. 22 Gven that our results from the job dssatsfacton and job satsfacton equatons and the unlkely to reman and lkely to reman n the mltary equatons are of opposte sgn leadng us to the same substantve conclusons t 14

18 (very) satsfed wth ther job f they experenced any sexually harassng behavor. At the same tme, any sexually harassng behavor ncreases the probablty of reportng beng (very) lkely to leave mltary employment by 1.8 percentage ponts, and reducng the probablty of beng (very) lkely to reman by 3.3 percentage ponts. Table 3 Here Not surprsngly, sexual coercon has the bggest effect on both overall satsfacton wth and ntentons toward remanng n mltary employment. Women on actve-duty n the U.S. mltary are 7.9 percentage ponts more lkely to report they are (very) dssatsfed wth ther job and 12.5 percentage ponts less lkely to report they are (very) satsfed wth ther job f they experenced sexual coercon. Sexual coercon also has a relatvely large effect on ntentons toward remanng/leavng mltary employment. These fndngs for women on actve duty n the U.S. mltary are broadly consstent wth the prevous results for women workng n the cvlan labor market (see for example, Laband and Lentz, 1998 and Ftzgerald, et al., 1997). 23 Laband and Lentz (1998), for example, report that female lawyers are 16.8 (14.0) percentage ponts more lkely to report beng dssatsfed wth ther job and 8.0 (11.8) percentage ponts less lkely to report beng satsfed wth ther job f they experenced sexual harassment by ther superors (colleagues). Controllng for job satsfacton, Laband and Lentz also fnd that female lawyers are 26.6 (27.5) percentage ponts more lkely to report unlkely to reman n ther job f they experenced sexual harassment by ther superors (colleagues). Interestngly, sexual harassment by clents does not appear to affect overall job satsfacton or ntentons to qut. Comparng these results to those n Table 3 ndcates that does not appear to matter how the mddle category of responses s treated. In addton, we also estmated ordered probt models and found smlar results. The ordered probt results are avalable from the authors upon request. 23 See Ftzgerald, et al. (1997) for a revew of some of the psychology research on the effects of sexual harassment on job satsfacton, job performance, employee health and psychologcal well-beng. Interestngly, Shelds and Prce 15

19 unwanted gender-related behavors have a more detrmental effect on job satsfacton and ntentons to reman n the job n the legal professon than n the mltary. 6. The Role of Personalty Trats: Accountng for Omtted Varable Bas The sngle-equaton models dscussed n Secton 5 suggest that experencng sexually harassng behavors leads to reduced job satsfacton and an ncreased probablty of leavng the mltary. These estmates (lke the prevous results n the lterature) assume that reports of sexually harassng behavors are exogenous to reports of job satsfacton and ntentons towards future mltary employment. However, t s unlkely that ths s the case. Heterogenety n ndvduals perceptons of, tolerance towards, or wllngness to report unpleasant events n the workplace s lkely to affect both reports of sexually harassng behavors and women s satsfacton wth mltary employment. Takng ths nto account would affect the estmated effect of sexually harassng behavors per se. To see ths, consder the followng. Suppose rather than equatons 1 and 3, the true model s gven by the followng: H D * * j = X β + A α + ε = Z γ + H δ + A ϕ + η (5) where A s some measure of an ndvdual s personalty, dsposton, or wllngness to report and the other varables are defned as before. Of course A s unobserved, and the queston then becomes how mght δˆ presented n Table 3 be based by our falure to control for ths n the estmaton procedure? The answer to ths queston depends on the followng: (2001) fnd that racal harassment results n reduced job satsfacton and ncreased ntentons to qut among Brtsh nurses employed by the Natonal Heath Servce. 16

20 Cov( H, A ) E ( δˆ) = δ + ϕ (6) Var( H ) If a postve dsposton or a hgh degree of tolerance for negatve job stuatons reduces both the propensty to both report sexually harassng behavor and beng dssatsfed wth mltary employment, then the sngle-equaton estmates of the effect of sexually harassng behavors on the probablty of beng dssatsfed (see Table 3) are overstated. Two strateges are utlzed to deal wth ths problem. Frst, we specfy a bvarate probt model that allows us to take nto account any correlaton between the error terms n the sexual harassment and job satsfacton equatons. Ths approach has the advantage that we do not have to be specfc about what characterstcs are beng omtted, but suffers from the dsadvantage that the resultng estmates are dentfed off of potentally weak excluson restrctons. The second approach nvolves the ncluson of a proxy for the omtted characterstc drectly nto the model. Ths elmnates the need to fnd sensble excluson restrctons, but allows us to consder only a more restrcted noton of what A s, leavng open the possblty that there contnue to be other unobserved elements of personalty or dsposton that are not beng taken nto account. A. A Bvarate Probt Model: Omttng A from the above model opens up the possblty of omtted varable bas n our estmaton of equaton (4) because Cov(, η ) 0. One soluton s to re-estmate equatons H j (2) and (4) usng a bvarate probt model whch allows us to drectly account for the possblty that the unobserved determnants of job satsfacton and reported sexual harassment are 17

21 correlated. 24,25 In order for the model to be dentfed, X must contan at least one extra varable that s not contaned n Z. Bvarate probt models are senstve to the choce of excluson restrctons 26, however, and ths rases the queston of whether we can sensbly exclude certan varables from equaton (4). We begn by nvestgatng ths ssue. Investgatng the Valdty and Power of Our Instruments: Based on the results n Tables 1 and 2 and the prevous lterature, we consdered two alternatve excluson restrctons ncludng whether or not the respondent s currently servng on a shp and martal status. Investgaton of both the valdty and power of our nstruments lead us to conclude that we do not have vald nstruments that are powerful enough to detect the effect of sexually harassng behavors on the ntenton to reman n the mltary. Thus, we focus our attenton on estmatng the bvarate probt model only for the job satsfacton equaton. In order to be vald our nstruments must be frst, related to the probablty of reportng sexually harassng behavors and second, unrelated to job satsfacton/dssatsfacton wth mltary employment. Demonstratng the frst proposton s straghtforward. In our sngleequaton probt model of the determnants of sexual harassng behavors (see Table 2) both martal status and current shp status are, n general, ndvdually sgnfcant at the one percent 24 See Evans and Schwab (1995) for an example of the use of a bvarate probt model to estmate the returns to Catholc educaton. 25 The trangular nature of the model mples that the smultanety can be gnored and the model s consstently estmated usng a seemngly unrelated regressons model such as the bvarate probt. 26 For a dscusson of the senstvty of bvarate probt models to the choce of excluson restrctons, see for example, Mansk et al., (1992) or Panter and Levne, (2000). 18

22 level rrespectve of the type of behavor consdered. 27 In all cases, the nstruments are jontly sgnfcant at less than the one percent level. 28 The next queston becomes: can these nstruments legtmately be excluded from the model of job satsfacton? Whle we see no compellng theoretcal argument for ncludng these varables n our model of job satsfacton, there s also no compellng theoretcal reason for excludng them and so the matter s largely an emprcal ssue. To explore ths we frst reestmated equaton (3) ncludng martal status and shp status n the overall job satsfacton/dssatsfacton equatons. Though not a formal test, ths does provde an ndcaton of the patterns n the underlyng data (see Evans and Schwab, 1995). In all cases, the proposed nstruments were nether ndvdually nor jontly sgnfcant at the ten percent level. Overdentfcaton tests can also be used to evaluate whether the proposed nstruments can sensbly be excluded from the job satsfacton equatons. In practce 2SLS estmates are very close to the margnal effects ( average treatment effects ) generated by a bvarate probt model (Angrst, 1991). Gven ths, we follow Evans and Schwab (1995) n adoptng a ch-squared overdentfcaton test frst proposed by Hausman (1983). 29 The resultng test statstcs were less than 0.15, strongly supportng our excluson restrctons. 30 We then turned to consder whether our nstruments were n fact powerful enough to detect an effect of sexual harassment on job dssatsfacton. Evans, et al. (1999) present a procedure for calculatng the percentage-pont change n the probablty of observng a postve outcome that a dscrete nstrument must generate n order to detect a statstcally sgnfcant 27 The excepton s that current shp status s sgnfcant at only fve percent n the sexual coercon equaton. 28 Fnte sample bas does not appear to be a concern n our model (see Bound et al., 1995). The F-statstcs for the nstruments from an OLS regresson of the frst-stage equaton are (p=0.000), (p=0.000), and (p=0.00) for our three measures of sexually harassng behavors, respectvely. 29 Although ths procedure does not result n a proper formal test of the excluson restrctons gven the dscrete nature of our dependent varables, t does represent the best avalable dagnostc (Evans and Schwab, 1995). 30 The 95 percent crtcal values for the ch-squared dstrbuton s 5.99 (d.f.=2). 19

23 2SLS coeffcent of a certan magntude. Although agan not a proper formal test of the power of the nstruments n a bvarate probt model, ths calculaton sheds lght on ths ssue because of the correspondence n 2SLS and bvarate probt estmates. 31 To llustrate let us frst consder the effect of any sexual harassment on the probablty of beng dssatsfed or very dssatsfed wth mltary employment. Gven our sample sze, we calculate that martal status must generate at least a 19.7 percentage pont change n the probablty of reportng one or more sexually harassng behavors n order for us to detect an effect of sexual harassment on job dssatsfacton of the magntude (0.053) reported n Table 3 at the fve percent level. Our data ndcate, however, that the proporton of marred women reportng some form of sexual harassment s 62.9 percent compared to 73.3 percent of unmarred women, a dfference of 10.4 percentage ponts. Thus, f the effect of any form of sexual harassment on the probablty of beng dssatsfed or very dssatsfed wth mltary employment were 5.3 percentage ponts (as we estmated usng a standard probt model) we would not be able to detect t n a 2SLS model at the fve percent level usng martal status as our sole nstrument. However, ths calculaton also reveals that we would be able to detect such an effect usng martal status between the 20 and 30 percent sgnfcance level. We repeated these calculatons for each proposed nstrument n the job (ds)satsfacton equatons usng all three defntons of sexually harassng behavors. The sgnfcance levels at whch we would begn to detect estmated effects of the same magntude as those reported n Table 3 are gven n the Appendx Table A1. These results ndcate that martal status s a more powerful nstrument than shp status n dentfyng the effects of sexual harassment on both job satsfacton and job dssatsfacton. In all cases martal status would be powerful enough on ts 31 The detals of ths calculaton are presented n the Appendx. These calculatons are conservatve n the sense that they focus on the power of each nstrument n solaton from the others. 20

24 own to detect an estmated effect wth at least a 30 percent level of confdence. Shp status s an mportant predctor of all types of sexually harassng behavors, but because very few women n the sample (3.6 percent) actually serve on a shp, t s not powerful enough on ts own to act as a sensble nstrument. 32 Based on these results, we conclude that current shp status and martal status serve as sensble excluson restrctons n the bvarate probt model. Estmaton Results: Selected margnal effects (and ther assocated standard errors and p-values) from the bvarate probt model are presented n columns 1 and 2 of Table 4, whle the estmated correlaton n the error terms n the two equatons are presented n column The results suggest that experencng a sexually harassng behavor does not sgnfcantly affect dssatsfacton wth mltary employment once the correlaton n the unobserved factors assocated wth reported sexual harassment and job satsfacton are taken nto account. For comparson purposes we also estmated the effect of reported unwanted gender-related behavors usng a 2SLS model. These results (presented n columns 4 and 5 of Table 4) renforce the conclusons drawn from the bvarate probt model. Thus, t appears that sngle-equaton estmates of the effect of experencng sexually harassng behavors on job satsfacton such as those reported n Table 3 and n the prevous sexual harassment lterature are overstated due to omtted varable bas resultng from the falure to control for unobserved personalty trats. 32 When we repeated these calculatons for the ntentons to leave/reman n mltary employment we found that we dd much worse at fndng nstruments for the probablty of leavng and the probablty of remanng n mltary employment equatons frst, because the estmated effect of sexual harassment on future ntentons regardng mltary employment s smaller (see Table 3) requrng more powerful nstruments and second, because martal status could not be excluded from ths equaton. 33 The margnal effects were calculated for each ndvdual and then averaged across the estmaton sample. The standard errors were calculated usng the delta method (see Deaton, 1998). The ndependent varables n the regresson are defned as n Tables 2 and 3. 21

25 Note that the p-value for the estmated coeffcent n the job satsfacton and job dssatsfacton equatons les between and whch n each case s hgher than the calculated power of our nstruments reported n Appendx Table A1. So for example, we calculated that martal status would have been powerful enough on ts own to detect the effect of sexual attenton/coercon on job dssatsfacton between the 10 and 20 percent sgnfcance level. However, the p-value on ths coeffcent n the bvarate probt model s 0.235, whle the p-value n the 2SLS model s Thus, f the true effect of experencng sexually harassng behavors on job dssatsfacton had been as large as reported n Table 3, we would have been able to detect t gven our excluson restrctons. The nsgnfcant relatonshps between sexually harassng behavors and job (ds)satsfacton reported n Table 4 do not appear to be strctly due to weak nstruments. Table 4 Here B. Drectly Controllng for Personalty Trats: The above results mply that once we take nto account unobserved heterogenety n the propensty to report experencng sexually harassng behavors and beng dssatsfed wth mltary employment experencng unwanted gender-related behavors does not result n reduced job satsfacton. Can we say anythng about whch unobserved characterstcs mght matter? In an attempt to answer ths queston, we re-estmate our satsfacton wth and ntentons to reman n mltary employment equatons addng a drect measure of whether women label ther experences as sexual harassment. Whle certanly not the only varable of nterest, t seems sensble that women s perceptons of the behavors they report experencng are mportant to understandng the consequences of those experences. 22

26 Women n our sample who report experencng any form of sexually harassng behavor over the prevous 12 months were also asked whether or not they consdered any of the behavors to n fact be sexual harassment. Not all female mltary personnel who report experencng one or more of the 18 behavors lsted n Table 1 consder themselves to have been the vctm of sexual harassment. Overall, 67.3 percent of women reportng any sexually harassng behavor consder themselves to have been sexually harassed. In contrast, 80.4 percent of women experencng ether sexual attenton/coercon vewed ths behavor as sexual harassment, whle 91.6 percent of women experencng sexual coercon labeled the behavor as sexual harassment. Though drect comparsons are dffcult, women on actve duty n the U.S. mltary appear to be less lkely to label specfc behavors as sexual harassment than are ther female counterparts n other agences of the U.S. Government (USMSPB, 1995). We use ths addtonal nformaton as a means of drectly ncludng a measure of unobserved personalty or dsposton n equaton (4). Ths varable equals one for those respondents reportng that they experenced one or more sexually harassng behavor and consdered that behavor to be sexual harassment. It s equal to zero for women who reported no specfc ncdents of sexually harassng behavor or for women who do report experencng one or more of the 18 sexually harassng behavors surveyed n our data, but ndcate they have not been subject to sexual harassment. We then nclude ths varable n our sngle-equaton models of job satsfacton wth and ntentons to reman n mltary employment. Ths allows us to focus on two questons. Frst, condtonal on the actual behavor a woman reports experencng are there addtonal negatve consequences from vewng that behavor as sexual harassment? Second, does controllng for women s vews of sexual harassment affect our estmates of the effect of the behavor tself on job satsfacton and ntentons toward future mltary 23