Date of Conferral
2022
Degree
Ph.D.
School
Public Policy and Administration
Advisor
Steven A. Matarelli
Abstract
Despite progress towards gender equality, women continue to be affected by quid pro quo sexual harassment in Liberia workplaces. They are often viewed as sexual objects rather than contributing players toward sustainable development. Using Feinberg’s harm principle as the interpretive lens and the hermeneutic phenomenology as a method of analysis, women’s lived experiences of quid pro quo sexual harassment in Liberia’s public sector were explored. Purposeful sampling employing in-depth semistructured interviews of 13 working women using Zoom was used for thematic content analyses. Analysis of the data produced three major themes: (a) sex for employment or sexployment, (b) hesitancy in quid pro quo sexual harassment reporting, and (c) effects of quid pro quo sexual harassment and 10 subthemes specific to themes 2 and 3. The results show that quid pro quo sexual arrangements harm women’s sustained employability, underscoring the need for an interdisciplinary policy approach to resolve the issue. The implications for positive social change include providing data that could serve as a roadmap to facilitate effective anti-sexual harassment policies in Liberia to support the ever-present push for improved equality for Liberian women from newly reported perspectives.
Recommended Citation
Johnson, Gbelly Arrington, "Women’s Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment in Liberia’s Public Sector" (2022). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 13471.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/13471
