You Can Knock on the Doors and Windows of the University, but Nobody Will Care

How Universities Benefit from Network Silence around Gender-Based Violence

Bibliographic Data

ID5934784
AuthorsVilana Pilinkaite Sotirovic (0000-0001-7758-062X, Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences), Anke Lipinsky (0000-0002-2738-947X, GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences), Katarzyna Struzińska (0000-0002-6750-388X, Jagiellonian University), Beatriz Ranea-Triviño (0000-0002-4595-4436, Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Year2024
Volume13
Issue4
Pages199
Publication date2024-04-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2076-0760 • E-ISSN: 2076-0760
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/socsci13040199
OpenAlexW4393409987
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited19

This paper exposes the role of universities in creating silence around gender-based violence in higher education, drawing on narratives from 39 qualitative interviews with victims/survivors and bystanders about reporting incidents and experiences. In this paper, we extend concept of 'network silence' around sexual harassment to other forms of gender-based violence. Our research applies three components of the theoretical model of network silence, namely, self-silencing by victims/survivors, silencing, and not hearing by others, and analyses their contextual manifestations through the reporting experiences of victims/survivors and bystanders. This helps to identify the traits of the informal organisational structures and power dynamics, gendered attitudes, actors, and factors which facilitate silencing. The intersectional approach in our analysis of organisational contextual traits contributes to the research on inequality regimes in universities. The findings suggest that universities are making limited efforts to address silence around gender-based violence. We conclude that shared beliefs among the leadership about the reputation and prestige of the university facilitate the endurance of silence in universities. Our findings indicate reasons why universities fail to create spaces that are safe from gender-based violence

Computer security · Harassment · nobody · Political science · Power (physics · Public relations · Reputation · Silence · Social science · Sociology · Gender Diversity and Inequality · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Psychology · Social Psychology

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