Evaluation of the Gender Equity Workshops.

In spring 1992, the College of the Canyons (CC) in Valencia, California, held three workshops for faculty and staff on the topics of gender equity and sexual harassment. A total of 60 faculty and staff attended the workshops, representing 19.3% of the college's employees. Women comprised 52 of the 60 participants. To help assess the current campus environment and to evaluate the workshops, each participant was asked to complete pre- and post-workshop surveys. A total of 38 participants completed both surveys. The pre-workshop survey asked respondents to indicate the frequency with which they had encountered each of 29 sexually biased behaviors, both with a colleague of the opposite sex and with someone in authority. Pre- and post-workshop surveys both asked respondents to indicate the extent to which each of nine behaviors met their definition of sexual harassment. Study results included the following: (1) sexist comments, comments on personal appearance or flattery, women not taken as seriously as men, sexually suggestive stories, and expectation for women to be passive or deferential were all reported to have occurred more than once with a colleague by more than 50% of the respondents; (2) respondents reported a greater incidence of sexually biased incidents among colleagues than with someone in authority; (3) over 80% of the respondents said that the campus climate for women was supportive in general; (4) on the post-workshop survey, respondents demonstrated a clearer understanding of what behaviors constituted sexual harassment; (5) 76% of the respondents felt the college should offer more Women's Studies courses; and (6) 97% of the respondents felt that workshops such as these should be mandatory for employees at CC. Narrative responses to open-ended questions and the survey instruments are included. (PAA)