Sexual harassment in the pharmacy: Recent findings and implications for practice and education

The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of sexual harassment among female pharmacists; to assess how practitioners respond to occurrences of sexual harassment; and to evaluate the impact of sexual harassment on the pharmacy manpower pool. A survey instrument was developed and administered to 1200 randomly selected female pharmacists in Illinois. Seven hundred and eleven usable surveys were returned for a response rate of 59 percent. Survey results indicate that 47 percent of the respondents experienced one or more incidents of sexual harassment in either their previous job or their current job. The majority of these experiences were categorized as ''suggestive looks,'' ''sexual remarks,'' or ''unwanted attention.'' Two percent experienced severe incidents of harassment such as ''grossly inappropriate touching'', ''rape attempted rape.'' The harasser was just as commonly reported to be a patient, a colleague, or a supervisor. However, colleagues were more likely to be the offenders for the more serious two percent of the incidents. Twenty-four percent of the respondents reported the incident to their supervisors, 15 percent found employment elsewhere, and seven percent changed work shifts or duties to avoid the harasser. Responses to sexual harassment are described. Data suggests that sexual harassment is a significant problem in the pharmacy and can negatively impact productivity. implications for practice and education are described.