In the United States, many adolescent girls experience sexual harassment before they leave high school, and between 20% and 25% of college women are survivors of sexual assault. Despite the many negative consequences associated with these experiences, perpetrating sexual harassment and assault is often viewed as normative. Using Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theoretical framework, we propose a bioecological theory of the perpetration and tolerance of sexual harassment of girls. We propose children’s proximal and distal contexts contribute to the endorsement of sexualized gender stereotypes, which in turn impacts high rates of both perpetration and acceptance of sexual harassment. We discuss the ways that three important microsystems—parents, peers, and schools—contribute to this acceptance. We also propose that key components of media within the exosystem work to further normalize sexual harassment of girls and women. These contexts inform children’s development, creating a culture that is permissive of sexual harassment, resulting in high rates of sexual harassment and assault in adolescence and emerging adulthood. Implications of our proposed theory for policymakers, teachers, parents, and researchers are discussed.

在美国，许多青春期女孩在离开高中之前就遭受了性骚扰，其中20％至25％的大学女性是性攻击的幸存者。尽管与这些经历相关的许多负面后果，但经常将性骚扰和性侵犯视为一种规范。利用布朗芬布伦纳（Bronfenbrenner）的生物生态学理论框架，我们提出了对女孩性骚扰行为的容忍程度的生物生态学理论。我们建议儿童的近端和远端环境有助于认可性别化的性别定型观念，进而影响性骚扰的发生和接受率。我们讨论了三个重要的微系统（父母，同龄人和学校）如何促进这种接受。我们还建议，exosystem内媒体的关键组成部分应进一步规范对女孩和妇女的性骚扰。这些情况为儿童的发展提供了信息，创造了一种允许性骚扰的文化，从而导致高比例的性骚扰和侵害青春期以及成年后的成年人。讨论了我们提出的理论对决策者，教师，父母和研究人员的影响。