ABSTRACT

Oral history collections provide rich evidence for understanding sexual harassment in the era before that term applied to unwanted sexual advances in schools and workplaces. Close reading of both speech and silence about sexual harassment in oral histories also illuminates women’s historical reluctance to recall or make public their experiences of sexual violence. Drawing on a large dataset of digitized oral history collections, this essay maps women’s memories of, and responses to, sexual harassment from the late 1930s through the mid-1970s. Whether they minimized the problem or identified with it, the narrators who addressed sexual harassment typically emphasized women’s personal responsibility and the lack of institutional accountability. Their recollections also reveal a range of individual forms of resistance that women employed before feminists named or laws prohibited sexual harassment.

摘要

口述历史收藏为理解那个时代的性骚扰提供了丰富的证据，该术语适用于学校和工作场所不受欢迎的性挑逗。仔细阅读口述历史中关于性骚扰的言语和沉默，也可以说明女性历来不愿回忆或公开她们的性暴力经历。本文利用数字化口述历史收藏的大型数据集，描绘了从 1930 年代末到 70 年代中期女性对性骚扰的记忆和反应。无论是将问题最小化还是认同它，解决性骚扰问题的叙述者通常都强调女性的个人责任和缺乏制度问责制。