Pervasive Vulnerabilities: Sexual Harassment in School

Book Summary: Pervasive Vulnerabilities explores the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of adolescent girls and boys and female teachers in order to expose the continuing persistence of sexual harassment in the United States. The book addresses the sexual double standard that continues to hold girls and women accountable for male sexual aggression, and demonstrates that this double standard still dismisses males who harass young women with a cavalier "boys will be boys" attitude, while castigating young women if they express an interest in sexual expression. It discusses issues of sexual harassment through four domains: its impact on women’s lives, sometimes long after high school; the perceptions of teachers who interact with adolescents; the experiences of young girls in middle and high school; and the behaviors and attitudes of young men in middle and high school. This book is critical reading for all pre-service and in-service teachers and is indispensable in classrooms devoted to the topic.