Sexual Harrasment in Higher Learnings in Tanzania

Sexual harassment has been a fact of life since human beings first inhabited the earth (Ariane, 1990). Women were sexually harassed long before there was a word for it. Women working in homes have long been targets of sexual abuse. Since industrialization, women working in factories and offices have had to endure sexual comments and demands by bosses and coworkers as the price for economic survival. As students, women and girls have been sexual prey to teachers for as long as they have been allowed to be educated.

On the streets and in the homes, sexual pressures that women are not in a position to refuse have been invisible but pervasive. While most histories of sexual harassment begin in 1964, Constance Jones in her book Sexual Harassment identified incidents of sexual harassment back to the 1830's when increased numbers of women began working in the textile mills in New England. She noted that printers in Boston conducted a campaign of intimidation to force women out of their jobs in that industry in 1835. Of course, there was no term to describe this course of action; feminists coined the term "Sexual Harassment" in the 1960s (Jones, 1996).

Although Sexual harassment has a long history (Fitzgerald, 1990:410) it is not until in the mid-1970's when women began to speak in public for the first time about this form of sexual abuse. The Women's Center at Cornell University held the first Speak Out in May 1975; feminists in Boston and women workers in New York formed action groups so did the women students who organized at Berkeley and Yale. In this political context, the words "sexual harassment" emerged to describe and give coherence, communality, and communicability to an experience that women previously had no choice but to consider just life.

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The history of sexual harassment is, to an unusual degree, a legal history. Unlike most abuses of women, sexual harassment was established as a legal claim long before it was commonly accepted as harmful. In the early 1970s, before the law against sexual harassment existed, individual women, brought suits against perpetrators and institutions for acts amounting to sexual harassment under civil rights laws, arguing that they were victimized by sexual harassment because they were women, hence treated unequally on the basis of sex. In 1977, in the case of Paulette Barnes, an appeals court first agreed; other courts soon followed.

Sexual harassment was recognized as a legal claim for sex discrimination at work under Title VII of the United States of America Civil Rights Act of 1964. In Tanzania Sexual Harassment is a criminal offence under the Penal Code, Cap 16 as amended by the Sexual Offences Special Provisions Act No. 4 of 1998. Recently, the focus on sexual harassment has moved from "sexual" to "harassment," and the concept has been extended to same-sex harassment. All sexual behavior or references inappropriate to the workplace are being labeled harassment.

Additionally, people are questioning all harassment in the workplace, no matter what the context or focus. Finally, the concept of sexual harassment as has been extended beyond the workplace to schools and other contexts. Why should behavior that is illegal in the workplace be legal in the street or in other public places? (Mackinnon, 1979). Some scholars like Brackenridge (2001) who has written extensively about sexual abuse in sport has also gathered sketchy evidence from international conferences and events for women in sport about sexual harassment and abuse in Africa.

It is a fact that female athletes in African countries also experience sexual harassment and abuse from their male coaches as a matter of course in their progress towards sporting achievements. Myths but their effects are considerable. This can be due to a number of reasons including the taboos surrounding discussing the problem, protecting the harassing culture, and lack of resources for female sports. Uncovering the harassing culture for many institutions even outside sport has not been an easy thing for most of the women due to their positions in the society.

In 1980, in Pamela Price's case, sexual harassment in education was found to violate women's rights to equal access to an education as guaranteed under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 of The American law. Sexual harassment is illegal at work and school because that is where sex equality is legally guaranteed, not because there is no sexual harassment in other places in society. Activists, scholars, and legislators have begun trying to address sexual harassment by priests, lawyers, landlords, and passersby on the street, but the absence of a legal right to sex equality in these social relations has made this difficult.

Once it became possible to hold perpetrators publicly accountable for sexual harassment, it became possible to learn about it. Studies found that most victims of sexual harassment are women, although some are men, and most perpetrators are men in some position of power over the women (and men) they harass. Almost no difference in incidence of sexual harassment has been identified on the basis of race, class, age, marital status, or income. Unwanted sexual incursions include threats, extortion, and rape, as well as leering and ogling, obscene gestures, misogynists hate speech, groping and fondling, and pressure for dates.

Often pornography is posted, circulated, or directly forced on women as part of the practice. Many perpetrators have had no idea they were doing anything wrong (Lang elan, 1993). In the decade from 1976 to 1986, as hundreds of cases were adjudicated, sexual harassment was legally divided into two types. The simplest, termed quid pro quo, demands sex in exchange for benefits to which a person is otherwise entitled. But sexual harassment can be oppressive and exclusionary in itself also, whether or not a measurable benefit or opportunity is lost.

This second type is termed hostile environment. Sexualizing a job or school environment can poison it for anyone who wants to be accepted as an equal worker or student something few men have to tolerate. Often the perpetrators are otherwise women's equals in formal hierarchies, or even their formal subordinates. Environmental sexual harassment can include sexual advances, epithets, and forced sex all imposed forms of sexual behavior that a woman must either tolerate or leave where she is entitled to be, free of sex discrimination. en men are harassed sexually because they are men, the same prohibitions apply, although the hierarchy of men over women in society makes this rare (Mackinnon 1997).

Sexual harassment is among the highly debated social problems facing women today. In the past women were not aware of sexual harassment. They knew little about it, on what is wrong and right about their lives. This was because they were not free to talk about issues concerning sex due to traditional norms (Herbert, 1994).

Thus according to Baltus (1994) Sexual harassment is a subject that must be taken seriously in a society today not only in the work environment but also in schools and other social settings. This statement is supported by Riggs (1993) who maintains that colleges and universities are expected to provide learning and working environment wherein all members of academic communities may pursue their studies, scholarship and work without bias or intimidation. Thus the specter of sexual harassment is inimical to this end.

Findings from a study by Riggs (1993) show that the impact and scope of sexual harassment problem on college campuses were first recognized during the early 1980’s. Today the frequency of complaints in college and universities campuses has been increased. In Tanzania historically, Sexual harassment has existed at University of Dar Es Salaam. Going as far back as 1990, according to an authentic record female student, committed suicide following Sexual Harassment by PUNCH pipelining her (High Table Commandments) following a scuffle between two male students over her misinterpreted relationships with them.

Another documented case of sexual harassment is that of a female postgraduate student whom a prominent member of academic staff harassed her sexually in 1998 (University of Dar E s Salaam, 2003). To address the situation America prohibits sexual harassment in higher education institutions by using Civil Acts of their country. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Title IX of the education's Amendment of 1972 are the Federal statutes under which are brought the majority of sexual harassment complaints against higher education institutions and their employees.

The American Civil Rights Act of 1991 provides additional rights and remedies to sexual harassment complaints. In Tanzania the Provisions the Penal Code, Cap. 16, as amended, to be applied in cases of sexual harassment involving students and staff or vice versa, and staff and staff irrespective of the marital relations between those involved. According to Peter a second year student at Maseno University, in Kenya, it is agreed that there is sexual harassment in Universities. There are instances of Sexual Harassment by male students and some teachers demanding sex for grades against young women.

Generally sexism is said to plague Kenya’s Institutions of Higher Learning. Sexual Harassment in Universities became a big problem when the government inaugurated self-financing in the 1990’s. Kenyata University in Kenya was the first University to acknowledge the Sexual Harassment problem in 1993 (Global Envision, 2005). Although reliable data on sexual harassment are notoriously difficult to collect because it is a practice that often remains invisible, it is never reported or it is completely ignored.

Findings from a study at the Olabsi Obasanjo University in Nigeria show that women students felt that they had no alternative but to succumb to men lectures’ unwelcome requests for sexual favors if they wished to succeed academically. She also found that sexual harassment was so entrenched within the institutions that women students advised their friends ‘to accept the harassment as normal and keep quiet about it. Some were even impressed upon the advantages of dating lectures’ (Imasogie, 2002; 22).

Nearer home, a 1993 report on sexual harassment in South African Universities indicated that practices such as rape in residences, sexual voyeurism and other related forms of behavior were standard practices (Imasogie, 2001). Legally sexual harassment includes any unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or verbal or physical conduct of sexual nature. Its examples include telling sexual oriented jokes, standing too close, touching and making physical contact, displaying sexual oriented material or making sexual comments about a persons’ body if these action are unwelcome.

Either sex can commit sexual harassment. Men can harass women, women can harass men. Additionally men can harass men, women can harass women. Harassment can be from a co-worker, supervisor, an agent of the employee, or a non-employee such as a repairperson who comes on the company premises to perform work (Baltus, 1994). Female harassment in higher learning is exacerbated by several factors; First, primary socialization of females and males. This tends to produce learners with very different learning experiences and personality characteristics along gender lines.

The fact that Males are socialized to be aggressive, assertive, domineering and encouraged to be explorative, engage in mentally challenging activities while women are socialized to be submissive, dependent and passive and engage mainly in mundane activities which places males at educational advantages over females (Mlama, 1998). Second, the school-learning environment appears to be more supportive to males than to females. A learning environment where females students have to compete for scarce learning resources such as reference materials, desks and the like, live in fear of sexual harassment be in a gross minority relative to males is iscouraging to female learners (ibid). Third, classroom interaction tends to disfavor females. It is a fact that teachers as well as learners carry into class their societal values of females and males (ibid). Fourth, social pressures notably the shames of denouncing certain acts that have been perpetrated against women by some males students and some teachers demanding sex for grades (Global Envision, 2005). Fifth, women lack of access to legal information aid or protection; this is reflected by the lack of laws that effectively prohibit violence against women and failure to reform the existing laws.

The marriage Act of 1971 makes a declaration against spousal battery, but does not prohibit it or provide for any punishment. Traditional customs that subordinate women remains strong in both urban and rural areas and local magistrates often upheld such practices, (AFROL Gender Profiles: 2005), Preliminary evidences show that there are inadequate efforts on the part of the public authorities to promote awareness of and enforce existing laws.

Government officials frequently make public statements criticizing such abuses, but action rarely is taken against perpetrators. In 1998 in response to intensified concern about violence against women, Parliament passed into law the Sexual Offences Special Provision Bill which among other things, provides for life imprisonment for persons convicted of rape and child molestation. Moreover, the absence of educational and other means to address the causes and consequences of harassment aggravate the situation (AFROL Gender Profiles, 2005).

Sixth, Images of the harassment against women in media in particular those that depict rape or sexual slavery as well as the use of women and girls as sex objects, including pornography are also among the factors contributing to the continued prevalence of such harassment, advisory influencing the community at large, in particular children and young people (FWCW Platform for Action Violence against women, 2005) Seemingly, many higher learning institutions have not developed policies, procedures, extensive training programmes, and materials, that seek to identify and prevent sexual harassment.

If the policies exist they are weak and poorly implemented. 1. 2 Statement of the Problem A 1993 report on sexual harassment at the South African universities indicated that practices such as rape in residences, sexual voyeurism and other forms of behaviors were standard practices, (Imasogie, 2001). A study by Fitzgerald (1988) reported approximately 50 percent of women at one university and nearly 76 percent at another university indicated that they had experienced some form of harassing behavior during their carrier.

Paludi and Brickman (1991) suggest that because of power structures and culture biases within the academy, women are overwhelmingly the targets of sexual harassment and, although a profile has not been empirically established, nearly all harassers are male. While all members of the academic community are potential victims of unwelcome sexual behaviors, the majority of complainers are female students, faculty and staff.

Dziech and Weiner (1984) reported that 20 to 30 percent of undergraduate female students are victims of some form of sexual harassment by at least one of their professors during their undergraduate years and Boyer (1990) reported that more than 60 percent of the presidents surveyed at large research and doctorate institutions said sexual harassment is a problem. Mlama (1990) pointed out that other problems associated with sexual harassment. First, she says Cleary that only weak and desperate learners would be involved in such activities.

However despicable it may appear, sadly. It does indicate that such learners conform to society’s view of women as sex objects. Moreover, Mlama (1998) says gender stereotyping that determined the subjects studied in school; continue to dog female students, this time in the form of gender streaming. In spite of awareness of the serious threat that sexual harassment posses to women’s rights and their wellbeing in educational institutions and work place the practice remains common place.

These practices are demonstrated by the fact that despite the availability of data on the persistence of sexual harassment, which is detrimental to females wellbeing still Female learners who are in male dominated subject areas are sometimes lonely in the learning environment because of isolation from other women with whom they could exchange ideas or discuss difficulties without feeling threatened hence they suffer from isolation and struggle for acceptance (Mlama, 1998). These problems have compelled the researcher to conduct this study to establish to what extent Sexual Harassment in higher learning Institution in Tanzania.

The study was aimed at examining sexual harassment in higher learning institution in Tanzania.

To examine the extent of sexual harassment in higher learning institution in Tanzania. To examine problems caused by sexual harassment in higher learning institutions in Tanzania. To assess the student’s perceptions and attitudes towards sexual harassment in higher learning institution in Tanzania. To identify measures that the government and other stakeholders should take to overcome sexual harassment in higher learning Institutions in Tanzania.

To what extent the practices and other forms of behaviors of sexual harassment prevail in your Institution? What are the problems caused by sexual harassment in higher learning institutions in Tanzania? What are the students’ attitudes and perceptions on sexual harassment in higher learning Institutions? What measures can be taken by the government and other stake holders to arrest Sexual harassment in higher learning Institution in Tanzania.

The findings of this study are useful to the Higher Learning Institutions which are currently undergoing transformation programmes. The usefulness of the findings are measured in terms of the extent to which they will enable Higher Learning Institutions beneficiaries as shown here under: Higher Learning Institution Members Findings of this study will contribute to the existing literature of sexual harassment in some higher learning Institutions and may become the basis for influencing attitude changes among Higher Learning Institution members who violates the regulation and good conducts in higher learning in the Country.

The findings of the research and arguments may enable the higher learning institution members' change their current views on the sexual harassment and adapt more positive and progressive policy regulations. 1. 5. 2Policy and Decision-Makers It will help the decision-makers and policy makers towards the reviewing policies on gender gap enrolment, gender gap in faculty and administrative staff positions, and gender gap in academic achievement. Findings of this study could become the basis for reviewing higher learning policy and regulations in all facets of life.

The research can initiate further debates among educational policy makers and such debates might be decisive. Thus, this study could become the spring-board towards changes and alleviation of the problem of sexual harassment. The study focused in institution of higher learning with particular reference to Institute of Finance Management and Tumaini University-Dar Es Salaam Campus. The study was done concurrently with the routine class attendance thus there was no enough time.

So, resource constrains of time and money limited more vigorous treatment of some data for the study.This Study is organized into five chapters. Chapter one provides the introductory part of the Study and the background information concerning the research problem. It outlines the objectives of the study, research questions and rationale of the study. Furthermore; it contains the anticipated study limitations encountered by the researcher during the study and lastly delimitation of the study. Chapter two covers the literature review and conceptual framework.

Under this chapter the general overview of the phenomenon sexual harassment is discussed, also approaches, objectives, uses, process, techniques, benefits of sexual harassment as well as conceptual framework are presented. The third chapter contains research methodology. In this chapter the study design, area, sample, data collection instruments and data analysis techniques are discussed. Chapter four deals with presentation of the findings related to the sexual harassment at the Institute of Finance Management (IFM) and Tumaini University- Dar Es Salaam Campus.

This chapter presents the literature review which is the foundation on which the study was built. Literature review basically helps the researcher to develop a good understanding and insight on previous research and the trends that have emerged (Saunders et al, 2003).

This chapter is divided into the following sections appearing under the following headings: introduction, a brief historical background of sexual harassment, sexual harassment in Higher Learning Institutions, causes and negative impact of sexual harassment in Higher Learning Institutions to female learners, male chauvinism, gender stereotyping, problem in the classroom, strategies to alleviate the problem, empirical evidences and summary of the chapter.

Since industrialization, women working in factories, homes and offices have had to endure sexual comments and demands by bosses and coworkers as the price for economic survival. As students, women and girls have been sexual prey to teachers for as long as they have been allowed to be educated. On the streets and in the home, sexual pressure that women are not in a position to refuse has been invisible but pervasive. The exchange of sex for survival under conditions of coercion that defines prostitution has also marked women and men's unequal relations throughout and across societies (MacKinnon, 1993).

While most histories of sexual harassment begin in 1964 when Congress passed Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Constance Jones in her book Sexual Harassment, identified incidents of sexual harassment back to the 1830s when increased numbers of women began working in the textile mills in New England. She noted that printers in Boston conducted a campaign of intimidation to force women out of their jobs in that industry in 1835. Of course, there was no term to describe this course of action; the term "sexual harassment" was coined by feminists in the 1960s (Nancy, 2000).

The concept of sexual harassment is relatively new and it was coined in the 1960s. Sexual harassment existed prior to the sixties, but people had no way to talk about it since there was no term by which to name the experience. While thirty years is a relatively short time for the development of a body of scholarship, this topic has drawn a great deal of interest from academic scholars as well as legal scholars (Ibid). In the mid-1970s women began to speak in public for the first time about this form of sexual abuse.

The Women's Center at Cornell University held the first Speak Out in May 1975; feminists in Boston and women workers in New York formed action groups; women students organized at Berkeley and Yale. In this political context, the words "sexual harassment" emerged to describe and give coherence, communality, and communicability to an experience that women previously had no choice but to consider just life (Ibid). The history of sexual harassment is, to an unusual degree, a legal history. Unlike most abuses of women, sexual harassment was established as a legal claim long before it was commonly accepted as harmful.

In the early 1970s, before the law against sexual harassment existed, individual women, brought suits against perpetrators and institutions for acts amounting to sexual harassment under civil rights laws, arguing that they were victimized by sexual harassment because they were women, hence treated unequally on the basis of sex. In 1977, in the case of Paulette Barnes, an appeals court first agreed; other courts soon followed. Sexual harassment was recognized as a legal claim for sex discrimination at work under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Ibid).

Recently the focus on sexual harassment has moved from "sexual" to "harassment," and the concept has been extended to same-sex harassment. All sexual behavior or references inappropriate to the workplace are being labeled harassment. Additionally, people are questioning all harassment in the workplace, no matter what the context or focus. Finally, the concept of sexual harassment as been extended beyond the workplace to schools and other contexts. Why should behavior that is illegal in the workplace be legal in the street or in other public places .Sexual harassment in higher learning institutions. Sexual harassment is illegal at work and schools because that is where sex equality is legally guaranteed, not because there is no sexual harassment in other places in the society. Activists, scholars, and legislators have begun trying to address sexual harassment by priests, lawyers, landlords, and passersby on the street, but the absence of a legal right to sex equality in these social relations has made this difficult (MacKnnon, 1993).

Once it became possible to hold perpetrators publicly accountable for sexual harassment, it became possible to learn about it. Studies found that most victims of sexual harassment are women, although some are men, and most perpetrators are men in some position of power over the women (and men) they harass. Approximately 85 percent of working women have been or will be sexually harassed at some point in their working lives, and most never report the abuse. About one-third of women students are victimized.

Almost no difference in incidence of sexual harassment has been identified on the basis of race, class, age, marital status, or income. Unwanted sexual incursions include threats, extortion, and rape, as well as leering and ogling, obscene gestures, misogynistic hate speech, groping and fondling, and pressure for dates. Often pornography is posted, circulated, or directly forced on women as part of the practice. Many perpetrators have had no idea they were doing anything wrong (MacKinnon, 1993). In the decade from 1976 to 1986, as hundreds of cases were adjudicated, sexual harassment was legally divided into two types.

The simplest, termed quid pro quo, demands sex in exchange for benefits to which a person is otherwise entitled. But sexual harassment can be oppressive and exclusionary in itself also, whether or not a measurable benefit or opportunity is lost. This second type is termed hostile environment. Sexualizing a job or school environment can poison it for anyone who wants to be accepted as an equal worker or student something few men have to tolerate. Often the perpetrators are otherwise women's equals in formal hierarchies, or even their formal subordinates.

Environmental sexual harassment can include sexual advances, epithets, and forced sexual imposed forms of sexual behavior that a woman must either tolerate or leave where she is entitled to be, free of sexual discrimination. When men are harassed sexually because they are men, the same prohibitions apply, although the hierarchy of men over women in society makes this rare (Ibid). Since the impact and scope of sexual harassment problem on college campuses first were recognized during the early 1980’s, an enormous amount of attention has been focused on the problem.

Yet, in spite of the substantial initiatives and perhaps as a result of heightened awareness of sexual harassment as a problem (or perhaps more people alleging harassment), the frequency of complaints on college and University campuses has increased (Riggs,1993). In 1980, in Pamela Price's case, sexual harassment in education was found to violate women's rights to equal access to an education as guaranteed under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 of the United States of America.

Universities were thereafter required to have grievance procedures through which victims could complain or the school could face a cutoff of federal funds (MacKinnon, 1993). According to discussions made by various students at Maseno University, in Kenya, it is agreed that there is sexual harassment in Universities. There are instances of Sexual Harassment by male students and some teachers demanding sex for grades against young women. Generally sexism is said to plague Kenya’s Institution of Higher Learning.

Sexual Harassment in Universities became a big problem when the government inaugurated self-financing in the 1990’s. Kenyata University in Kenya was the first University to acknowledge the Sexual Harassment problem in 1993 (Global Envision, 2005). Historically, sexual harassment has existed at University of Dar es salaam. Going as far back as 1990, according to an authentic record, a female student, committed suicide following sexual harassment by PUNCH pipelining her (High Table Commandments) following a scuffle between two male students over her misinterpreted relationships with them (UDSM,2003).

Another documented case of sexual harassment is that of a female postgraduate student whom a prominent member of academic staff harassed sexually in 1998 (UDSM, 2003).  Male learners often harass women who refuse them sexual favours by putting up damaging cartoons about them. They also have the tendency to diminish female achievement by linking it with payment to male lectures for sexual favors.

But the most common form of this is when lectures attempt to trade good grades for sex. Learners who refuse are penalized in the teaching/learning situation. Sometimes these women are so terrified that they transfer to other disciplines. The informants said that female learners are so guilty of sexual harassment, peddling sex for grades. Cleary, only weak and desperate learners would be involved in such activities. However despicable it may appear, sadly, it does indicate that such learners conform to society’s view of women as sex objects (Mlama, 1998).

Furthermore, findings from a study at the Olabsi Obasanjo University in Nigeria on the prevalence of sexual harassment,(2002) show that women students felt that they had no alternative but to succumb to men lectures’ unwelcome requests for sexual favors if they wished to succeed academically. She also found that sexual harassment was so entrenched within the institutions that women students advised their friends ‘to accept the harassment as normal and keep quiet about it. Some were even impressed upon the advantages of dating lectures’ (Imasogie, 2002; 22).Gender stereotyping which determined the subjects studied in school, continue to dog female learners, this time in the form of gender streaming. Female learners find themselves down there among the women in the so called soft options (Mlama, 1998). Problem in the classroom further lowering of self esteem and erosion of some unethical self lectures and their own deficiencies resulting from poor preparation for Higher Learning. Because they are afraid of exposing their ignorance they miss classes.

When they do attend they make themselves invisible by refusing to participate and not submitting assignments (Ibid).  Female learners in male dominated subject areas are sometimes lonely in the learning environment because of isolation from other women with whom they could exchange ideas or discuss difficulties without feeling threatened (Ibid).  The Literature has shown that there is good development being made to address the problem such as increasing the enrolment of women in higher learning institutions.

This is done through affirmative action and the inclusion of gender studies in the curriculum such as in the IDS and the Department of Sociology of the University of Dar Es Salaam. Such studies have assisted the articulation of Gender issues and the raising of attentiveness’ on gender for both staff and students. The situation of Tanzania women in higher learning Institutions is slightly better than it is for Ghananian and Nigerian women with women having constituted 17% of all textually level students in 1994/5 (Mukangara and Koda, 1997).

However the gender disparity is still more pronounced at this level than it is at the primary level for the same period. Furthermore Mukangara and Koda (1997) argued that gender bias in favour of men’s access to textually education has been naturalized. This is revealed in the limited effect that Affirmative Action Policy has had on women’s enrolment numbers. Women’s enrolment at the university of Dar es salaam (UDSM) has increased to 19. 6% after Affirmative Action legislations favoring women’s access was implemented in 1974,but dropped to a low of 14. 4% in 1993/4 after the policy ended, before increasing to a high of 17% in 1994/5.

It was only when attention was once again focused on the special recruitment of women for the 1996/97 academic years that women’s enrolment increased (Kethusigile, 2000). 2. 6Empirical Evidences Although there is a lot of literature on Sexual Harassment little has been done on Sexual Harassment in Tanzania. However, Othman (2000), focusing on Engendering Academic freedom did one of the latest studies done in Tanzania. From the study it was revealed that sexual harassment was considered to affect the female students' performance and drive them to dependence.

In line with these, other findings from the study done by Imasogie (2002) which focused on the prevalence of sexual harassment at the Olabisi Obasanjo University in Nigeria indicated that female students felt that they had no alternative but to succumb to men's lecturer’s unwelcome requests for sexual favors if they wished to succeed academically. She also found that sexual harassment was so entrenched within the institutional culture that female students advised their friends 'to accept the harassment as normal and keep quite about it. Some even impressed upon them the advantage of dating lectures.

Furthermore the study indicated that: 'some of the male students stated they had been harassed and failed by lecturers interested in their girl friends. One of the lectures interviewed wanted to know why the researcher is wasting her time on research on sexual harassment. The lecture boasted that he has at least three girl friends at all levels he is teaching' (Imasogie, 2002:22). The main empirical findings are that measures taken to address the problem of sexual harassment in Higher Learning Institution in Tanzania are not strictly followed up.

Policies, laws and procedures and regulation that prevent sexual harassment in Higher Learning Institutions in Tanzania are said to be poorly implemented because such laws, procedures and policies are weak. Specifically, the University of Dar Es Salaam despite having the anti-sexual harassment policy it does not have an established procedure regarding how to deal with sexual harassment complaints. The few cases that have so far been reported were dealt with on an ad hoc basis. Now University of Dar Es Salaam recognizes and desires to have well-articulated procedures for dealing with sexual harassment complaints.

However, University of Dar Es Salaam has counseling services especially for students. The new Directorate of Student Services offers these services. A result of sexual harassment by trading grades with sex, we have graduates who graduate with flying colours but they do not merit. Fenela Mukangara and Bertha Koda (1997), did a study in Tanzania whereby it was focused on Beyond Inequalities: Women in Tanzania, whereby it was revealed that gender bias (sexual harassment) in favors of men's access to Higher Learning (tertiary education) has been naturalized.

This is revealed in the limited effect that affirmative action policy has had on women, enrolment numbers. In a study done by the Forum for African Women Education (FAWE, 1993), showed that majority of respondents had a perception that women work should primary focus on family responsibilities. This has an impact on female students' performance. It affected the performance of female learners from lower level of education. A critical analysis of the problem revealed that sexual harassment is aggravated by lack of policy, laws and regulation .

A conceptual framework is an assemblage set of research concepts cum variables together with their logical relationships often represented in the form of diagrams, charts, graphs, pictographs, flow-charts ,organ gram or mathematical equations. Since Conceptual Framework focuses on the research concepts cum variables and their relationships, it is useful for formulating specific research questions of the study. (Ndunguru, 2007). The conceptual framework of this Study consists of dependent variable and independent variables. Kothari, (2007) defines dependent variables as variable that depends upon or is the consequence of the other variable.

On the other hand independent variables are the one that are antecedent to the dependent variable. In This Study, dependent variable is described as the sexual harassment while independent variables consist of student performances which will results into effective performance of the Collage/ universities as fig 1. 1 below shows.

The assumption for this model is that when sexual harassment practice are not used effectively within the Collages/Universities, is likely to increase performance of the student. Sexual harassment is any unwanted attention of a sexual nature, like remarks about one’s looks or personal life. Sometimes these comments sound like compliments, but they make one feel uneasy. Sexual harassment can include: Telling sexual oriented jokes;  Request for sex favor so that a student can pass the examination; Telling sexual oriented jokes;  Displaying sexual oriented materials; Female students are very vulnerable to sexual harassment in higher learning institutions. This problem is more aggravated by gender inequality in these institutions. These inequalities have been in place for a number of decades. However in recent years efforts to bridge the inequalities have been taking place and pace. In many higher learning institutions a lot more female students are enrolled. But the performance of female students has not been as high as those of their male counterparts. The female students are sexual harassed.

That is female students do fail in their examinations because they are sexually harassed by their male lectures. Those who do not yield to their lectures sexual needs end up failing in examinations or they poorly perform.  The literature review shows that Sexual harassment has a long history. However, it was not until 1976 when the term sexual harassment apparently first came into use before this time the phenomenon was literally unspeakable. Since that time, sexual harassment came to be recognized as a pervasive and harmful social problem.

Female harassment in the Higher Learning Institution is accelerated by several factors; primary socialization of female and males, the institution learning environment which appears to be more supportive to male than of females, social pressure notably the shames of denouncing certain acts that have been perpetrated against women by some males students and some lectures' who demand sex for grades, women luck of access to legal information aid or protection and images that depict rape or sexual slavery including pornography in the media and websites as well as the use of women and girls as sex objects .

More specifically, the review shows that sexual harassment behaviors include the following, first, gender harassment including sexist statements and behaviors that convey insulting, degrading or sexist attitudes, seductive behaviors encompassing unwanted, inappropriate and offensive physical or verbal behaviors, sexual coercion of sexual activity or other sex linked behavior by threat of punishment, sexual assault, attempted rape and rape. The impact and scope of sexual harassment problem on college campuses first were recognized during the early 1980’s and since then enormous amount of attention has been focused on the problem.

Campuses have developed policies, procedures, extensive training programs and materials that seek to identify and prevent sexual harassment and promoted conferences and symposia addressing the problem. Yet in spite of these substantial initiatives and perhaps as a result of heightened awareness of sexual harassment as a problem or perhaps more people alleging harassment, the frequency of complaints on college and University campuses has continued. Very few studies have been done on sexual harassment in Higher Learning Institutions in Tanzania.

Most of these studies were about the University of Dar es salaam and in resent years has extended to Institute of Social work. Seemingly the coverage is increasing. Clear evidence is that less is known about sexual harassment in Higher learning Institution in Tanzania. The study therefore, examines the prevalence of the phenomenon in the Higher Learning Institutions in Tanzania.

It is divided into the following sections appearing under the following headings, research design, and area of the study, study population, sample size and sampling technique, methods of data collection, data analysis and limitations of the study. The study is an empirical research and therefore much of the description on this chapter relates to the collection of primary data. Kothari (1990) defines a research design as the arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis of data in a manner that aims to combine relevance to the research purpose with the economy in procedure.

Similarly, Brophy (1981) defines research design as a blue print for the conduct of a study that maximizes control over factors that could interfere with the study desired outcome. The research design should be designed in a couple of paragraph to show the strategies that were used to answer the question. If any controls were used, they should be described. Moreover, under design the researcher should describe the main sources of the information, for example whether a survey was carried out or data were collected from the library sources.

This study used primarily a survey method to collect data on Sexual harassment in Higher Learning Institutions in Tanzania. The survey method involves the administration of questionnaires to a sample of the respondents' selected from a larger population. A survey is a very old research technique, perhaps the most frequently used in data collection in Social Science research today. This researcher chose the method because it had the following advantages. A survey is the best methods for describing the characteristics and other aspects of populations too large to observe directly.

It is the best method available to the researcher interested in collecting original data for generalizing about large population. This allows a great deal of data to be collected. Moreover survey allows the use of more than one method for validity and reliability. The study was conducted in the Institutions of Higher Learning with particular reference of Institute of Finance Management and Tumaini University–Dar Es Salaam campus. The selected Institutions are for Higher Learning was due to high number of students from different areas of the Country; it could give a wide range of data and information connected to the study.

Furthermore, the area is familiar to the researcher hence it enabled to get the information needed.The population under study included the Higher Learning Institutions students. Sample Size Sample size simply refers to the number of cases in the sample (Yegidis, 1996). For the purpose of this study a sample of 36 respondents was persons who were drawn from 2 Higher Learning Institutions in Tanzania. A sampling frame, which is also known as a list of study population, consists of 10 male students and 26 female students volunteered to fill in and returned the questionnaire.

It was possible to have all the 36 questionnaires due to the fact that the researcher supplied more than 36 questionnaires to ensure that 36 questionnaires were obtained. The researcher had no opportunity to include lecturers and other workers in the sampling frame due to shortage of time. A study of a community cannot include every one in the sample. Once again depending on the purpose of the study and whether statistical tests will be used, as a sample of interviewee will have to be chosen (Pons, 1988).

In selecting a sample, it is important to ensure that a wider range of people have been included to represent the diversity of opinions, practices, attitudes, socio-economic and demographic characteristics (Narayan,1996). Purposeful sampling method (a type of non-probability sampling) was used, in which researcher used his own judgment in the selection of sample members. It is sometimes called a judgmental sample. Occasionally it may be appropriate to select the sample on the basis of researcher's knowledge of the population, its elements, and the nature of research aims.

In short it is based on the researchers' judgment and purpose of the study. There are many kinds of sampling methods but information is necessary before deciding on which ones to be used in the study. In this study, the aim was to examine whether or not there is sexual harassment in Higher Learning Institution in Tanzania. Purposeful sampling method was used to select the students. Purposeful sampling is a type of sampling where the researcher chooses the desired sample to be included in the study (Chambua and Kester, 1993).

Purposive or judgmental sampling enables the researcher to use his judgment to select cases that will best enable the researcher to answer his research questions and to meet the research objectives. This form of sample is often used when working with very small samples such as in case study research and when the researcher wishes to select cases that are particularly informative (Neuman, 2000). The logic on selecting the purposive sampling methods was due to the nature of the research questions and the research objectives.

Patton (2002) emphasizes this point by contrasting the need to select the information-rich cases in purposive sampling with the need to be statistically representative in probability sampling. Furthermore, the method was considered appropriate because the characters are known, knowledgeable, some are exposed to some facts on sexual harassment behavior, residing in the Higher Learning Institution and their number was reasonable. Enon (1995) defines methods of data collection as a technique of collecting data.

Methods of data collection are sometimes rightfully called tools for data collection. In as far as this study is concerned; the techniques of data collection were questionnaires, face to face interviews and documentary sources/ review.  An interview is a purposeful discussion between two or more people (Robson, 2002). The use of interviews can help the researcher to gather valid and reliable data that are relevant to the research questions and objectives. Unstructured interview was used in this research. This was used to explore in depth a general area in which you are interested.

The interviewee is given the opportunity to talk freely about events, behavior and beliefs in relation to the given area, so that this type of interaction is sometimes called non-directive. It has been labeled as an informative interview since it is the interviewee’s perception that guides the conduct of the interview (Easterby-Smith et al. , 2002). In-depth Interviews were used to supplement data collected from the questionnaires as a means of cross validation of information. The advantage of this technique is that it is flexible as the opportunity to restructure the question is always there.

Because the technique involved interacting with respondents, it helped to clarify issues that were ambiguous. Hence, according to Bless (1995) the interviewees are free to expand on the topic. In this study, the interviewees were free to expand on the topics as they saw fit. Face to face interviews provided opportunities to probe the issues further. In depth interviews were held with 12 male students, 24 female students to get answers which could provide additional insights into the understanding of the problem being researched.

Its disadvantage is that it is time consuming when a large/widely spread sample is taken. It is also difficult to interpret the data especially if the interview was unstructured. The questionnaire is asset of questions that are usually sent to the selected respondents to answer at their own convenient time and return the filled Questionnaire to the researcher (Ritzer, 1995). The use of questionnaire was due to its merit whereby it offers more time to think about the correct answers. It allows the respondent to feel free when illing the questionnaire and less time consuming compared to other technique like interview. A structured and standardized questionnaire with both open and closed ended questions was administered to respondents in the all three institutions. The main advantages of using close ended questionnaire are due to the fact that it is easy to fill, take little time and it keeps the respondent to the point, while open-ended questionnaires permit respondents to answer freely and fill in their own frame of reference. 3. 6. 3Documentary Source

Documentary sources is the method that involves deriving information by carefully studying written documents or visual information from sources such called documents (Enon, 1995). These include textbooks, newspapers, articles, speeches, advertisements, pictures and many others. In carrying out this study a number of existing literatures were reviewed by undertaking published and unpublished materials, Magazines, Seminar papers, and leaflets on sexual harassment and books were reviewed. This helped to cross check information gathered by using other methods of data collection employed in this study.

Moreover, materials retrieved from the Internet especially that on Sexual Harassment were also used. Different Websites were used to get online sources of information. The web was mostly preferred because there is very little literature on Sexual Harassment in Higher Learning in Tanzania that is available in a print form.  Questionnaires were put to test by means of a pretest. The pilot study was carried out in 2 Institutions. The procedure enabled the researcher to check if the questions were feasible and answerable.

Also it aimed at checking the reliability and validity of the instruments that were going to be used. Inconsistencies and areas of ambiguity that were spotted were corrected before final production of the instruments. To be sure the pre-test was reliable, the researcher applied the instruments to each category of the respondents interviewed. Thus 6 questionnaires and 6 face to face interviews were administered. This helped the researcher to modify the instruments, as needed, according to the results. Pilot study is frequently defined as a smaller version of a proposed study conducted to refine methodology (Van Ort, 1981).

The pilot study was undertaken to develop and refine the steps in the research process and developed a research plan and tested the developed plan. The raw data from the questionnaires was classified into usable categories, edited, coded and then analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The data analysis was done to obtain tabulations and cross tabulation relevant to the research questions. According to Hibberd (1990), diagrams that give the reader a more immediate impression than numbers alone can communicate results very effectively.

He argues that to emphasize any important finding, to be presented in it should be presented in graphical form and sometimes in tables. The researcher used some few tables and figures. The qualitative data obtained trough observations and interviews were analyzed manually. Hence, the findings were not tabulated because of the difficulties involved in the analysis and coding of such type of unstructured questions. All these different methods of data collection ensured quality data. The data is used to examine whether or not there is Sexual harassment in Higher Learning Institution in Tanzania.

A major limitation of this study was on how to get a reliable data on sexual harassment, which is a notoriously difficult to collect data because it is a practice that often remains invisible, is never reported or is completely ignored. In addition as Imasogie (2000) indicated in her research findings, there is considerable disagreement about what constitutes sexual harassment, ‘to one person, an arm around the shoulder may be perceived as a gesture of affection.

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