ASSESSING INCIDENTS OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT AMONG THETERTIARYINSTITUTIONS IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study was undertaken to assess the incidents of Sexual Harassment among the tertiary institutions in Lagos State, Nigeria. The participants in the study comprised 300 students (150 males and 150 females) and 90(45 males and 45 females) members of staff, multi stage sampling technique was adopted. Tertiary institutions in Lagos State was stratified into 3 strata using the three major tertiary institutions (Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education), 130 participants were randomly selected in each of the stratum. Incidents of Sexual Harassment Rating Scale (ISHRS) was developed and administered to the participants, three research questions were raised to guide the study, descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. Descriptive statistics was used for data analysis; there was high (75.6%) prevalence of Sexual harassment in major tertiary institutions in Lagos State. Findings revealed the Colleges of Education (90.8%) had the highest level of sexual harassment in major tertiary institutions in
Lagos State followed by the University (84.6%) with the Polytechnic having the least (44.6%) level of sexual harassment. It was recommended that management of tertiary institutions should develop policy statements indicating intolerance of sexual harassment and also create an accessible procedure for complaints