Tackling sexual harassment I: Evidence from a developing country

Last registered on October 20, 2019

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Tackling sexual harassment I: Evidence from a developing country

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0003678

Initial registration date

December 30, 2018

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

January 01, 2019, 2:26 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated

October 20, 2019, 10:06 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

India

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

karmini sharma

Affiliation

Stanford University

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2019-01-01

End date

2020-07-31

Keywords

Crime, Violence, & Conflict, Gender

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Abstract

Goal 5 of the sustainable development goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015 aims to eliminate all forms of discrimination and violence against women in public and private spheres and to undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources and access to ownership of property. Government of India has identified ending violence against women as a key national priority too. Brutal gangrape of a 23-year-old woman in 2012 in the capital of India led to an outcry against public apathy towards endemic sexual assault and harassment against women. A UN women’s study showed that 92% of women surveyed in Delhi had suffered from either sexual, visual or verbal harassment. Pervasive sexual harassment can have debilitating impacts on psychological, economic and social lives of the harassed.Tackling sexual harassment is difficult when there is a lack of reporting by survivors which can perpetuate harassment. Stigma attached to survivors of sexual harassment or assault reduces the likelihood that it gets reported to the police. This creates a lack of knowledge on prevalence of harassment. . Lack of information on sexual harassment can create public apathy towards it.
This project aims to undertake interventions to understand what is the role of lack of information about different aspects of the issue (incidence, intensity) and whether sensitization can help.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

sharma, karmini. 2019. "Tackling sexual harassment I: Evidence from a developing country." AEA RCT Registry. October 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3678-7.1

Former Citation

sharma, karmini. 2019. "Tackling sexual harassment I: Evidence from a developing country." AEA RCT Registry. October 20. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3678/history/55497

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

A Information for detection: Raising awareness and legal knowledge about sexual harassment and its detection.
B Information intervention : Providing information about sexual harassment, prevalence,its impact and and steps to intervene, gender norms and relation with harassment, legal information on sexual harassment.
C Sensitization: Sensitization about stereotypes, gender and its relation to harassment and violence.

Intervention Start Date

2019-02-19

Intervention End Date

2019-03-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Attitudes and outcomes related to sexual harassment.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

A.Randomly selected individuals are provided with information on sexual harassment detection.
B.Students in randomly selected classes are provided information on prevalence, legal knowledge, norms and its relation to harassment
C.Students in second group of randomly selected classes are provided with sensitization training.

Experimental Design Details

Outcomes for women in the same classes for B and C will be collected before and after the intervention.
Individual womens' outcomes will be collected for A using their treatment status.
Intervention A will be undertaken only with women
Intervention B and C are to be undertaken for men in randomly selected classes to then collect main outcomes for women in their classes.
The interventions above will be undertaken in two separate educational institutions.
In one educational institution, half of female students from 1580 will be randomly selected to receive information treatment A, and other half will form the control group. This will be in the form of a survey experiment. Then male students of 37 randomly selected classes in the same institution will receive intervention B while other 37 randomly selected classes will be the control group.
Finally in the second educational institution, male students in 37 randomly selected classes will receive intervention C while other 37 randomly selected classes will be the control group. The project will track final and mechanism outcomes for women and intermediate or mechanism outcomes for men.
Also the primary outcomes include:
1)Sexual harassment reporting (formal or informal), attitudes towards reporting, exposure to harassment, awareness and intervention,
2) labour market aspirations, psychological well being, academic performance.

Also secondary or intermediary outcomes include
1) Perception of peer attitudes, Participation in gender forum events, attitudes towards gender equality, attitudes towards reporting and support for harassment/rape myths. (this value stays hidden to ensure students do not read about it)

Randomization Method

randomization done in office by a computer

Randomization Unit

Individual randomization for interventions in A
Class level randomization for interventions in B and C

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

150 classes

Sample size: planned number of observations

For A+B+C 7000 students 150 classes

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

1) 790 students for intervention in A and 790 students in the control group.
2) 37 classes for information intervention B and 38 for control group.
3) 37 classes for sensitization training C and 38 for control group.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB