Women's perceptions of helpful and hindering incidents in coping with sexual harassment.

This qualitative study employed the Critical Incident Technique to examine women's perceptions of helpful and hindering incidents in experiences of coping with sexual harassment. Fifteen women completed individual interviews as participants for the study. Incidents were extracted from interview data and sorted into helpful and hindering incidents in the context of actions of participants versus actions of others. Fifteen major categories and nine subcategories were formed. Emotional support, seeking social support (i.e., protecting younger coworkers, banding together with other women, confiding in female coworker), and incidents which helped stop the harassment were described as significantly helpful. Incidents in which harassment did not stop or was perceived to get worse, or incidents in which the participant did not feel emotionally supported and even blamed for being in the situation were described as significantly hindering. Implications for counseling practice and employers are presented and recommendations for future research are discussed. --P.ii.