Unfulfilled bodily rights in higher education: Development of sexual harassment policies during the past two decades

Various researchers contend that realizations of citizenship rights in the sphere of the individual are influenced by official citizenship status, age, social class, nationality, disability, religion, sexuality and gender. These dimensions that define citizenship are significant within organizations. Thus citizenship is a useful, important concept in elaborating the equality of conditions in educational institutions such as universities. This article focuses on sexual harassment in universities, which the authors consider a violation of citizenship rights. The article explores the shortcomings and insufficiencies of university sexual harassment policies and developments that have occurred since the university in northern Finland renewed and revised its sexual harassment policies. This study employs a qualitative method and is characterized by a gender-sensitive approach. The message that sexual harassment is forbidden at university has remained the same in policy documents over the past two decades; however, the issue of sexual harassment at university has become increasingly visible. Despite the existing policies and their development from 1990 to 2011, students and staff have experienced – and continue to experience – sexual harassment that hinders the full realization of their citizenship, that is, the intertwined fulfilment of bodily and intellectual rights at university.