‘I’m a troublemaker’: the need to focus on early-career academics’ experiences of sexual harassment in Ireland

Abstract

The issue of sexual harassment of early-career academics in Ireland has recently been brought to the fore through the mainstream media. Little research has been undertaken, however, on highlighting and documenting such experiences, leading to a lack of awareness and dearth of specifically targeted initiatives for this cohort. The authors, themselves early-career academics, attempt to highlight this problem by sharing data generated through focus group interviews with early-career academics, who reported experiences of sexual harassment in the context of challenges they faced in their work environment. The data presented here are shared to highlight these issues as being more common among early-career academics than believed. The authors call for further research to be undertaken focusing on early-career academics in order to raise awareness of such issues and for more resources to be developed to prevent and respond to sexual harassment and violence in higher education in Ireland.