The Specter of Gendered Aggression: Predicting Students’ Level of Comfort at Weekend Campus Parties

• In Event: 435 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 17. Gender and College Experiences

Abstract

The current study examines demographic, interactional, and institutional factors that predict undergraduate students’ perceived level of comfort at weekend campus fraternity parties on a small private liberal arts university campus in the South. Relying on an online survey and 50 face-to-face interviews conducted in spring 2013, we find that gender, gender microaggressions and harassment on campus, classroom discussions of gender and sexism, and perceived level of institutional support for gender bigotry are significant predictors of students’ level of comfort at campus fraternity parties. Qualitative findings shed further light on these patterns and indicate that women are less likely than men to feel comfortable at fraternity parties largely because of the perceived levels of aggressive behavior by men towards women, which we term the specter of gendered aggression. Our mixed methods approach, small liberal arts university context, and analysis of factors both in and outside of the party setting offer important contributions to the existing scholarship on gender aggression at fraternity parties.

Authors

• Maria R. Lowe, Southwestern University

• Reginald Anthony Byron, Southwestern University