To comply with federal mandates and reduce liability, universities, corporations, the military, and other big organizations require that their members participate in training intended to reduce sexual harassment and assault. Does training produce the desired effects? This study explores the consequences of mandatory, in person sexual misconduct training on attitudes among undergraduate students, including rape myths, willingness to report, and adherence to gender stereotypes. Finding that training produces mixed effects, we consider the advantages and disadvantages of state intervention to change social norms.

Mala Htun is a professor of political science at the University of New Mexico and co-PI and deputy director of ADVANCE at UNM, a NSF-funded program to promote women and minority STEM faculty. She works on comparative politics, women’s rights, politics of race and ethnicity, and Latin American politics. She co-chairs the APSA Presidential Task Force on Women’s Advancement and chairs the APSA’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession, as well as the APSA 2018 Diversity and Inclusion Hackathon.

This presentation is cosponsored by the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the School of Public Health, the Aurora Center, and the departments of Psychology, Political Science, Communication Studies, Spanish and Portuguese Studies, Organizational Leadership, Policy and Development, and Sociology.