You Can Knock on the Doors and Windows of the University, but Nobody Will Care: How Universities Benefit from Network Silence around Gender-Based Violence

Vilana Pilinkaite Sotirovic (), Anke Lipinsky, Katarzyna Struzińska and Beatriz Ranea-Triviño
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Vilana Pilinkaite Sotirovic: Institute of Sociology, Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, 01108 Vilnius, Lithuania
Anke Lipinsky: Center of Excellence Women and Science (CEWS), Department Data and Research on Society, GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, 50667 Cologne, Germany
Katarzyna Struzińska: Department of Sociology of Law, Faculty of Law and Administration, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, 31-007 Cracow, Poland
Beatriz Ranea-Triviño: Department of Applied Sociology, Faculty of Information Science, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain

Social Sciences, 2024, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: This paper exposes the role of universities in creating silence around gender-based violence in higher education, drawing on narratives from 39 qualitative interviews with victims/survivors and bystanders about reporting incidents and experiences. In this paper, we extend concept of ‘network silence’ around sexual harassment to other forms of gender-based violence. Our research applies three components of the theoretical model of network silence, namely, self-silencing by victims/survivors, silencing, and not hearing by others, and analyses their contextual manifestations through the reporting experiences of victims/survivors and bystanders. This helps to identify the traits of the informal organisational structures and power dynamics, gendered attitudes, actors, and factors which facilitate silencing. The intersectional approach in our analysis of organisational contextual traits contributes to the research on inequality regimes in universities. The findings suggest that universities are making limited efforts to address silence around gender-based violence. We conclude that shared beliefs among the leadership about the reputation and prestige of the university facilitate the endurance of silence in universities. Our findings indicate reasons why universities fail to create spaces that are safe from gender-based violence.

Keywords: silencing; network silence; reporting; sexual harassment; higher education; institutional practices; qualitative analysis; inequality regime; intersectionality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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