INTRODUCTION

The world is full of different form of evil acts including gender-based violence and harassments against women. The common form of gender-based violence is sexual harassment of women. It is characterized by a variety of repugnant and unwanted sexual acts committed against women at the expense of their liberty and comfort.¹

Sexual harassment occurs when someone is inappropriately approached, addressed, given unwarranted sexual remarks, due to their perceived or real gender, sexual orientation, or gender expression.² Welsh et al defined sexual harassment as an annoying sexual behavior.³ It is demonstrated through a forceful act,⁴ as it is usually perpetrated by more powerful actors against lower status targets.⁵ For instance, it can emanate from superior to subordinate in a workplace, from same gender and different genders (male to female) in various points.

Sexual harassment behaviours may be divided into three categories: verbal, nonverbal, and physical sexual harassment.⁶ According to Gautam et al,⁶ many women around the world are eschewing traditional roles and engaging in more public life to improve their educational and employment prospects. As a result of these daily activities, many women are more likely to encounter sexual harassment in public places, such as public transportation.⁷ Although sexual harassment is inherently gender-based, women are affected differently than males. According to Lindberg et al,⁸ women are more likely to claim that they have been objectified, denigrated, or treated differently because of the gender inferiority that is posed by the society. Harassment of males on the other hand is usually in the form of vulgar and homophobic remarks to reinforce conventional gender roles.⁹

In high school, the majority of students also encounter certain types of sexual harassment, either infrequently (59%) or frequently (27%), with girls suffering more severe and persistent forms than boys.¹⁰ Although sexual harassment is widespread, there is little information on the types of harassment that teenage females and males encounter. Sexual harassment may have a long-lasting harmful impact on the physical, emotional, and mental condition of an individial.⁶ It may have long-term detrimental effects on a person’s general wellness, including causing long-term sadness, escalating anxiety, and lowering self-esteem.

Studies found that there are several effects of sexual harassment in the tertiary institutions. For instance, it was revealed that sexual harassment contributes to poor health, anxiety, lack of motivation, and high dropout rates.¹¹ Those who experienced sexual harassment in higher education suffered physical, psychological, and professional repercussions. Examples of these effects are annoyance, rage, tension, discomfort, helplessness, and degrading sentiments. It is generally known that depression may result from sexual harassment in higher education.¹²

Additionally, sexual harassment in the tertiary institutions causes anxiety,¹³ post-traumatic stress disorder,¹⁴ physical pain,⁶ unintended pregnancies and STDs,¹⁵ increased alcohol consumption,¹⁶ weakened career opportunities, and decreased job motivation.¹¹ Factors specifically linked to the workplace frequently include absenteeism, decreased job satisfaction; engagement and productivity, decreased self-confidence and persons providing notice of their employment.¹⁷ Conflicts at work can result even from seeing or learning that a co-worker has been subjected to sexual harassment, which is known as “bystander stress”.¹⁸

To provide commuters with long-term mobility services, public transport is essential. As women use public transportation more frequently than men do, having access to safe, inexpensive, and dependable public transportation for women should be everyone’s top priority.¹⁹ Sadly, for many girls and women throughout the world, whose safety is still jeopardized when utilizing public transport, this is not the case. For instance, several studies have shown the high occurrence of sexual harassment of women on public transportation.^20,21 Nonetheless, many cases of sexual harassment in public transportation frequently go undetected.

Women of all ages are susceptible to sexual harassment on public transportation, but young individuals, such as university students, are expose to more danger.⁶ Compared to other urban residents, university students are a demographic that is more active and dependent on public transportation because of their low income and lack of private vehicles.¹⁹ A study conducted in Asia documented the incidence of sexual harassment of female university students on public transportation.⁶ In Africa, studies of Kanyama et al,²² and Olorunfemi and Adeniran²³ have examined commuter challenges generally, while Mark looked at challenges of gender-based violence facing secondary school girls²⁴ in public transportation. However, they did not specifically examine sexual harassment among university female students in public transportation.

Sexual harassment of female students in public transportation, particularly in metropolitan settings has been linked to different factors such as the time of travel, frequency of usage, the kind of users, and overcrowding in the vehicles.²⁵ According to reports, 78% of female students at Kathmandu’s five health science colleges reported being sexually harassed while using public transit, with the majority of victims being between the ages of 20 and 23.⁶ Mosha et al²⁶ conducted a study among female first-year undergraduate students, who use public transport and are aged 18 years and above studying at the University of Dar es Salaam and Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences. It was revealed that the overall prevalence of sexual harassment on public transport was 88%. The study further revealed that verbal harassment was the most common form of sexual harassment (95%).

From the angle of socioeconomic characteristics of individuals on the occurrence of sexual harassment, Cortina and Wasti²⁵ explained how power and culture impacts sexual harassment in Turkey and the USA. Fasting et al²⁷ examined the experiences of Czech, Greek, and Norwegian female sport students with sexual harassment. Fielden et al²⁸ examined the effect of power and culture on reporting rates of sexual harassment in the UK.

Rapid urban expansion of Nigerian cities is still being accompanied by a rise in the demand for social and transportation services. In developing nations like Nigeria, where public transportation is more widely used, there is also an issue with women being sexually harassed on the roads.²² There is a need to identify and rebuke the act of sexual harassment in whatsoever form and contest against it in various works of life including the private and public locations, workplaces, streets, and public transport. This will enhance and strengthen interpersonal courteousness and politeness.

Despite being a widespread problem there isn’t much research in Nigeria that examines the sexual harassment of women on public transportation. Based on literature search on the subject matter, there were no published studies that examined the degree and manifestations of sexual harassment among female university students who utilize public transportation in Nigeria. Hence, this study examined the occurrence of sexual harassment among a population of Nigerian female university students in Akure, Ondo State who travel by public transportation. This is to contribute to knowledge on the experiences of young female students in a Nigerian university who encounter sexual harassment when commuting with the use of public transport.

METHODOLOGY

Study Design and Setting

This was a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted from 10^th – 15^th March 2023 at the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), Ondo State, Nigeria. The university has a north gate area through which a lot of students commute between 10am – 12pm, and 3pm – 5pm daily.

Study Population

The study population were female undergraduate students of FUTA.

Eligibility Criteria

Only female undergraduate students of FUTA who were aged 20 years and above were eligible and failure to give consent was the only exclusion criteria.

Sample size determination

Formular for sample size in cross-sectional studies as derived by Zikmund²⁹ was used as follows:

n=Z²/4E²

n is the sample size,

Z is the Z score for a 95% confidence interval; 1.96, and

E is the allowed error margin; 0.05.

By substituting the above,

n = (1.96)²/4(0.05)²

n = 3.8416/4(0.0025)

n = 3.8416/0.01

n = 384

A sample size of 384 respondents was achieved through the formula but was approximated to 400 for attrition.

Data Collection and Sampling Technique

Primary data was gathered from respondents who used the north gate at FUTA between 10am – 12pm, and 3pm – 5pm daily through the use of electronic questionnaires (Google form). Convenience sampling was employed to select eligible students that gave consent to participate until the questionnaire link was shared to 400 respondents.

Data Analysis

Data were reviewed and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 21. For descriptive statistics, frequencies and percentages were used to summarize the data. Chi Square test was employed to measure the association between variables. Statistical significance was a p-value < 0.05.