Independent Researcher

How do diverse groups of women in Canada define sexual harassment? To answer this ques-tion requires incorporating race and citizenship into the analysis of sexual harassment. The authors use data from seven focus groups of Canadian women. The white women with full cit-izenship rights most easily identify with existing legal understandings of sexual harassment and believe they have the right to report their harassment. For women of color and women without full citizenship rights, issues of racialized sexual harassment emerge as central fac-tors in their harassment experience. Black women with full citizenship rights call into ques-tion whether the term sexual harassment captures their experiences. Filipinas working as live-in caregivers on limited visas demonstrate how racism and lack of citizenship changes definitions of sexual harassment. Their experiences of harassment combine elements of iso-lation due to their lack of citizenship, racialized sexual harassment, and abuse. The authors argue that intersectional analyses are needed to understand women’s harassment experi-ences and their ability to complain and seek legal recourse