The invisible repression : A qualitative studie of how gender and power impacts school councelors work against sexual harassment

Sexual harassment is a significant problem in school despite policies and guidelines designed to combat the issue. The aim of this study is to illustrate, through feminist theory, how gender and power structures affect school counselors in their work to prevent sexual harassment. With the use of qualitative method we have collected our material through focus group interview with school counselors working at junior high schools. Subsequently, we analyzed the material by using narrative content analysis, and created a collective narrative by combining the school counselors stories. The theories we use include structural theory, feminist theory, and the concept of hard and soft repression. Our results show that school counselors have a structural understanding of sexual harassment, but they face different kinds of resistance in their work to combat the issue: including resistance from themselves, from the organisation, and from society as a whole. Structural understanding is paramount to understanding the importance of a preemptive approach