The sexual harassment of female active-duty personnel: Effects on job satisfaction and intentions to remain in the military

This paper examines the relationship between sexual harassment and the job satisfaction and intended turnover of active-duty women in the US military. Using single-equation probit models, we find that experiencing a sexually harassing behavior is associated with reduced job satisfaction and heightened intentions to leave the military. However, bivariate probit results indicate that failing to control for individuals’ unobserved, time-invariant characteristics leads single-equation estimates to be overstated. Similarly, controlling for women’s views about whether they have been sexually harassed reduces the single-equation estimates of the effect of the harassing behavior itself on job satisfaction and intentions to leave the military. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classification: J16; J28