I have seen people drop out of groups and out of activism when their views were not respected. When trust in such groups is seen to be used for sexual purposes, the disillusionment can be intense. Some of these issues have parallells in formal work situations, and so it may be worth describing these situations. The following comments are based on my experience on sexual harassment committees at two universities. To count as sexual harassment, behaviours must be unsolicited, unreciprocated and unwelcome.
Sexual harassment is one of the ways by which the system of patriarchy is maintained.
Undoubtedly, sexual harassment occurs in some activist groups, although in all my reading of sexual harassment articles and books, I have never seen reference to it, possibly because most of these writings deal with government and corporate workplaces. Most nonviolent activists would be well aware that such behaviours are unacceptable. These cases are not sexual harassment in the strict sense, but are related to it. The first type of problem is conflict of interest. It is difficult to be objective when marking the work of one's sexual partner and, even if one could be objective, the relationship might cause other students to believe that bias was involved.