This study examines the impact of personally experiencing sexual harassment on women’s subjective well-being and perceptions of gender relations and society. We draw upon large-scale national probability panel data and utilize propensity score matching to identify (1) women who reported sexual harassment in the past year and (2) a matched control group of women who were comparable in outcome and demographic variables in the previous year but did not report sexual harassment (N_{matched pairs} = 609). We then compare pre- and post-event levels of well-being and system justification across groups, including the perceived fairness of gender relations and society in general. Women who reported sexual harassment experienced significant pre-to-post declines in well-being (lower life satisfaction, higher psychological distress) and reductions in perceptions that gender relations, and broader society, are fair. Critically, these changes were significantly different than matched controls who did not show the same pre-post changes in well-being or system justification. These results provide robust evidence that sexual harassment has detrimental effects on well-being and document the previously unexamined effect of sexual harassment on women’s reduced support for the (gendered) status quo, which has important implications for social change.

这项研究探讨了个人经历性骚扰对女性主观幸福感以及对性别关系和社会的看法的影响。我们利用大规模的全国概率小组数据，并利用倾向评分匹配来识别（1）过去一年报告性骚扰的女性和（2）去年在结果和人口变量方面具有可比性的匹配对照组女性年，但未报告性骚扰 (N _{matched pairs} = 609)。然后，我们比较不同群体的事件前后的福祉水平和制度合理性，包括性别关系和整个社会的公平感。报告性骚扰的女性在前后经历了幸福感的显着下降（生活满意度较低，心理困扰较高），并且对性别关系和更广泛社会的公平感的看法也有所下降。至关重要的是，这些变化与匹配对照显着不同，后者在幸福感或系统合理性方面没有表现出相同的前后变化。这些结果提供了强有力的证据，表明性骚扰对福祉产生不利影响，并记录了性骚扰对女性对（性别）现状的支持减少的先前未经检验的影响，这对社会变革具有重要影响。