Knowledge Level and Incidence of Sexual Harassment in Sports : Views of Ghanaian Female University Athletes

This paper is the first part of a study that investigated the issue of sexual harassment in university sports in Ghana. Specifically this paper sought to find out female university athletes’ views on knowledge of sexual harassment and their experiences of it. Descriptive survey research design was used to conduct the study. Purposive sampling technique was employed to select One Hundred and Sixty-Seven (167) female respondents for the study. The instrument used in gathering data was a questionnaire titled “Questionnaire on Sexual Harassment Against Female University Athletes in Ghana (QSHAFUAGH)” structured and developed by the researchers. The QSHAFUAGH was validated by two jurors in the field of physical education and sport, from Ghana and Nigeria and was tested for reliability using Split-half method. A reliability correlation coefficient of .91r was obtained from the reliability testing. In all, one research question and two research hypotheses were formulated, answered and tested at 0.05 alpha level of significance. Data collected were analyzed using percentages and chi-square (x2) statistical method. The findings from the study showed that; sexual harassment against female university athletes is relatively high in Ghana; female university athletes are highly knowledgeable on what constitutes sexual harassment; and the mass media is the leading source of information on sexual harassment among female athletes. Based on these findings, the study recommends that: the focus of sexual harassment education should shift from knowledge to empowerment; management of the various universities should provide the right environment, avenues or channels for female athletes to report acts of harassment perpetrated against them in the course of their participation in sports on campus without fear of victimization; and some sanctions should be instituted by management of the various universities and GUSA on perpetrators of sexual harassment against female university athletes.


Introduction
argued that sexual harassment in educational institutions, like other forms of gender violence, is an attack on the mind as well as the body which has the potential of interfering with a student's academic performance and completion, and his/her life itself.In support of the seriousness of sexual harassment in education, Bursik and Gefter (2011) acknowledged that sexual harassment in the academic context continues to be a widespread problem with significant legal, psychological, and economic consequences.It is important to state that sexual harassment is not confined to only educational institutions.Literature available shows the incidence of this phenomenon in a wide range of places including businesses, workplaces, the police and military (McDonald, 2012;Cortina & Wasti, 2005;Hearn & Parkin, 2001;Fitzgerald, Drasgow & Magley, 1999;Gutek, 1985).Infact, early cases of sexual harassment documented were reported to have occurred at workplaces (MacKinnon, 1979).
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) of the United States of America in 1980 defined sexual harassment as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favours, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.This constitutes sexual harassment when the conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.These includes, that the victim and harasser can be of the same sex, that the harasser need not be employed by the victim's organization, and that the victim can be anyone affected by the conduct (including those not directly targeted).Two main forms or types of sexual harassment have been identified in this definition; Quid pro quo and hostile environment.The EEOC (1980) stated that the Quid pro quo sexual harassment involves actual or threatening use of rewards or punishment from an organizationally dominant person to gain sexual favours from a subordinate.This means that a person in authority uses his powers to solicit for sexual favours either by threats or promise of rewards like favouritism or promotion.The hostile environment on the other hand, is a sexual conduct that establishes an offensive environment and interferes with a person's ability to adequately perform a job or obtain an education.Hostile environment does not necessarily involve formal hierarchical relationships and encompasses a broader spectrum of the behaviours such as making lewd remarks, using demeaning languages exhibiting sexual photographs or posters and circulating sexual rumours about a person (Oladepo & Brieger, 2000).
In an educational setting, sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, which can include unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal, nonverbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature.Thus, sexual harassment can include conduct such as touching of a sexual nature, making sexual comments, jokes, or gestures; writing graffiti or displaying or distributing sexually explicit drawings, pictures, or written materials, calling students sexually charged names; spreading sexual rumors, rating students on sexual activity or performance, or circulating, showing, or creating e-mails or web sites of a sexual nature (U.S.Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, 2010).
According to Quaicoe-Duho (2010) the African Women Lawyers Association (AWLA) operationally defined sexual harassment as any unwelcome conduct, comment, gesture or contact of sexual nature, whether on a one time basis or a series of incidents, that might cause offence, humiliation, awkwardness or embarrassment, or that might reasonably be conceived as placing a condition of a sexual nature on employment, opportunity for promotion, grades, etc.
Ghana's Domestic Violence Act (2007) defines sexual harassment as harassment including intimidation by inducing fear in another person; and behaviour or conduct that in any way harms or may harm another person, endangers the safety, health or well-being of another person, undermines another person's privacy, integrity or security, or detracts or is likely to detract from another person's dignity and worth as a human being.Ghana's Labour Act ( 2003) also defines sexual harassment at the work place as any unwelcome offensive and importunate sexual advance or request made by an employer or superior or a co-worker to a worker whether the worker or officer is a man or woman.
Although these legislations (Domestic Violence Act, 2007;Labour Act , 2003) are meant to protect women in Ghana from sexual harassment, studies by Norman, Aikens and Binka (2013), Morley(2011) and Akaab (2011) have revealed that sexual harassment is a real issue on university campuses that requires urgent attention.Echoing similar sentiments, Britwum and Anokye (2006) in their book titled "Confronting Sexual Harassment in Ghanaian Universities" identified sexual harassment as a serious problem on university campuses and lamented that there were hardly any formal policies on sexual harassment in these public universities.While acknowledging that universities in Ghana may have internal mechanisms in managing cases of sexual harassment, these authors (Britwum and Anokye ) raised the question of whether the universities had the requisite expertise to go beyond the normal to handle this rather complex phenomenon.
Controversies on definition of what really constitutes sexual harassment have not helped in any way in dealing with this rather sensitive and complex phenomenon.Zindi (2002) opined that there exists much confusion about what exactly constitutes sexual harassment, as well as about procedures appropriate for dealing with the issue.Even in the face of all the law, literature and discussions on this phenomenon, experts remain confused and concerned about what really constitutes sexual harassment.The lack of a universally accepted definition of what constitutes sexual harassment makes it very difficult to objectively measure and quantify.This even makes it more difficult to interpret correctly findings of surveys and research studies on issues of sexual harassment (European Commission for Employment, Industrial Relations and Social Affairs, 1998).Aryeetey (2004) added that the concept of sexual harassment suffers from ambiguity in its definition and is often confused with courting or playful flirting.

Literature Review
Norman, Aikens and Binka (2013) investigated sexual harassment in public medical schools in Ghana and concluded that victims of sexual harassment had a high level of knowledge on what sexual harassment was and their knowledge was consistent with definitions of sexual harassment articulated nationally and internationally by researchers.Findings from the study showed that 97.2% of female medical school students in Ghanaian public universities knew acts like unwanted physical contact, unwanted sexual comments or jokes, inappropriate or unwanted gifts for sex, sexually provocative looks, threats with sexual demands, offer of help if sexual demands are met and rape or sexual assault constituted sexual harassment against them.Agyepong (2010) studied the issue of sexual harassment against female students in Ghanaian secondary schools using a sample size of 522 participants.Among the research questions, two items measured knowledge level of sexual harassment of the students.Results on the first item showed that 77.6% of the female students had a substantial knowledge of sexual harassment of females in schools, whiles 22.4% had a limited knowledge of the issue.For item two, results indicated that 57.7% of respondents claimed to have a good knowledge about the issue, whiles 42.3% of the respondents said they knew just a little about sexual harassment altogether.These findings led the researcher to conclude that just a few of the female students were not knowledgeable about the issue and might have been harassed without knowing and also since a number of female students in the schools still did not have in-depth knowledge about sexual harassment, it was necessary to equip them with more detailed information on all behaviours that constituted sexual harassment to enable them handle and deal with the issue when they are faced with it.Lee, Song and Kim (2011) studied the experiences and perceptions of sexual harassment among Korean nursing students during clinical practice.Results from the study showed that 17.9% (97 students) of the participants had surely experienced sexual harassment, 75.5% (409 students) had not experienced sexual harassment, and 6.6% (36 students) did not know exactly whether what they experienced was sexual harassment or not.In the same study, the researchers found that the nursing students did not have thorough knowledge about what constituted sexual harassment, after an 18 item checklist answered by the same students resulted in discrepancies in responses given.This led the researchers to conclude that such a discrepancy was because the nursing students did not know exactly what actions or behaviours constituted sexual harassment.
A study by Desouky and Marawan (2013) on awareness and experience of sexual harassment among Menoufiya University students in Egypt revealed that, both males and females had good knowledge on what constituted sexual harassment, however female students (83%) had a much higher knowledge level compared to males (54.2%) on what constituted different forms of sexual harassment.This position was corroborated by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) and the Department of Special Education and Counselling of the Hong Kong Institute of Education (2013) that female students had higher knowledge of what constituted sexual harassment compared to male students.Katsande (2008) in Zimbabwe also revealed that female trainee teachers had adequate knowledge and are aware of what constituted sexual harassment.
Literature on sources of knowledge of sexual harassment among students is limited.The mass media is reported as the main source of information of sexual harassment (Egyptian Center for Women 's Rights, 2007;Aryeetey, 2004).Desouky and Marawan (2013) found out in their study that both male (99.1%) and female (69.5%) students mentioned the media as their main source of knowledge.Results from Agyepong's (2010) study showed that 33.9% of female secondary school students mentioned the media as their source of knowledge concerning sexual harassment.Other sources of knowledge mentioned by respondents in this particular research were friends (30.7%), the students' institution (19.3%) and parents (19.3%).
According to Andoh (2011), about 74% of female employees and 42% of male employees in Ghana have experienced the following forms of sexual harassment within their working environment: unwanted repeated proposals; unwanted sexual teasing, jokes, questions or remarks; pressure for dates; unwanted love letters, cards, or telephone calls; unwanted sexual looks, gestures or pornographic materials; unwanted touching of intimate body parts; pressure for sexual favours, e.g.kisses etc; demand for sex in exchange for employment opportunities; demand for sex in exchange for employment-related benefits; and attempted or actual sexual assault or rape.Norman, Aikens and Binka (2013) found out that about 61% of women and 39% of men were more likely to be sexually harassed in Ghanaian medical schools.The African Women Lawyers Association ( 2003) puts the prevalence rate of sexual harassment in Ghana within workplaces and educational institutions as high as 63%.Akaab (2011) in her paper titled "Sexual Harassment for Grades in Tertiary Institutions-A Myth or Reality" reported that about 17.5% of respondents in tertiary institutions in Ghana had been victims of sexual harassment.At the senior high school level in Ghana, Agyepong's (2010) study revealed that almost 92% of female students had experienced some form of sexual harassment within the school term, an indication that there is a high occurrence of sexual harassment at that level of education too.
Outside Ghana, Iyabo (2012) reported that about 85 percent of female university students in Lagos, Nigeria had experienced physical and verbal forms of sexual harassment such as being touched, grabbed, brushed against, or as objects of cat-calls, whistling, derogatory remarks etc. Menon, Shilalukey, Siziya, Musepa, Malungo and Serpell (2011) found out that 37% of all participants in their research reported that they have been sexually harassed within the University of Zambia community.The findings from a study by Zindi (2002) showed that sexual harassment was rife in institutions of higher learning in Zimbabwe and that students failed to report such cases of sexual harassment for fear of victimization.Gervasio and Ruckdeschel (1992) opined that globally, it is estimated that over 50% of women have been sexually harassed at workplaces and between 20 to 30% of women in college have also experienced sexual harassment.
The American Association of University Women (2006) found out that 62 percent of female and 61 percent of male college students had experienced sexual harassment in their universities.Takashi (2001) reported that about 15 percent of undergraduates, 34 percent of graduate students, and 36 percent of teaching staff (both full-time and part-time) in Japan had experienced some forms of sexual harassment.
All over the world, sports is characterized by high levels of physical contact, emotional connection, visible maledominated atmospheres with uneven gender ratios, and unquestioned authority figures' power.These characteristics, according to experts such as Fastings ( 2005), and Brackenridge (2001), make the sports environment a potential breeding ground for sexual harassment.Highlighting the conducive nature of the sports setting for perpetration of sexual harassment against females, the Australian Sports Commission ( 2002) reported from a study that about one in four males consider it acceptable to touch others uninvited in sport, that more than one in two males consider sexually explicit language as part of sports and that one in ten female athletes perceive sexual propositions as part of sports and therefore accept it.
Studies on sexual harassment in sports, although few, have shown the seriousness of this problem and the potential harm it brings to individuals and the sports industry in general.It is estimated that between 20 to 50% of females are sexually harassed in sports at various levels (Fasting, 2005).Data on prevalence of sexual harassment in sports across countries differ greatly.This is expected, given the different methods employed by researchers, coupled with cultural differences as well as the illusive nature of the definition of sexual harassment itself.
A study carried out by the Centre Against Sexual Assault and Womensport and Recreation in Australia, revealed that although young women in sports had a clear understanding of sexual assault in relation to rape or indecent assault, their understanding of sexual harassment was unclear and confused (Morrone, 2003).The study attributed this confusion to the fact that the young women did not have a clear understanding of what really constituted sexual harassment against them.
Safe Sport International (2014), reviewed 466 items in sports literature globally, and reported that sexual harassment and abuse in sports was as high as 28%, with sexual harassment alone accounting for about 12%.Muchena and Mapfumo (2012) conducted a study on sexual harassment among elite sportswomen in tertiary Institutions in Zimbabwe and found out that of the one hundred and fifty-five respondents, 14 % had experienced some form of sexual harassment from one or a combination of these: their male coaches, male administrators, male peer athletes or male spectators.These findings led the researchers to conclude that sexual harassment incidences existed among elite sportswomen in Zimbabwe's tertiary institutions.Nogueras (2010) studied the experiences and coping responses of sexual harassment among Puerto Rican female student-athletes on two university campuses using a sample size of 170.Results showed that 69% of the sample experienced some form of sexual harassment.Specifically, the study found out that 63.4% of these female collegiate athletes had experienced at least one incident of gender harassment, 46.4% unwanted sexual attention, and 5% sexual coercion.In Turkey, Gündüz, Sunay, and Koz (2007) found out that 56 % of a sample of 356 athletes had been sexually harassed by mostly spectators, teammates and coaches.The study further revealed that out of the 200 female athletes who had been sexually harassed, the frequency of harassment was as follows; only once (12 %), one to three times (31%), four to eight times (7%), five to eight time (5%), and all the time 4 %.Another study in Turkey by Zengin (2012) however, found out that only 5% of female athletes had experienced sexual harassment.Findings by Leahy, Pretty, and Tenenbaum (2002) from Australia show that 31% of female and 21% of male athletes had experienced some form of sexual abuse and of these, 41% of females and 29% of males had been sexually abused within the sports environment.In the United States of America, Lackey (1990) reported that 20 percentage of female university athletes reported of having experienced sexual harassment such as profanity, and intrusive physical contacts, whiles Fedjin and Hanegby (2001) found that 14 % of Israeli and American female athletes had also experienced sexual harassment.An online survey conducted by Alexander, Stafford and Lewis (2011) involving over 6,000 United Kingdom students, aged between 18 and 22 years, revealed that about 29% of the students had experienced various forms of sexual harassment in sports.Toftegaard (1998), using a sample of 250 male and female Danish sport college students in a research on sexual harassment, reported that 25% of the sample either knew about or had themselves experienced situations where a sport participant under the age of eighteen years old had been sexually harassed by a coach.A study by Fasting, Brackenridge, and Sundgot-Borgen (2004) in Norway, examined sexual harassment prevalence among 56 different sports, involving 553 female athletes.Findings showed that twenty-eight percent of the female athletes reported of being sexually harassed in sport, of which 15% were harassed by authority figures and 19% by peer athletes.A survey of female athletes' experiences of sexual harassment in the Czech Republic revealed that 72% of the female athletes who responded to the survey experienced some form of sexual harassment (Fasting, Brackenridge & Knorre, 2003).
While acknowledging that sexual harassment can be perpetrated against males and females, the literature globally is unanimous that majority of victims are females.Therefore the focus of this study was to investigate the issue of sexual harassment among female university athletes in Ghana.Research on sexual harassment in sports in developing countries like Ghana is limited.The few studies conducted on this phenomenon in Ghana also focused on areas outside sports.This current paper is the first part of a study carried out on sexual harassment involving female university athletes in Ghana.The intention was to fill the apparent research gap identified by providing empirical evidence of this phenomenon of sexual harassment within a sports context in Ghana's tertiary educational system.Specifically, this paper addressed the following: (i) female university athletes' knowledge level of what constituted sexual harassment; ii) their sources of such knowledge; and (ii) their experiences of sexual harassment.

Research Question
1. What are the sources of knowledge on sexual harassment among female university athletes in Ghana?

Research Hypotheses
1. Knowledge level of female university athletes in Ghana on sexual harassment will not be significantly high.2. Incidence of sexual harassment against female university athletes in Ghana will not be significantly high.

Methodology
A descriptive research design of the survey type was used for the study.The population comprised all 167 female student-athletes who participated in the 2015 Mini Ghana Universities Sports Association (Mini-GUSA) Games competition held at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi.The Mini-GUSA Games are organized biennially by the Ghana Universities Sports Association (GUSA) to select athletes for the World University Games (FISU Games).The 2015 Mini-GUSA Games involved sports disciplines such as Soccer, Badminton, Table Tennis, Tennis and Track and Field Athletics.All One Hundred and Sixty-Seven (167) female student-athletes who participated in these Games were purposively used for this study.Data was collected by an instrument titled "Questionnaire on Sexual Harassment Against Female University Athletes in Ghana (QSHAFUAGH)".The QSHAFUAGH, which comprised 51 "Agree" or "Disagree" items, was adapted from instruments by Equal Opportunities Commission and the Department of Special Education and Counselling of the Hong Kong Institute of Education (2013), Agyepong (2010) and Hsueh (2001).The first 16 items on the QSHAFUAGH, which measured views of female studentathletes on knowledge level of what constituted sexual harassment, sources of knowledge on sexual harassment and incidence of sexual harassment, were analyzed in this paper.The main instrument was validated by two jurors in the field of physical education and sport, from Ghana and Nigeria.Split-half method was used to determine the reliability of the instrument.Reliability coefficient result obtained for the whole instrument was .91.The single research question generated was answered using percentages, whiles the three research hypotheses formulated, were tested using inferential statistics of chi-square (x 2 ) at a .05alpha level of significance.
Research Question 1: What are the sources of knowledge on sexual harassment among female university athletes in Ghana?Table 1 shows the views of female university athletes on sources of knowledge on sexual harassment.Item by item analysis shows that 100 (59.9%) of respondents agreed that the mass media was their source of knowledge, whilst 67 (40.1%) disagreed.For item two, 99 (59.3%) agreed that friends were their source, whilst 68 (40.7%) disagreed.For item three, 92 (55.1%) agreed that their parents were their sources of knowledge on sexual harassment, whilst 75 (44.9)disagreed, and for item four, 99 (59.3%) also agreed that their institution was their source of knowledge, whilst 68 (40.7%) disagreed.The results revealed that majority of the respondents mentioned the mass media, followed by friends/institutions and parents as their sources of information on sexual harassment.
Hypothesis 1: Knowledge level of female university athletes in Ghana on sexual harassment will not be significantly high.  2 show a calculated chi-square value of 80.48 against a critical value of 14.07 with degree of freedom of 7 at 0.05alpha level of significance.Since the calculated chi-square value is greater than the critical value, the null hypothesis which stated that knowledge level of female university athletes in Ghana on sexual harassment will not be significantly high, is rejected.This means that female university athletes in Ghana have a high knowledge level of what sexual harassment is.In other words the female athletes know what actions or behaviours constitute sexual harassment against them.

Results in Table
Hypothesis 2: Incidence of sexual harassment against female university athletes in Ghana will not be significantly high.Results in Table 3 show a calculated chi-square value of 9.18 against a critical value of 7.81with degree of freedom of 3 at 0.05alpha level of significance.Since the calculated chi-square value is greater than the critical value, the null hypothesis which stated that incidence of sexual harassment against female university athletes in Ghana will not be significantly high, is rejected.This means that the occurrence of sexual harassment against female athletes in Ghanaian universities is quite high.In other words, a high percentage of female university athletes in Ghana are subjected to sexual harassment as a result of their participation in sports.
Research Question 1 addressed the issue of sources of knowledge on sexual harassment among female university athletes in Ghana.Findings revealed that all four sources of knowledge (mass media-59.99%,friends-59.3%, institutions-59.3%, and parents-55.1%)were popular sources of obtaining information on sexual harassment among female university athletes.In terms of ranking however, the mass media appeared the most popular source, followed closely by friends and institutions, before parents.This order is not surprising given that the world is now a global village in terms of communication technology.Students on university campuses obtain most of their information via the electronic media.Although outside sports, Desouky and Marawan (2013), Egyptian Center for Women's Rights (2007), Agyepong (2010) and Aryeetey (2004) all reported that the mass media was the main source of information on sexual harassment particularly among students.
Null hypothesis 1stated that knowledge level of female university athletes in Ghana on sexual harassment will not be significantly high.This was rejected, implying that female university athletes in Ghana, knew acts or behaviours such as: making seductive remarks about a person's appearance (65.9%), making sexually offensive gestures towards someone (85.6%), sexist comments such as jokes or remarks that are stereotypical or derogatory to members of one sex (62.9%), unwanted sexually suggestive looks that make a person uncomfortable (82.0%),the promise of making the team for engaging in sexual behaviours (79.6%), unwanted attempts to kiss, hug, touch or fondle someone (88.0%), forceful attempts of sexual touching or sexual intercourse (88.6%), and deliberately touching an athlete in a way that is inappropriate or discomforting (89.8%); constituted sexual harassment .Norman, Aikens and Binka (2013), Desouky and Marawan (2013), and Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) and the Department of Special Education and Counselling of the Hong Kong Institute of Education (2013) all reported similar findings in their various studies carried out within university settings.Agyepong (2010) reported similar findings of a high knowledge of what constituted sexual harassment among female Senior High School students in Ghana, whilst Katsande (2008) reported same among female teacher trainees in Zimbabwe.Findings and subsequent conclusions by Lee, Song and Kim (2011) that Korean nursing students did not know exactly what actions or behaviours constituted sexual harassment oppose the position of this current study.In a sports context, the revelation by Morrone (2003) that young Australian women in sports did not have a clear understanding of what really constituted sexual harassment against them contradicts what was found by this study.
Null hypothesis 2 which stated that incidence of sexual harassment against female university athletes in Ghana will not be significantly high, was also rejected, meaning that majority of female university athletes have been sexually harassed.Results in Table 3 revealed that 56.9% of the female athletes were of the view that sexual harassment was prevalent in university sports, 51.5% said they had personally experienced sexual harassment as athletes, 65.9% said they had heard of other female athletes in their own universities experiencing sexual harassment, whilst 64.1% of the female athletes claimed to have heard of other female athletes experiencing sexual harassment in other universities.In Ghana, findings from Norman, Aikens and Binka (2013), Agyepong's (2010), Andoh (2011) and African Women Lawyers Association (2003) revealed such high incidence of sexual harassment against females both in schools and at work places, confirming the findings of the current study.Even the 17.5% occurrence rate mentioned by Akaab (2011), although lower than what has been reported by this study, still confirms the incidence of sexual harassment against female students on Ghanaian university campuses.Outside Ghana, Iyabo (2012) and American Association of University Women (2006) have also reported such high incidence of sexual harassment against female students on university campuses.Menon, et. al. (2011), Takashi (2001), and Gervasio and Ruckdeschel (1992) however reported sexual harassment experiences among females on university campuses that were lower than what was reported by this study.In a sports context, findings from Nogueras' (2010) study on sexual harassment experiences of female studentathletes from two Puerto Rican universities mirror exactly the findings of this study.Gündüz et. al. (2007), Fasting (2005) and Fasting, Brackenridge and Knorre (2003) also reported similarly high experiences of sexual harassment among general populations of female athletes in their studies.Studies by Muchena and Mapfumo (2012), Zengin (2012), Leahy, Pretty, and Tenenbaum (2002), Toftegaard (1998) and Lackey (1990) however reported lower incidence rates of sexual harassment against female university athletes, contradicting the high rates reported by this study.Using female athletes in general as samples, Safe Sport International (2014), Fedjin and Hanegby (2001), Alexander et. al. (2011) and Fasting et. al. (2004) also reported lower occurrence rates of sexual harassment against female athletes, differing from the high rates reported by the current study.
The apparently high incidence of sexual harassment against female university athletes reported by this study is a disturbing revelation, given that majority of these female athletes (85%) are below 20 years.Could these prevalence rates observed also be an indication that the atmosphere within university sports in Ghana has become fertile grounds for perpetration of sexual harassment against females, as suggested by Fasting (2005) and Brackenridge (2001) that high levels of physical contact, emotional connections, visible male-dominated atmospheres, uneven gender ratios, and unquestioned authority figures' power, characterizing sports makes it susceptible to sexual harassment against females.The good thing however, is that these female athletes are highly knowledgeable on behaviours or acts that constitute sexual harassment against them, through the sources of knowledge available (mass media, institutions, friends, parents), which could help them in rebuffing such acts when encountered to ensure their safety.

Conclusions
It is concluded, based on the findings of this study that: (i) sexual harassment against female university athletes is prevalent in Ghana; (ii) female university athletes are highly knowledgeable on what constitutes sexual harassment; and (iii) sources of information on sexual harassment among female university athletes in Ghana include the mass media, institutions, friends and parents, with the mass media being the leading source.

Recommendations
The following recommendations have been made based on the findings of the study and conclusions arrived at: (i) authorities in charge of university sports in Ghana should focus sexual harassment education programmes on empowerment of female student-athletes to enable them to be bold to report cases of sexual harassment, rather than focusing such education programmes on knowledge of what sexual harassment is, since this study showed that female athletes already have a high knowledge of what constitutes sexual harassment; (ii) Management of the various universities through their Sports Directorates/Sports Sections should also provide the right environment, avenue or channel for female athletes to report such acts of harassment perpetrated against them in the course of their participation in sports on campus; (iii) the Ghana Universities Sports Association (GUSA) should also through its Womens' Commissioner, educate female athletes on the need to report cases of sexual harassment during GUSA organized competitions; (iv) sanctions should be instituted by Management of the various universities and GUSA on perpetrators of sexual harassment against female university athletes in order to reduce if not eliminate totally this high prevalence rate observed in this study; and (v) further research should be conducted on this issue of sexual harassment in university sports, specifically targeting areas such as causes, perpetrator profiles, effects and prevention of this phenomenon.

Table 1 :
Respondents' Views on Sources of Knowledge on Sexual Harassment

Table 2 :
Knowledge Level of Respondents on Sexual Harassment

Table 3 :
Respondents' Views on Incidence of Sexual Harassment Against Female University Athletes