Androcentric Networks, Morality and Myths: Understanding Silences of Sexual Harassment in the Chinese Workplace

This article contributes to the literature on sexual harassment at work in China. It advances the theoretical claim that network silences contribute to the persistence of sexual harassment. With the aim of contributing to the understanding of how network silences are maintained, we analyzed the #MeToo in China Archives 2018–2019. Three themes emerged explaining silences of sexual harassment: (1) the workings of “brotherhoods”, (2) ascribed moral capital, and (3) sexual harassment myths. The central network position of the perpetrator, and the peripheral and precarious position of the harassed, confirms the significance of gender precariousness in maintaining silences around sexual harassment. Our analysis further reveals the complex interplay between androcentric networs, the misdistribution of moral capital, and gendered sexual harassment myths and how they justify practices and reinforce norms and beliefs that underpin silences by continuously shifting blame and responsibility from the perpetrator to the harassed. We propose that these findings need to be understood in relation to the centrality of personal connections ( guanxi ), the Confucian moral codex of benevolence ( ren ) of leaders in China, and gendered precariousness in the Chinese workplace. As such, the article adds theoretical insights on how sexual harassment silences are sustained beyond the Euro‐American context.