Any discussion of masculinity at some point introduces the concept of patriarchy and asks to what extent male behavior is linked to the prerogatives men receive or try to capture simply because they are men (Connell, 1987; MacKinnon, 1979).
Some men harass women who are in environments that they would like to maintain as male domains (e. g., blue-collar work environments, Gruber & Bjorn, 1982). Harassing behaviors may be seen as appropriate action against women whose presence in a particular setting is taken as a sign that they do not deserve the protective treatment accorded good women. Thus, these harassers may see women as violating the rules of appropriate feminine behavior by their presence in a traditionally male work environment and therefore proceed in a dominator mode to assert
their masculinity. Men who target women workers in these settings for harassment may be attempting to maintain an implicit social norm—sex segregation of occupations. They may proceed by marking territory through acts of aggression.