Is this harassment by head of institute?

Edited with chatgpt for clarity — English is not my first language.)

I work at a university in Europe that’s currently going through some internal changes. Our institute doesn’t have many women, and recently something has started to feel off.

At a recent meeting, the head of the institute began questioning the roles and jobs of every single female colleague. Since then, I’ve also learned that he’s been going behind our backs and asking students and other staff about our teaching.

In my case, he asked a colleague whether he had heard any feedback about my classes, and then claimed he himself had heard negative feedback. He even said he might come sit in on my class to “monitor” what I’m doing.

There’s another female colleague whose classes he’s also been questioning. I was present when he said about her subject: “Do we really need that subject in our institute?”

For context, I’m not insecure about my teaching. I know my students like my classes, and there’s another instructor teaching the same subject — but significantly more students choose my course.

So this isn’t about self-doubt — I’m just angry. I’m trying to figure out how far to take this, and whether I should report it.

It’s also worth saying: I’m not afraid of losing my job. I would be very sorry to lose it because I genuinely love what I do, but nothing is worth losing my peace of mind or my integrity.

I think part of why I’m writing this here is because, as a woman, I hesitate to immediately label this as “harassment,” since I worry about being dismissed as “hysterical.” But at the same time, I do believe this behavior crosses a line, and I feel responsible to call it out.

I haven’t spoken to my boss directly about this because I don’t think it would lead to anything productive. I have, however, contacted a confidential counseling center and plan to go there to get advice.

Monitoring classes is not part of my boss’s role, and if there are concerns about a teacher, there are established procedures to handle that — none of which are being followed here.

I don’t want to escalate things unnecessarily (going to HR would likely start a full-blown conflict), but I also don’t want to tolerate what feels like targeted harassment.

I’d really appreciate honest advice. And if more context would help, I’m happy to provide it.