Workplace Harassment: How Its Affects Women & Underrepresented Groups

Workplace Harassment: How Its Affects Women & Underrepresented Groups

Introduction

Sexual harassment and other forms of violence against women is that governments and the courts have officially recognized it as a form of gender inequality for which social institutions are responsible. Although the symbolism of official condemnation of sexual harassment is significant, the practical impact on the everyday lives of workers has been unremarkable. Despite this shift in legal ideology, surveys show that rates of sexual harassment remain remarkably stable and satisfaction with reporting and complaint procedures low. Critics warn that because the law is a double-edged sword, it is only a matter of time before sexual harassment policy is turned against the very people it seeks to liberate. In Germany, for example, accused harassers challenging their dismissals filed the majority of sexual harassment cases in 2002. Optimists, however, view the disjuncture between ideology and practice as merely a lag and argue that given sufficient time workplace mores will eventually catch up with current shifts in legal ideology.

Discussion

Hostile work environment harassment refers to offensive and unwelcome workplace conduct based a person's race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, national origin, or physical ability. Such conduct is a form of workplace discrimination and is against the law. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees from hostile work environment harassment. Most commonly, the phrase hostile work environment is used to refer to one of the two forms of unlawful sexual harassment (the other being quid pro quo sexual harassment). The concept of hostile work environment is especially relevant to the topic of gender and society because it reveals gender as foundational to the way that organizations and individuals within them operate.

As a form of sexual harassment, a hostile work environment is one in which unwelcome sexual advances or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature unreasonably interfere with a person's job or create an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment. Hostile work environment harassment is the most common form of sexual harassment. Workers in all positions and of all genders may be subject to hostile work environment harassment, just as all such workers may commit this type of harassment. Unlike quid pro quo harassment, a worker's organizational status does not matter—colleagues of equal status may sexually harass one another, as could workers in differential positions. Examples of hostile work environment sexual harassment include such behaviors as displaying pornographic or other sexually explicit materials at work, spreading rumors about a coworker's sexual activities, making lewd remarks or telling offensive sexual jokes in the workplace, or touching coworkers in a sexual way without their consent.

Hostile work environment harassment was first recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1986 case of Mentor Savings Bank v. Vinson. The plaintiff's claim of sexual harassment was initially denied by lower courts, which ruled that the sexual relationship in question was consensual and did not result in economic loss for the ...