WORKPLACE SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Workplace Sexual Harassment



Workplace Sexual Harassment

Introduction

Harassment is conduct, which has the effect of degrading, intimidating, or forcing someone through personal attack. It is behavior that makes someone discomforting or humiliated, and causes emotional distress. It repeatedly occurs when one person wants to exercise power or control over another person. Harassment may be deliberate with a person targeted individually, or it may be unintended. While harassment because of sex gets the more attention, harassment because of other sheltered characteristics such as race, national origin, religion, age or physical and mental disability is also prohibited under state and federal laws. Harassment because of sexual bearings, marital status, or semblance may also be illegal, depending on jurisdiction; it is always insolent and improper workplace behavior.

Discussion

Sexual harassment is generally considered to be "unwelcome sexual attention at work," (Wallis, 2007) but it really has little to do with sex at all. Instead, sexual harassment is an abuse of power that is intended or perceived to be used to threaten a co-worker's employment - {“and any such act demonstrates a clear lack of respect for the individual to whom the behavior is directed”. (Wallis, 2007)

The toughest part about defining "respect" is that behavior that is offensive to some may not be to others. It's important to understand that sexual harassment must be defined in terms of its effect on the recipient. For that reason, conduct that is intended to be humorous or complimentary can be considered sexual harassment if it is offensive to another individual. To further complicate the issue, sexual harassment is not limited to physical or verbal advances; off-color humor, language, photographs or gestures will also be taken as harassment if their impact outweighs their intent.

“Although statistics indicate that 95 to 99 percent of the victims of sexual harassment are women and 95 to 99 percent of the perpetrators are men, policies maintain a very strict adherence to gender-neutral language, referring to "complainants" and "respondents" and always using he/she in the pronominal form.” (Lawrence, 2008)

It is my opinion that this facade of gender neutrality masks the reality of the harassment issues. This masking of the problem as the inappropriate and problematic behavior of some "individuals" makes it difficult to illuminate the links between harassment and the broader discrimination against women in university and to address harassment as part of that discrimination. The masking of the gendered nature of harassment advantages males, who benefit from the sexism that harassment reinforces. It also allows the institutions to ignore the systemic nature of the problem and instead to focus on the problem behavior of individuals.

Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids discrimination in the workplace because of race, color, sex, religion, and national origin. Other federal laws forbid discrimination by reason of age or disability. Sexual harassment is a form of discrimination covered under these laws. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has published guidelines on sexual harassment in employment which provide the legal definition of harassing behavior and ...