Sexual Harassment



Sexual Harassment

Thesis Statement

In today society it seems like it becoming more and more common in the workplace. Like being harassed has become a part of everyday life.

Introduction

It is unlawful to harass a person (an applicant or employee) because of that person's sex. Harassment can include “sexual harassment” or unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature. Harassment does not have to be of a sexual nature, however, and can include offensive remarks about a person's sex. For example, it is illegal to harass a woman by making offensive comments about women in general. Both victim and the harasser can be either a woman or a man, and the victim and harasser can be the same sex. Although the law doesn't prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that are not very serious, harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision.

The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or someone who is not an employee of the employer, such as a client or customer.

Harassment is behavior that an individual is displaying towards another individual that can be upsetting and disruptive. Now sexual harassment on the other hand is displaying unwanted sexual behavior and making sexual advances towards another individual in order to receive sexual advances. This topic is going to cover several different aspects of sexual harassment. It's going to identifying sexual harassment, who is affected by sexual harassment, and how to prevent it from happening. Since this is a common problem with in the workplace more and more companies are trying to come up with ways to put this type of behavior to rest so that everyone will be comfortable in their work environment (Levy, 2002).

Discussion

Sexual harassment is defined as any unwanted sexual attention made verbally or physically. It is also defined as behavior by someone higher in power to someone in a lower status. Employees are protected by the state and federal laws of sexual harassment. The Federal law solutions for workplace discrimination are from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which applies to employers who have fifteen or more employees. Employees that works for smaller companies mostly are protected by state laws for sexual harassment ("Sexual Harassment Law"). There are two general categories of sexual harassment in the workplace:

Just like other kinds of bullying, sexual bullying involves comments, gestures, actions, or attention that is intended to hurt, offend, or intimidate another person. With sexual bullying, the focus is on things like a person's appearance, body parts, or sexual orientation. Sexual bullying includes spreading gossip or rumors of a sexual nature.

Sexual bullying or harassment may be verbal (like making rude comments to or about someone), but it doesn't have to be spoken. Bullies may use technology to harass someone sexually (like sending inappropriate text messages or ...