SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

Introduction

Sexual harassment refers to unwanted sexual attention that occurs at work or in school. Specific behaviors that may qualify as sexual harassment include unwanted touching or sexual advances, invasion of one's personal space, offensive sexual joking or other remarks, and the display of offensive sexual materials such as posters or calendars. Although sexual harassment may occur in settings outside school or work, legal and scholarly definitions of the term typically refer to one or both of these domains. Sexual harassment is relevant to the topic of gender and society because its manifestation demonstrates that gender is a social category that shapes the structure of everyday lives. Women and men are valued differently in U.S. society, as are masculinity and femininity, and sexual harassment is one way that such value differences are expressed and made visible. This paper discusses Sexual Harassment in the Work Place.

Thesis Statement

Sexual harassment is often viewed as a significant source of stress for victims. Indeed, victims may experience psychological, physical, and behavioral problems, many of which can be problematic for organizations. Sexual harassment has received a considerable amount of attention worldwide in the media, among lawmakers, and among organizational researchers.

Discussion

Zippel (2006) mentions sexual harassment also highlights the ways that heteronormative masculine expressions of gender are privileged over all other expressions of gender. Although both men and women may be victims as well as perpetrators of sexual harassment, those who do not adhere to mainstream norms of masculinity, either because they are not male or because they do not (or choose not to) adhere to such norms, may be at greatest risk for experiencing sexual harassment. Mainstream expectations about masculine behavior may help explain why male victims are often reluctant to report inappropriate behavior or label such actions as sexual harassment. At its core, sexual harassment is a gendered expression of power through which those in dominant positions wield their power over others through sexual intimidation tactics (Zippel, 2006).

This entry describes legal and scholarly definitions of sexual harassment in the workplace, outlining the historical development of sexual harassment law in the United States, and presents information on the prevalence of workplace sexual harassment (Zippel, 2006). Each of the two legally recognized types of sexual harassment is also described. Then, this entry presents definitions of and policies regarding sexual harassment in schools, along with discussion about the prevalence of school-based sexual harassment.

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

Workplace sexual harassment has received a great deal of attention in popular culture, scholarly discourse, and the law. As the second-wave feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s took shape, activists and scholars brought into public view what many knew privately but did not discuss: Some workplaces were fraught with problematic sexualized interactions shaped by a dominant gender ideology in which men asserted and maintained sexual and other dominance over their women colleagues. These kinds of workplace interactions were labeled sexual harassment. Subsequent scholarly work, together with key legal cases, helped push the ...