Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment can be physical and/or a demand or request for sexual favors, making sexually colored remarks, showing pornography, and any other unwelcome physical, verbal, or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature.[1] Sexual harassment includes a range of actions from verbal transgressions to sexual abuse or assault.[2] Harassment can occur in many different social settings such as the workplace, the home, school, or religious institutions. Harassers or victims can be of any gender.[3]
For other uses, see Sexual harassment (disambiguation).
In modern legal contexts, sexual harassment is illegal. Laws surrounding sexual harassment generally do not prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or minor isolated incidents—that is due to the fact that they do not impose a "general civility code".[4] In the workplace, harassment may be considered illegal when it is frequent or severe, thereby creating a hostile or offensive work environment, or when it results in an adverse employment decision (such as the victim's demotion, firing or quitting). The legal and social understanding of sexual harassment, however, varies by culture.
Sexual harassment by an employer is a form of illegal employment discrimination. For many businesses or organizations, preventing sexual harassment and defending employees from sexual harassment charges have become key goals of legal decision-making.
One of the difficulties in understanding sexual harassment is that it involves a range of behaviors. In most cases (although not in all cases) it is difficult for the victim to describe what they experienced. This can be related to difficulty classifying the situation or could be related to stress and humiliation experienced by the recipient. Moreover, behavior and motives vary between individual cases.[83]
Author Martha Langelan describes four different classes of harassers.[84]
Women of color[edit]
The sexual harassment women of color face are often ignored when discussions about sexual harassment women face occur.[118] Harassment of women of color tends to stem from racial discrimination.[118] Poor African American women are more likely to experience sexual harassment but less likely to be seen as a victim.[119][120] It is conditions like these that make it difficult for women of color to report sexual harassment, allowing the cycle to continue.[121] Earlier studies revealed that there was no difference between the sexual harassment rates of white women and women of color.[122][123] However, there is evidence that reveals women of color deal with sexual harassment, this sexual harassment is on more severe lines.[124][125]
Race and gender influence most of the sexual harassment that women of color face. Women of color are less likely to report sexual harassment if the perpetrator is the same race. This is known as the code of silence. This is influenced by the race of the harasser, and predominately affects women of color.[126] Black women do not usually see things that a white woman would claim to be sexual harassment because they are accustomed to it, it is normal to them and so there is not much of a problem.[118]
Something that is unique to the sexual harassment of women of color is the common bond factor. The common bond factor is when a man of color sees someone of their own race or culture, and they feel as if it is okay to sexually harass them. They think that they can act and talk without regard to the law because they feel as if it is not being broken.[126]
The perception of sexual harassment from women of color includes racism and sexism whereas white women's perception only includes sexism. There is this interlocking of relations, commonly known as intersectionality, within the sexual harassment women of color face, between racism and sexism. White women, when speaking about sexual harassment, speak from the role of a victim whereas women of color speak from the role of a harasser. Women of color, as well, have stereotypes taken into consideration when it comes to harassment. These stereotypes make it difficult for women of color to come forward about sexual harassment, as they will likely not be believed.[126] For instance, there is the stereotype that Latin women are super emotional and tend to overreact. This stereotype may be conveyed when a Latin woman comes forward about sexual harassment, resulting in her claim not being taken seriously. Speaking up results in stereotypes being put on the person coming forward, making them uncomfortable with doing so.[126] Similarly, it is difficult for women of color to be supported when speaking out, as their experiences are different from those of white women, as is the case of Anita Hill.[127] Particularly, the feminist movement is geared towards helping white women rather than women of color due to women of color's experiences being foreign. In turn, women of color do not join feminist movements or groups because they do not see their experiences reflected.[127]
There is a relationship between legal status and sexual harassment; there is an intersectionality between them. Citizen status can influence women experiencing or reporting sexual harassment. Being undocumented can make it difficult to come forward for fear of being deported.[118] White women with citizenship say that sexual harassment is unwanted behavior, women of color without citizenship found it difficult to explain what they thought sexual harassment was, but that it did include race.[118] This however makes it difficult for Black women to differentiate sexual harassment in the workplace from sexual harassment in society.[118]
Most companies have policies against sexual harassment; however, these policies are not designed and should not attempt to "regulate romance" which goes against human urges.[128]
Act upon a report of harassment inside the organization should be:
When organizations do not take the respective satisfactory measures for properly investigating, stress and psychological counseling and guidance, and just deciding of the problem this could lead to:
Studies show that organizational climate (an organization's tolerance, policy, procedure etc.) and workplace environment are essential for understanding the conditions in which sexual harassment is likely to occur, and the way its victims will be affected (yet, research on specific policy and procedure, and awareness strategies is lacking).[133] Another element which increases the risk for sexual harassment is the job's gender context (having few women in the close working environment or practicing in a field which is perceived as atypical for women).[134]
Although research on occupational sexual assault is still in its infancy, the European Union reports that 40–50% of women report having encountered inappropriate sexual conduct or sexual harassment at work (World Health Organization, 2012). According to Burn (2018), In order to reduce sexual harassment, organisational climates and circumstances that support sexual harassment must change. Changes to the normative environments that sustain sexual harassment include the adoption of explicit anti-harassment rules and practices. Sexual harassment rules have the potential to deter sexual harassment and provide victims with channels for redress. According to Medeiros (2019),[135] the current endeavor puts out a framework for creating workplace sexual harassment prevention programmes and is based on research on training and development, college sexual assault, and workplace sexual harassment. The suggestions for preventing sexual harassment are mostly based on the research on sexual assault on college campuses. The persistent curiosity in and study of educational institutions for sexual assault preventative measures, despite this approach's shortcomings, has produced a database of researched interventions that fills in the gaps left by the dearth of empirical studies on sexual assault preventive interventions. Additionally, sexual harassment and assault have been characterized as a continuum where less severe behaviors have the potential to escalate into more violent acts over time if left unchecked (Department of Defence, 2014; Fitzgerald,1993). Hence, even if sexual harassment and assault are distinct behavior's, their increasing prevalence indicates that interventions ought to address the entire range of behaviors', particularly considering the restricted time and financial resources allocated to educational programs.[136]
According to Dr. Orit Kamir, the most effective way to avoid sexual harassment in the workplace, and also influence the public's state of mind, is for the employer to adopt a clear policy prohibiting sexual harassment and to make it very clear to their employees. Many women prefer to make a complaint and to have the matter resolved within the workplace rather than to "air out the dirty laundry" with a public complaint and be seen as a traitor by colleagues, superiors and employers, adds Kamir.[137][138][139]
Most prefer a pragmatic solution that would stop the harassment and prevent future contact with the harasser rather than turning to the police. More about the difficulty in turning an offense into a legal act can be found in Felstiner & Sarat's (1981) study,[140] which describes three steps a victim (of any dispute) must go through before turning to the justice system: naming—giving the assault a definition, blaming—understanding who is responsible for the violation of rights and facing them, and finally, claiming—turning to the authorities.
Criticism[edit]
Though the phrase sexual harassment is generally acknowledged to include clearly damaging and morally deplorable behavior, its boundaries can be broad and controversial. Accordingly, misunderstandings can occur. In the US, sexual harassment law has been criticized by persons such as the criminal defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz and the legal writer and libertarian Eugene Volokh, for imposing limits on the right to free speech.[240]
Jana Rave, professor in organizational studies at the Queen's School of Business, criticized sexual harassment policy in the Ottawa Business Journal as helping maintain archaic stereotypes of women as "delicate, asexual creatures" who require special protection when at the same time complaints are lowering company profits.[130] Camille Paglia says that young girls can end up acting in such ways as to make sexual harassment easier, such that for example, by acting "nice" they can become a target. Paglia commented in an interview with Playboy, "Realize the degree to which your niceness may invoke people to say lewd and pornographic things to you—sometimes to violate your niceness. The more you blush, the more people want to do it."[241]
Other critics assert that sexual harassment is a very serious problem, but current views focus too heavily on sexuality rather than on the type of conduct that undermines the ability of women or men to work together effectively. Viki Shultz, a law professor at Yale University comments, "Many of the most prevalent forms of harassment are designed to maintain work—particularly the more highly rewarded lines of work—as bastions of male competence and authority."[242] Feminist Jane Gallop sees this evolution of the definition of sexual harassment as coming from a "split" between what she calls "power feminists" who are pro-sex (like herself) and what she calls "victim feminists", who are not. She argues that the split has helped lead to a perversion of the definition of sexual harassment, which used to be about sexism but has come to be about anything that is sexual.[243]
There is also concern over abuses of sexual harassment policy by individuals as well as by employers and administrators using false or frivolous accusations as a way of expelling employees they want to eliminate for other reasons. These employees often have virtually no recourse thanks to the at-will law in most US states.[244]
O'Donohue and Bowers outlined 14 possible pathways to false allegations of sexual harassment: "lying, borderline personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder, psychosis, gender prejudice, substance abuse, dementia, false memories, false interpretations, biased interviews, sociopathy, personality disorders not otherwise specified."[245]
There is also discussion of whether some recent trends towards more revealing clothing and permissive habits have created a more sexualized general environment, in which some forms of communication are unfairly labeled harassment, but are simply a reaction to greater sexualization in everyday environments.[246]
There are many debates about how organizations should deal with sexual harassment. Some observers feel strongly that organizations should be held to a zero tolerance standard of "Must report—must investigate—must punish."
Others write that those who feel harassed should in most circumstances have a choice of options.[138][139][247]
Sexual harassment laws may also be used unfairly applied in effect. Unsolicited sexual advances were considered more disturbing and more discomforting when perpetrated by an unattractive opposite sex colleague than when perpetrated by an attractive opposite sex colleague.[248]