Behind Closed Doors

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Behind Closed Doors

Over the years, many people have believed that the issue of sexual harassment should not be discussed in public. Sexual harassment was to be discussed behind closed doors. In spite of this, the social and political systems have changed instantaneously. This social problem has affected men and women throughout time; however, it seems that the women of our society more closely look at this issue. This social topic has encouraged women to establish organizations in order to help them discuss the issues more openly and to demand equality including fairness and justice throughout the workplace and in their social lives as well. In recent years, sexual harassment has been one of the most serious and widespread problems found in the workplace. For this reason, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed, by the United Nations in 1948, to help everyone in their fight for self-respect and dignity. Indeed sexual harassment is an issue that complicates employment decisions. People also recognize that it is an issue involving the creation of an antagonistic or offensive work environment. In many instances, the issue of sexual harassment is not something minor that can be easily solved.
Sexual harassment, in most cases, involves a superior’s behavior towards a subordinate. As mentioned before, most forms of sexual harassment occur in the workplace. An employee can charge an employer with sexual harassment as a result of the misconduct of managers, fellow employees, vendors, and even customers. Eventually, sexual harassment can cause a hostile work environment. It is true, for the most part, that sexual harassment comes in many forms in the workplace.
There are two significant ways in which one can identify sexual harassment. They are called the “Quid Pro Quo” and the “Hostile Environment Harassment.” The essence of the Quid Pro Quo theory of sexual harassment occurs when an employee is confronted with sexual demands to keep her job or obtain a promotion. This is a true violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which is also referred to as the Title VII Act. Even though sexual harassment by its very nature is complicated to define, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission provides a general description of sexual advances. [The several basic varieties of the Quid Pro Quo harassment indicate the unwelcome sexual advances and requests for...

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...sex with him. She had bee going on with his sick plan for six months. The owner as far as we know hasn’t been charged with anything, but the boss is in jail for some felony concerning the blackmail. My friend still has deep seeded emotional problems with the men that she works with. She has been to a psychiatrist only to be told that it is a healing process and that it takes time. I think that this ordeal has hurt her mentally more than anything else.
In conclusion I’d like to ask everyone, male and female, to think before you act. What you might think is a harmless joke could be just the opposite to someone else. What can we do as individuals and as a group to stop this to commonly practiced act?

Works Cited
Aggarwal, Arjun P. “Sexual Harassment in the Workplace” Butterworths Canada Ltd. 1992
Lindemann, Barbara and Kadue, David D. “Sexual Harassment in Employmet Law”
Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) Transactional Reporting Services 1993
Caggiano, Christopher “The Inc. Faxpoll” Multimedia Publications Inc. 1992
Baridon, Andrea P. “The New Rules and Realities for Managing Men and Women at Work” McGraw Hill Inc. 1994
Serepca, Beth “Sexual Harassment” Internal Auditor October 1995

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