The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, defines sexual harassment as a behavior of a sexual nature that affects an individual’s terms of employment or creates a hostile and intimidating work environment. According to the EEOC, it is “unlawful to harass a person, an applicant, or employee because of that person’s sex.” (Sexual Harassment) The term “sexual harassment” can be a bit misleading as other forms of work related harassment can take place that have nothing to do with ‘sex’ but do however, fall under the same umbrella. We will look to identify the different types of sexual harassment in the workplace, specifically, ‘Quid Pro Quo’ and what it’s like to work in a ‘Hostile Work Environment’. This paper will focus on the law, woman’s rights in the workplace, and discuss an example from the Supreme Court Case of: Meritor Savings Bank, FSB v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57 (1986). …show more content…
Before looking at the definitions of both situations, it’s important to note that the law applies to all genders, be it male/female, female/female, or male/male. Anyone can be a victim of sexual harassment no matter their sex. Statistics show that “16% of claims are filed by males.” (Ethics) The anxiety and frustration experienced by victims can impact their quality of life not to mention the quality of their work “The harasser can be the employee 's supervisor, manager, customer, coworker, supplier, peer, or vendor. Any individual, who is connected to the employee 's work environment, can be accused of sexual harassment.” (Heathfield) The victim in a sexual harassment situation isn’t always alone. Others who witness or overhear a conversation can also take
Sexual harassment by definition is based on conduct of a sexual nature. An article on ENotes.com describes sexual harassment as;
...thin. That is exactly what the U.S. Supreme Court did. They defined that a hostile environment exists when unwelcome sexual conduct “has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with job performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.” With guidance of the EEOC, The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling was that hostile environment could exist separately from quid pro quo harassment and found Taylor and Meritor Bank guilty. This set the precedence for future sexual discrimination cases.
Shaw describes two types of sexual harassment, “quid pro quo” and “hostile work environment” in both cases the victim can be a man or a woman and in both cases sexual harassment is illegal.
Gender discrimination differs from sexual harassment. Gender discrimination “occurs when individuals of one gender are favored in employment decisions over the other gender” (Moran, 2014, p. 243). This can happen to both men and women. Gender harassment is non-sexual in nature, but rather is making offensive remarks about a person’s gender frequently enough to create a hostile work environment. Gender harassment can happen with people of the opposite sex and persons of the same sex (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [U.S. EEOC], n.d.).
"Sexual harassment is a type of sex discrimination that violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Unwelcome sexual advances, demands for sexual favors and other verbal or physical behavior of a sexual nature is inappropriate behavior when the behavior unequivocally or verifiably influences an individual’s employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work performance or creates a scary, antagonistic or hostile workplace (Noe, 2011).” " Sexual harassment can be the point at which somebody feels uncomfortable or irritated in a sexual manner, for instance, this could be as a remark, joke, look, or motion. There are two noteworthy sorts of sexual harassment: Quid pro quo which is the point at which a man is punished for dismissing
In an article by Lisa Mooney about tension in the workplace, Mooney explains that there are many signs of sexual harassment in a place of business such as, the language men use towards their female co-workers, by referring to them as “ladies, babes or gals”, refers to there being a gender bias in the environment. Also if a man makes lots of physical contact with a co-worker of the opposite sex, there is an underlying assumption that he wants to have sexual contact with that person. All of these things and more make for tension for everyone around and also start cases of sexual harassment. Another form of tension is the power struggle between a female with a higher position than another male co-worker. If that woman is a no nonsense type of boss, then she is labeled as an evil boss rather than her just doing her job. These are some of the reasons it’s hard for a women to have and keep a job in the corporate world and why women everyday are fighting for better rights not only in the everyday real world but also just in the
Roberts, Barry S. and Richard A. Mann. ?Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: A Primer.? n.pag. On-line. Internet. 5 Dec 2000. Available WWW:
According to legal dictionary (2013), sexual harassment refers to any form of unwelcome sexual behavior or advances, appeals for sexual errands, and other form of physical or verbal conduct or behavior that portrays sex nature and tends to make the working environment offensive or hostile. Any behavior or remarks that take such forms constitute sexual harassment when: Compliance to such conduct happens either implicitly or explicitly based on employment of an individual, rejection or compliance to such conduct is used to make decisions during employment and when such conduct interferes or affects performance of a person at the workplace. Sexual harassment ta...
In conclusion, the perception of sexual harassment changes from person to person, gender to gender, and where the supposed act may take place. The past has proven that in any case, women are more likely to perceive a broader range of sexual contact or gestures as sexual harassment, while men will be less inclined to say anything. Perception is everything in sexual harassment, and dependent on the environment, may or may not have adverse effects none the less.
Harassment of a sexual nature, typically in the workplace or other setting where raising objections or refusing may have negative consequences is considered sexual harassment. In American employment law, it is any unwelcome sexual advance on the job that creates intimidation in the workplace. Sexual harassment is considered a form of illegal discrimination. Unfortunately, the definition of sexual harassment is very controversial; it is truly based on what ones personal opinion is. Typical sexual harassment behavior usually includes unwanted touching of a co-worker, lewd comments, talk about gender superiority, or sexual jokes (Sandler, 1997).
Men that engage in such behavior are obviously morally deficient, and that may not be changeable; but perhaps the Supreme Court's judgment will at least let those same men know that the law considers such behavior morally and legally wrong, and from now on, they must pay for the crime of sexual harassment, regardless of their victim's gender.
Do people know when and how to report Sexual Harassment? Why do you think some people never report it? There are many different types of Sexual Harassment like sexual abuse in men and women, sexual abuse in the military, workplace, colleges and almost everywhere. It is a huge problem everywhere and the issue isn 't brought up as much because it isn 't reported or people who are behind the assault scare victims into believing that they will be in trouble or are embarrassed. Once more women and men start reporting or even just informing more people of what is sexual harassment is, that way they know how and when to report it.
Sexual harassment in the workplace is a huge problem in recent history. It can happen to anyone and it can happen everywhere. It can affect all types of races, gender and age. Statistics today shows that more and more sexual harassment has become an issue due to the large number of cases presented. Mainstream media becomes consume covering sexual harassment because of the high profile cases. Sexual harassment becomes a topic on various TV shows, and on some major morning radio talk shows mostly everyday. Sexual harassment laws must be strengthened in order to fix what has become a serious problem today in the workplace.
Sexual Harassment is a growing problem in today's workplace. The signs and causes of harassment are not always easy to detect. There are a growing number of cases through statistics and actual cases that’s been headlined in news rep...
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