Sexual harassment can be described as any unwanted sexual comments or unwanted sexual advances. People think that in a sexual harassment situation that the offender is always a male but that is not the case, females can also be the harasser. There can be several incidents where a male is sexually harassing a female, female harassing a male, female harassing a female, or a male harassing a male. When sexual harassment occurs it can make any situation uncomfortable, especially if the advances are unwelcome.
The EEOC also provides guidance as to some of the circumstances in which sexual harassment can be deemed to have occurred. These include: The victim as well as the harasser may be a woman or a man. The victim does not have to be of the opposite sex. The harasser can be the victim’s supervisor, or an agent of the employer, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or a non-employee. The victim does not have to be the person harassed but could be anyone affected by the offensive conduct. Unlawful sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to or discharge of the victim. The harasser’s conduct must be unwelcome. (Howarth 2005)
He increasing number of women in the professional workforce poses a challenge to business managers and executives. Women are sometimes stereotyped by those who believe they aren’t capable of being a good employee. With the addition of women to a male dominated profession, it can create a situation in which women are singled out and made to feel unwelcome because of their gender, regardless of their work performance.
The challenge for professional managers and executives is to break down the inaccurate stereotype attached to women and eliminate the treatment of employees based on gender. Even t...
... middle of paper ...
...tion that can be taken to stop workplace harassment and minimize liability. Employees should assist victims of harassment by reporting any observed incidents. The employees should document each incident of harassment regardless of just how severe it is. Failure to act on a complaint, regardless of how severe it is could result in employer being held liable. The goal is for superiors to prevent sexual harassment from occurring. If it does exist, the harassment must be confronted and stopped immediately to avoid liability.
Works Cited
Alvarez, F., Court, L., & Stohler, C. (2005) ExecBlueprints. Legal Issues for Managers: Avoiding Sexual Harassment in the Workplace.
Howarth, F. (2005) Curbing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace. Faulkner Information Services.
Swanson, C., Territo, L., & Taylor, R. (2008) Police Administration. Pearson/Prentice Hall Publisher.
Basson, in Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: An Overview of Developments, makes the claim that ‘unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature’ is not necessarily sexual harassment until a certain level or degree of unacceptability is attained (Basson, 2007: 426). This according to the author is the first step towards a threshold in which one should ask the question as to whether the conducts was welcomed or unwelcomed (Basson, 2007: 427). As far as the types of conduct that may be constituted as sexual harassment is concerned, a distinction is usually made, “within the broad spectrum of the sexual nature of the conduct, between physical, verbal and non-verbal conduct” (Basson, 2007: 427). Sexual harassment can also be defined as sexual innuendo, comments
"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
Roberts, Barry S. and Richard A. Mann. ?Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: A Primer.? n.pag. On-line. Internet. 5 Dec 2000. Available WWW:
The two types of sexual harassment recognized today are known as "quid pro quo" and "hostile environment". According to the EEOC guidelines, quid pro quo exists when "submission to or rejection of (unwelcome sexual) conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual". Hostile environment exists when unwelcome sexual conduct greatly disturbs an individual and interferes with the individual's job performance. Hostile environment also creates an intimidating workplace for all employees. (EEOC Compliance Manual)
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...
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
According to Webster’s online dictionary, it is believed that the phrase “sexual harassment” was coined at Cornell University in 1974 ("Sexual harassment," 2011). The phrase wasn’t, however, really used in common language until the testimony of Anita Hill against Clarence Thomas in 1991. Sexual harassment can take many different shapes and forms. According to a Fox News article, the sexual harassment claims made by men have increased twofold in the last twenty years ("Sexual harassment claims," 2010). Because sexual harassment is illegal both on a federal and state level in many states, there are steps that an individual and employer should take to prevent sexual harassment.
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).
For millions of teenagers working in the American workforce, being sexually harassed is not an uncommon occurrence in their daily work environment. Unfortunately, teenagers in the workforce become particularly vulnerable to acts of harassment because they lack awareness about their rights as an employee and do not have enough work experience or maturity to address situations that arise in the work environment. These teenagers are usually part-time workers, overlooked for training, view their supervisors as having the ultimate authority over their job, and are more likely to be unaware of harassment policies than other workers within the workforce. Despite all of these factors, more and more organizations in industries like retail (i.e. Kmart), entertainment (i.e. movie theatres), and food services (i.e. McDonalds) to be specific, have turned to teenagers as a key source of labor. In doing so, these organizations have exposed themselves to the liability of protecting the youth that they employ and must take even greater measures to prevent these teenagers from being subjected to a hostile work environment.
Harassment has been an issue in the work force and in many other fields for decades, leading all the way back up to 1964. The United States Congress passed Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, prohibiting discrimination at work on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin and sex. There are many different types of harassment that many do not even know that they can be accused for. Through out my research I will be naming every type of harassment and presenting an article for each topic.
The U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission describes sexual harassment as a form of gender discrimination that is in violation of the Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Undesirable sexual advances, request for sexual favors, and further verbal and physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment, when compliance to or refusal of this behavior explicitly or implicitly affects an individual employment (EEOC).
Sexual Harassment is a prohibited conduct of inappropriate behavior in which an individual makes unwelcome sexual favors, requests, or any other form of verbal or physical acts in a sexual nature in which it creates a hostile environment to work in. any form of harassment that hinders or interferes with an employee’s work should be taken seriously and will not be tolerated.
.What does sexual harassment really means? Many people cannot define the exactly sexual harassment means. According Title VII of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 it defined as, " (Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or
Clark, C. S. (1991, August 9). Sexual harassment. CQ Researcher, 1, 537-560. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher
It can be concluded that women are treated in terms of stereotyped impressions of being the lowest class and greater evidence can be found that there are large disparities between the women and the men 's class. It can be seen that women are more likely to play casual roles as they are most likely to take seasonal and part time work so that they can work according to their needs. They are hampered from progressing upward into the organizations as they face problems like lack of health insurance, sexual harassments, lower wage rates, gender biases and attitudes of negative behavior. However, this wouldn’t have hampered the participation of the women in the work force and they continue to increase their efforts which is highly evident in the occupational and job ratios of females in the industry.