Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination. Federal law as well as various state fair-employment laws prohibit employers with 15 or more employees from treating members of one sex or race differently from members of the opposite sex or another race in terms, conditions, or privileges of employment. The statutory and regulatory laws govern the entire employment process from pre-employment activities such as recruiting, through an employee's career with the organization, including termination. The prohibition against sex discrimination imposes responsibility upon employers to afford their employees an environment free from sexual harassment and from the fear that it may occur.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) can file lawsuits on behalf of victims of sexual harassment, women who take their accusations to court face even bigger obstacles than mere public disapproval. The legal process is long and cumbersome - it can be years from the first complaint to the final verdict and in the meanwhile, the woman is in a legal, professional and often financial limbo. Women are not entitled to collect damages under the Civil Rights Act - just back pay; so many women don't see this process as worth the trouble. Even those, however, who do file a complaint and win a harassment case, may feel lost. Though, Title VII offers reinstatement to previous job, the individual may be shunned or harassed by co-worker thus making conditions even more uncomfortable than they were beforehand. Common law tort lawsuits, such as intentional infliction of emotional distress and assault and battery, provide a remedy in certain types of sexual harassment cases that is totally dependent of any of the statutes and governmental agencies. However, the solutions proposed might seem comprehensive in plans to lessen sexual harassment in the workplace and punishment of harassers, women still face formidable obstacles in preventing harassment from continuing. The proposed measures fail to cover all aspects of harassment, though the truth is, it is virtually impossible to formulate a plan to do so.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits most of the discrimination and harassment in the workplaces. The provision of the Title VII covers all the state, local government, private employees as well as educational institutions that have at least 15 employees or more. The Act prohibits any discrimination that may be meted against the individuals on the basis of the origin, religion, sex, color, race, and national origin (http://topics.hrhero.com/title-vii-of-the-civil-rights-act-of-1964/).
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has grown over the past few decades to ensure that employees, as well as employers, are protected against all employment discrimination. It is extremely important that both employers and employees know and understand what the law means and how to handle such acts of discrimination. As more amendments are passed into law, employers need to have clear and concise policies to help fight against discrimination.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects against employment discrimination based on “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin” (Moran, 2014, p. 164). This helps ensure fair treatment to all workers. To ensure the safety of all workers, Title VII also protects against harassment, which includes quid pro quo harassment, hostile environment harassment, religious harassment, and racial harassment.
Alexandra Marchuk v. Faruqi, is a recent high profile sexual harassment case in the media. On February 2015, “Ms. Marchuk won on her hostile work environment claim under the New York City Human Rights Law. However, the jury found in favor of the defendants on her hostile environment claims under Title VII (federal) law and the New York state Human Rights Law.” This case sends unclear messages about acceptable and unacceptable workplace behaviors. Ms. Marchuk and Mr. Faruqi seemed to have had a romantic relationship according to other employees who saw evident of such a relationship. She quite abruptly then alleged it was because he raped her and that she had been working in a hostile work environment.
Today, the EEOC receives more than 16,000 sexual harassment complaints in a year. This is hardly the amount of situations that happen. 95% of sexual harassment incidents are left unreported! We cannot follow in our government?s footsteps down this road. Our so-called Congress is the worse place to work in dealing with sexual harassment. Until 1994, they were not under compliance with any laws for the protection of workers in the workplace. Even the regulations of 1994 did not provide strict enforcement so the problem remains. Statistics have shown that in the Supreme Court one-third of the people has been a victim of some form of sexual harassment. A member of Congress harassed one in nine of these persons! 42% of women and 15% of men in the federal government have reported sexual harassment. Do you think our government does a great job of covering up things?
According to Bennett-Alexander & Hartman (2015) in order to determine the severity of the sexual harassment, the perspective must be obtained from the reasonable person standard (usually a male or gender neutral) or reasonable victim standard, which is viewing from the victim’s perspective (Bennett-Alexander & Hartman, 2015). The reasonable victim standard was issued as a policy by EEOC in order to be fair and obtain the woman’s perspective or reasonable woman (Bennett-Alexander & Hartman, 2015). Both of the standards mentioned are not intended to favor one gender more than the other, but rather create a gender-conscious examination of sexual harassment (Bennett-Alexander & Hartman, 2015). Thus, it is the employer’s responsibility to make the
Anita Hill gave women hope, but none of this would have happened if she had not have had the courage to speak up about the sexual harassment by Clarence Thomas. Even though the EEOC had defined sexual harassment as sexual discrimination ten years prior to the initial accusation, women were afraid to speak up about it. Sexual harassment was viewed as a victim’s probl...
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.
Each year many people first become aware of sexual harassment when they are harassed in the workplace. Today in the United States there still seems to be a need for general information about sexual harassment. Many people are unaware of exactly what sexual harassment is, how it affects its victims, where it happens, and what to do if it happens to them. There are many laws that protect people from sexual harassment and provide them with information about what to do if you should ever be in this situation (Wyatt, 2000).
Throughout the years the United States has faced many challenges with equal employment opportunities for everyone. The United States has developed The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, also known as the EEOC, to enforce laws that help prevent everyone from being treated unfairly when it comes to employment options. The EEOC has established stipulations and overlooks all of the federal equal employment opportunity regulations, practices and policies (“Federal Laws Prohibiting Job Discrimination Questions and Answers”). Some laws that have been passed are the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. Although some discrimination is still a problem, all of these laws have helped the United States citizens become treated more equally in the work force.
All over the world, we hear about people treating each other prejudicially depending on their background, ethnicity, or sex orientation. Workplaces should be free from all personal biases but unfortunately, we hear about employees being discriminated against, almost, on a daily basis. Workplace discrimination can be described as treating an individual or a group of people differently than others. It also can take more serious and threatening forms such as sexual harassment. It can be expressed in the form of offensive jokes, unwelcomed body contacts, inappropriate gestures, or even direct sexual contact.
gives all of us the right to be treated fairly and to take action if
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 defined as the form of discrimination in 1970s. Employers can be sued by the victims at the workplace. Organization and manager are the persons who are mainly affected by this type of issue. In a working environment, these types of activities not only reduce the productivity and lowers the morale if the people, but also the reputation of the organization (Fitzgerald and Serra, 1990). The term sexual harassment is assigned specifically to the working class. It has now become an international phenomenon in cultural and occupational aspects. It is purely based on gender discrimination and unequal power relations between men and women. It is considered a serious issue at as the case of occupational hazard and human
Clark, C. S. (1991, August 9). Sexual harassment. CQ Researcher, 1, 537-560. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher