What is the Difference between Quid Pro Quo and Hostile Work Environment Forms of Harassment?

Sexual harassment is no laughing matter in today’s society. Sexual harassment is seen in many varying ways, from abuse to hostile. Abuse and hostile ways of sexual harassment are starters to help define the harassment and the severity of the matter. The readings assigned for this main question, Working Women in America: Split Dreams by Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber and Women’s Rights in the U.S.A. by Dorothy Stetson, have not only brought together many ideas and first hand experiences but also helped to answer any lingering questions that I had about sexual harassment.

“Sexual harassment has become a problem in every field of the workforce” (Hesse-Biber 2005, 149). This statement is completely truthful. Not only has sexual harassment, from what I’ve gathered, become a more occurring aspect of American society, but also, it’s being plagued as an ordinary occurrence in television shows and movies seen today. Should this be socially acceptable to now see on our televisions? I absolutely think so because this will help to further occurrences from happening. It’s not hard, from gathering material from the readings; sexual harassment is generally from men towards women.

Why should women be subjected to this type of treatment? Women have been trying to prove they’re capable of anything men can do since the 1840s, with the beginning of the Women’s Rights Movement in Seneca Falls, New York. Women always seem to be seen as only being capable of taking care of children and the home while men go into society to earn a living wage. Now that women are finally sharing their skills, they are being tormented, psychologically abused and physically abused because they seem attractive and won’t know how to fend for themselves. As stated by Hesse...

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...ally if they’ve had experiences in the past. I’m thankful, at 21 years old; I’ve never been exposed to sexual harassment. If I feel in the future I may be exposed, I will take the necessary precautions to ensure my security and career is taken care of. My hopes is that no more women have to experience sexual harassment, but you can only hope and wish so much before anything can be taken seriously. Eventually, sexual harassment will be a thing of the past but the amount of involvement that needs to occur now needs to be at an all time high to ensure some attention is granted later down the road.

Works Cited

Hesse-Biber, Sharlene Nagy. 2005. Working Women in America: Split Dreams. New York:

Oxford University Press.

Stetson, Dorothy McBride. 1997. Women’s Rights in the U.S.A.: Policy Debates and Gender

Roles. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.