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Name of Paper: Sexual Harassment

Student’s name:

Course number and name: SOC 402 Contemporary Social

Instructor’s name: Gwendolen Stutler

Date submitted: 23 November 2015

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This paper will discuss the effects of Sexual Harassment in the workplace and

working environment. In today’s society and work environment, sexual harassment

in no longer tolerated but as we know this was not always the case. In the past,

sexual harassment was acceptable and in majority of the situation’s involved male

supervisors using there positional power over female employees to make unwanted

sexual advances.

“Types of Sexual Harassment - Instances of sexual harassment generally fall into two

categories. In the first type, usually called quid pro quo, the harasser explicitly or

implicitly makes success in a job, classroom assignment, or some other situation

contingent on the victim’s submission to the harasser’s unwelcome sexual demands.

Harassers in this category include the supervisor who promises a raise or

promotion in exchange for sex, or penalizes an employee who refuses, and the

professor who rewards a student’s sexual compliance with a good grade on a term

paper. In the second type, often labeled “hostile environment,” the harasser’s sexual

conduct, whether verbal or physical, places the victim in a situation that a

reasonable person would find offensive, abusive, intimidating, or humiliating.

Harassers in this category include the coworker who repeatedly makes unwelcome

sexual advances, and the teacher who makes sexual comments about or

inappropriately touches a student’s body (Funk & Wagnalls)”.

Quid pro quo was the most common type of sexual harassment in an organization,

the victim’s future and success within the organization was based off their
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willingness to participate in this type of harassment. Typically if the victim would

corporate and subject himself or herself to this, the harasser continued to use this

against them as a means of control. This would continue until the harasser grew

tired of the individual and finally stopped harassing them but more than likely the

harasser never lived up to there end of the deal and the individual was never given

what they were promised.

Hostile environment is when a one person makes it very uncomfortable for another

person within the organization to perform there job. “To be unlawful, the conduct

must create a work environment that would be intimidating, hostile, or offensive to

a reasonable person (Wikipedia)”. Under these conditions most people who were in

a hostile work environment ended up quitting and the person who was responsible

for creating the environment moved on to the next victim or continued to create

that type of hostile environment within the organization without ever being

punished or removed from the organization.

Both of these types of sexual harassment was the norm and acceptable in many

organization prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 being passed. “Even after this

landmark law passed, the first sexual harassment cases were not brought until the

1970s -- and the Supreme Court didn't consider the issue until the 1980s. The

courts have since broadened their interpretation of what constitutes sexual

harassment (NOLO)”.

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Prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, sexual harassment did not have a name,

although it was a common problem in many organizations and caused many people

to loose there jobs or quit because they were tried of being mistreated and verbally

abused by supervisors or other co-workers who felt the need to harass them.

“Sexual harassment preceded sexual harassment law. We can point to the sexual

abuse and harassment of female slaves by their masters, the sexual hostility and

attacks of early twentieth century female industrial workers in the factories where

they worked, or the generations of secretaries groped by their bosses in the office.

And if we look only in the modern era but across different contexts, we find it not

only in the workplace, but also in schools, prisons, housing authorities, on the street,

and in virtually every type of institution. But it is naming the behavior rather than

its mere existence that leads to the establishment of a legal structure to control it.

For sexual harassment, this happened in the late 1970s as a number of forces

coalesced. A popular women’s magazine, Redbook, published results of a survey

titled What Men Do to Women on the Job, which found unwelcome sexual comments

and advances to be pervasive in the workplace. In 1981, the federal government

published a groundbreaking study reporting that four in ten female employees had

experienced harassing behaviors in the prior two years. Other studies and surveys

joined a growing chorus that led to the collective labeling of certain behaviors as

“sexual harassment” and the eventual melding of outrage with the protections of

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Title VII, a statute that had been on the books for more than a decade already

(Grossman)”.

Even though the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, it still took nearly 20 years for

society to realize and act upon the fact that sexual harassment was not going away

on it’s own. “In the 1970s Catharine MacKinnon and Lin Farley and the many other

lawyers and activists who represented women in and out of court were able to

mount a concerted assault, of unprecedented magnitude and force, on the practice

of sexual harassment. Responding on many fronts to the demands of the second-

wave feminist movement, the American legal system began slowly to yield to this

challenge, and for the first time recognized women’s right to work free of unwanted

sexual advances(Siegel)”. Movements such as this added to the strength and

enforcement of sexual harassment under the civil rights act. Although this was just

the beginning of may moments involving sexual harassment, it was a mild stepping

stone that begin to open societies eyes on how women were being treated in the

work place. Many corporations now have policies in regards to sexual harassment

and instead of turning a blind eye to it, they have done the exact opposite.

Corporations now tackle the problem at the source and provide training for there

personal so everyone understands what exactly will not be tolerated and what is

acceptable within there organization. By doing this corporations have clearly drawn

a line in the sand for those who insist on conducting themselves in such manner,

they have also made it easier for an employee to report sexual harassment. Major of

corporations HR departments head this program and are quick to respond to any
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allegations of sexual harassment. Corporations have realized the impact that sexual

harassment has on its organization, to include employee turnover rate, law suit

cases and stressful work environment. Because of this, corporations have made it a

priority to change how there organizations deal with sexual harassment, from top

level management to the average employee.

Sexual Harassment has been proven to create a hostile working environment for

those who are being harassed. It not only takes a physical toll but also causes undo

mental stress that could lead to deprecation. Because of this and constant call for

better working conditions for all, the government stepped in and created rights and

acts to protect individuals from these types of predators. However, even after the

laws were established it still took many more years of fighting for the laws to be up

held by the courts and corporations. Only after decades of protesting and litigations

has society changed it’s view on sexual harassment. The decades of fighting for

these rights has created a more stable and safe work environment for everyone and

not just women. Had the Civil Rights Act of 1964 never been implemented, the work

environment we know today would be completely different. The Civil Rights Act

was a gate way to changing the way society was, this allowed for equal rights among

all workers.

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References:

Sexual Harassment. (2015). Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, 1p. 1.

Wikipedia
Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostile_work_environment

Employment Law Firms. (2015). The History of Sexual Harassment Law
Retrieved from: http://www.employmentlawfirms.com/resources/employment/workplace-safety-and-health/sexual-harassment-law.htm
Grossman, J. L. (2015). Moving Forward, Looking Back: A RETROSPECTIVE ON SEXUAL HARASSMENT LAW. Boston University Law Review, 95(3), 1029-1048.
Siegel, R. B. (2013). A Short History of Sexual Harassment
Retrieved from: http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/excerpts/mackinnon_directions.pdf