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To those students who recently graduated from high school, it may sound like the Dark Ages, but it wasn’t: Until 1964, an employee who refused to give in to his or her employer’s sexual advances could be fired-legally. An employee being constantly humiliated by a coworker could be forced either to deal with the lewd comments, the stares, and the touching or to just quit his or her job. It is truly strange to think that sexual harassment was perfectly legal in the United States until Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But even after 1964, sexual harassment still persisted. It was not widely known exactly what sexual harassment was or those federal laws against it existed. Often when an employee was sexually harassed on the job, he or she felt too alienated and humiliated to speak out against it. (Marshall and Sullivan 6). During the 1970s and 1980s, however, sexual-harassment victims began coming forward to challenge their harassers. Then suddenly in the 1990s, the number of sexual-harassment complaints and lawsuits sharply rose. According to a 1994 survey conducted by the Society of Human Resource Management, the percentage of human-resource professionals who have reported that their departments handled at least one sexual-harassment complaint rose from 35 percent in 1991 to 65 percent in 1994. Why did this large increase occur in such a short amount of time? Possible answers to this question surely would include growing awareness of the nature of workplace sexual harassment, government action, efforts of companies to establish anti-harassment policies and encourage harassed employees to come forward, and prominence given by the media to many cases of workplace harassment. One significant cause of the rise in reported incidents of sexual harassment was most likely the increased awareness of what constitutes sexual harassment. There are two distinct types of sexual harassment, and although their formal names may be unfamiliar, the situations they describe will most certainly ring a bell. Hostile coworker gives the victim “unwelcome sexual attention” that “interferes with (his or her) ability to work or creates an intimidating or offensive atmosphere” (Stanko and Werner 15). Quid pro quo sexual harassment occurs when “a workplace superior demands some degree of sexual favor” and either threatens to or does retaliate in a way that “has a tangible effect on the working conditions of the harassment victim” if he or she refuses to comply (Stanko and Werner 15). A fundamental cause of the rise in reports of workplace harassment was government action in 1964 and again in 1991. After the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which allowed, among other things, larger damage awards for sexually harassed employees, many more employees began coming forward with complaints. They realized that sexual harassment was not legal and they could do something about it. Suddenly, it became possible for a company to lose millions in a single sexual-harassment case. For example, Rena Weeks, a legal secretary in San Francisco, sued the law firm of Baker & McKenzie for $3.5 million after an employee, Martin Greenstein, “dumped candy down the breast pocket of her blouse, groped her, pressed her from behind and pulled her arms back to ‘see which one (breast) is bigger’” (“Workplace”). The jury awarded Weeks $7.1 million in punitive damages, twice what she sough in her lawsuit (“Workplace”). In addition, research revealed that the mere existence of sexual harassment in a company could lead to “hidden costs” such as absenteeism, lower productivity, and loss of valuable employees (Stanko and Werner 16). These “hidden costs” could add up to $6 or $7 million a year for a typical large company, according to one survey of Fortune 500 companies (Stanko and Werner 16). Concerned about these costs, most companies decided to develop and publicize sexual harassment policies, making every employee aware of the problem and more likely to come forward as early as possible so that employers have a chance to remedy the situation before it gets out of hand (Martell and Sullivan 8). Prior to 1991, sexual-harassment victims were often asked by their employers simply to remain silent (Martell and Sullivan 8). These new policies and procedures, along with training sessions, made it much more likely that employees would report incidents of sexual harassment. And we should not be surprised that the Internet has provided independent information to employees about dealing with workplace sexual harassment. (“Handling”; “Sexual”). The media have also contributed to the rise of reports of workplace sexual harassment by giving great attention to a few prominent cases. In 1991, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in Senate hearings on his nomination had to defend himself from sexual-harassment charges by his former colleagues Anita Hill. Later that same year, U.S. male navy officers were accused of sexually harassing female navy officers at the infamous Tailhook Convention, a yearly gathering of navy aviators (Nelton 24). During 1997 and 1998- and probably for many years beyond- Paula Jones’s sexual-harassment charges against President Clinton dominated the national news on many days. Jones was an Arkansas state employee at the time she said Clinton, who was then governor, harassed her. These three highly publicized cases made sexual harassment a much-discussed public issue that sparked debate and encouraged victims to come forward. Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination that violates unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment. Sexual Harassment can take many forms, including a request for sexual favors; unwelcome sexual advances towards others, verbal, physical, or foreseeable conduct of a sexual nature towards people. This illegal conduct could occur in houses, or public places, hotels, restaurants, and can most often occur in the workplace. Sexual harassment can occur in a variety of circumstances.
Approximate Word count = 3924
Approximate Pages = 15.7
(250 words per page double spaced)
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