Combatting Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment, a form of sexual violence and workplace aggression, is the most widespread type of sexual victimization. Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act outlaws sexual harassment and the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 1980 explicitly delineated categories of illegal behavior. Psychological definitions of sexual harassment include gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention, and sexual coercion. Harassment most typically consists of nonviolent coercive, undesired attention that feels intrusive; for example, repeated sexual comments. Targets of harassment are disproportionately female, as male aggressors often act to maintain social control over their domain; approximately one in two women faces sexual harassment at some point in her life. Sexual harassment of women in the workplace both results from and reemphasizes women’s inferior status and will continue unless primary prevention strategies of reducing gender inequality change social and workplace policies.

Advocacy-seeking remains the most effective response to sexual harassment situations, yet is most infrequently employed by victims; avoidance-denial is the most common. The effects of reporting do not necessarily improve psychological, health, and career outcomes and may even hurt if retaliation victimization ensues. Organizations may react inappropriately defensive by isolating or revictimizing the target and insensitive investigative procedures may inflict additional distress onto the victim.

More research funding into violence against women and social policies that accurately recognize and concentrate on ushering women into traditionally masculine jobs, altering the gendered nature of jobs and organizational climates, and changing traditional social attitudes.

Affirmative action and recruiting can achieve workplace equality, necessary for eradicating sexual harassment. Discrimination in initial hiring practices and in training procedures and the top echelon management must be eliminated as employers adjust gendered power dynamics, especially in supervisor-subordinate relations. Organizations can change the masculine nature of careers by providing pro-family, pro-woman policies like flexible family leave and childcare policies. Furthermore, victims who quit because of sexual harassment should be eligible for unemployment benefits and the statute of limitations for filing harassment charges should be eliminated, as well as caps on monetary awards of damages. Organizations thus have incentive to address sexual harassment as it decreases motivation and productivity via poorer work performance, damaged interpersonal relationships, absenteeism and tardiness, and high turnover – decreasing their bottom line.

Facts about sexual harassment from the EEOC: http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-sex.html

Filing a grievance with your local EEOC field office: http://www.eeoc.gov/offices.html