BUS403: Negotiations and Conflict Management

Sexual harassment is a form of harassment involving explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions from verbal transgressions to sexual abuse or assault. Harassment occurs in many social settings, such as the workplace, home, school, or religious institutions. Harassers or victims may be of any sex or gender.

Sexual harassment is illegal in most legal contexts. Sexual harassment laws generally allow simple teasing, offhand comments, and minor isolated incidents – that they do not impose a general civility code. In the workplace, harassment may be considered illegal when it is frequent, severe, creates a hostile or offensive work environment, or causes an adverse employment decision (such as the victim's demotion, firing or quitting). However, the legal and social understanding of sexual harassment, varies by culture.

Sexual harassment by an employer is a form of illegal employment discrimination. For many businesses and organizations, preventing sexual harassment and defending employees from sexual harassment charges have become key goals of legal decision-making.

Etymology and History

The modern legal understanding of sexual harassment was first developed in the 1970s, although related concepts have existed in many cultures.

The Term Sexual Harassment

Catharine MacKinnon, a legal activist, is sometimes credited with creating the laws surrounding sexual harassment in the United States with her 1979 book Sexual Harassment of Working Women. However, she did not coin the term. The phrase appeared in a 1972 issue of The Globe and Mail newspaper published in Toronto. An early use of the term was in a 1973 report about discrimination, Saturn's Rings by Mary Rowe, special assistant to the president and chancellor for women and work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Due to her efforts, MIT was one of the first large organizations to develop specific policies and procedures to prevent sexual harassment in the United States. Women's groups were discussing harassment of women in the workplace in Massachusetts in the early 1970s, according to Rowe.

Lin Farley, an instructor at Cornell University, reported that women were being fired or quitting their jobs because men were harassing and intimidating them. In May 1975, Farley and her colleagues described this problem as sexual harassment during a Speak Out. Later that year, Farley described sexual harassment at length during her testimony before the New York City Human Rights Commission. Farley published, Sexual Shakedown: The Sexual Harassment of Women on the Job in 1978. The women at Cornell became public activists when Carmita Dickerson Wood, a 44-year-old single mother who was being harassed by a faculty member at Cornell's Department of Nuclear Physics, asked for their help.

The pioneer organizations, Working Women United (founded by Lin Farley, Susan Meyer, and Karen Sauvigne in 1975) and the Alliance Against Sexual Coercion (founded by Freada Klein, Lynn Wehrli, and Elizabeth Cohn-Stuntz in 1976), brought sexual harassment to public attention during the late 1970s. One of the first legal formulations was that sexual harassment was consistent with sex discrimination and prohibited behavior under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. See Catharine MacKinnon's book, Sexual Harassment of Working Women (1976). 

Key Sexual Harassment Cases

Sexual harassment was codified in U.S. law as the result of a series of sexual harassment cases during the 1970s and 1980s. Many of the women who pursued these cases were African American, often former civil rights activists who applied principles of civil rights to sex discrimination.

• Williams v. Saxbe (1976) and Paulette L. Barnes, Appellant, v. Douglas M. Costle, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (1977) determined firing someone for refusing a supervisor's advances was sex discrimination.
• Alexander v. Yale (1980), established that sexual harassment of female students was illegal because it could be considered sex discrimination under Title IX.
• Bundy v. Jackson (1981) was the first federal appeals court case to hold that workplace sexual harassment was employment discrimination. The Supreme Court upheld this decision in Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson in 1986.
• Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite Co., was the first class-action lawsuit filed in 1988 (concluding nine years later).

Situations Where Sexual Harassment Occurs

Sexual harassment occurs in various circumstances and places, including factories, schools, colleges, the theater, and the music business. Often, the perpetrator has power or authority over the victim (due to age, educational, employment, political, and social relationship differences).

• The perpetrator can be anyone (client, co-worker, parent or legal guardian, relative, teacher or professor, student, friend, or stranger).
• Harassment occurs everywhere (schools, colleges, workplaces, in public, etc.)
• Harassment occurs regardless of whether there is a witness.
• The perpetrator may be unaware that their behavior is offensive, constitutes sexual harassment, or is unlawful.
• Harassment occurs in situations where the victim is unaware or does not understand what is happening.
• An incident may be a one-time occurrence.
• Adverse effects on victims include stress, social withdrawal, sleep disorders, eating difficulties, and other health impairments.
• The perpetrator and victim can be any gender.
• The perpetrator and victim can be the same sex.
• The incident may arise from a reasonable or unreasonable misunderstanding.
• Harassment often occurs online, such as in video games and chat rooms.

According to the 2014 PEW research statistics on online harassment, 25 percent of women and 13 percent of men between 18 and 24 have experienced sexual harassment online.

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

The United States' Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) defines workplace sexual harassment as "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature ... when 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. The challenged conduct must be unwelcome in the sense that the employee did not solicit or incite it, and in the sense that the employee regarded the conduct as undesirable or offensive. Particularly when the alleged harasser may have some reason (e.g., prior consensual relationship) to believe that the advances will be welcomed, it is important for the victim to communicate that the conduct is unwelcome."

Throughout the United States workplace, 79 percent of sexual harassment victims are women, and 21 percent are men. Out of those numbers, 51 percent of those people were harassed by a supervisor. Based on data from the EEOC, the industries with the most sexual harassment reports from 2005 to 2015 were restaurant and hospitality, health care, academia, and the military. Twelve percent of the victims received threats of termination if they did not comply with their predators' request.

An "I Believe Anita Hill" pin in support of Anita Hill's 1991 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment

During televised hearings on October 11, 1991, Anita Hill was a witness that testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee against Supreme Court of the United States nominee Clarence Thomas, citing sexual harassment. Hill said Thomas sexually harassed her while he was her supervisor at the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

According to Hill, Thomas asked her out socially many times during her two years of employment as his assistant. After she declined his requests, Thomas used work situations to discuss sexual subjects and push his advances. Since Hill testified in 1991, the term sexual harassment has become known outside academic and legal circles. The number of cases reported in the United States and Canada has increased significantly and has climbing steadily since.

Arkansas state employee Paula Jones cited President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment in a 1994 lawsuit.

In 1994, Paula Jones, a civil servant and former Arkansas state employee, sued U.S. President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment. In the initial lawsuit, Jones cited Clinton for sexual harassment at the Excelsior Hotel in Little Rock, Arkansas, on May 8, 1991. After a series of civil suits and appeals through the U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals from May 1994 to January 1996, Jones v. Clinton eventually reached the United States Supreme Court on May 27, 1997. The case was later settled by a federal appeals court on November 13, 1998. Jones continues to maintain that Clinton sexually harassed her. Clinton continues to deny it.

Sexual Bribery

A sexual bribe is the solicitation of sex, any sexual activity or other sex-linked behaviour for a promise of elevation in work status or pay. It is in an employment setting in which a sexual relationship with an employer or superior is made an explicit or implied condition for obtaining/retaining employment or its benefits. A sexual bribe may be either overt or subtle but falls under the type of quid pro quo sexual harassment.

Sexual Harassment in the Military

Studies of sexual harassment have found that it is markedly more common in the military than in civilian settings. In 2018, an estimated 20,500 people in the US armed forces (about 13,000 women and 7,500 men) were assaulted, up from 14,900 in 2016. A Canadian study found that key risk factors associated with military settings are the typically young age of personnel, the 'isolated and integrated' nature of accommodation, the minority status of women, and the disproportionate number of men in senior positions. The traditionally masculine values and behaviours that are rewarded and reinforced in military settings, as well as their emphasis on conformity and obedience, are also thought to play a role. Canadian research has also found that the risk increases during deployment on military operations.

While some sexual harassment occurs among male military personnel, women are significantly more likely to be affected. Women who joined the military at a young age face a greater risk, according to American, British and French research. Child recruits (under the age of 18) and children in cadet forces also face an elevated risk. For example, in the United Kingdom, hundreds of complaints of the sexual abuse of cadets have been recorded since 2012. In Canada, one in ten complaints of sexual assault in military settings are from child cadets or their parents.

Military detainees are also vulnerable to sexual harassment. For example during the Iraq War, U.S. army and U.S. Central Intelligence Agency personnel committed several human rights violations against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison, including rape, sodomy, and other forms of sexual abuse.

Although the risk of sexual misconduct in the armed forces is widely acknowledged, personnel are frequently reluctant to report incidents, due to a fear of reprisals, according to research in Australia, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Women affected by sexual harassment are more likely to suffer stress-related mental illness than other women. Research in the United States found that when sexual abuse of female military personnel is psychiatrically traumatic, the odds of suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after deployment on operations increase by a factor of nine.

A Variety of Behaviors

One of the difficulties in understanding sexual harassment is that it involves a range of behaviors. In most cases it is difficult for the victim to describe what they experienced. This can be due to the difficulty classifying the situation or stress and humiliation the victim experienced. Behavior and motives vary among individual cases.

Author Martha Langelan describes four different classes of harassers.

1. Predatory harasser: Someone who enjoys humiliating others sexually. This harasser may become involved in sexual extortion, and may frequently harass to see how their victims respond. Victims who do not resist may become targets for rape.
   
   
2. Dominance harasser: Someone who engages in harassing behavior to assert their dominance over the other person. This is the most common form of sexual harassment.
   
   
3. Strategic or territorial harasser: Someone who tries to maintain their privilege in jobs or physical locations. For example, men may harass female employees who work in a predominantly male occupation.
   
   
4. Street harasser: A form of sexual harassment strangers perform in public places. Street harassment includes verbal and nonverbal behavior. Remarks are sexual in nature, such as comments on physical appearance or public presence.

Prevention

Poster created by the U.S. Army's Sexual Harassment/Assault Response & Prevention (SHARP)

Sexual harassment and assault may be prevented by secondary school, college, and workplace education programs. For example, sororities and fraternities in the United States now take preventive measures against hazing activities during the pledging processes (which often includes sexual harassment). Many Greek organizations and universities nationwide have anti-hazing policies that explicitly recognize various acts and examples of hazing, and offer preventive measures for such situations.

Anti-sexual harassment training programs have little evidence of effectiveness and "Some studies suggest that training may in fact backfire, reinforcing gendered stereotypes that place women at a disadvantage."

The use of audio and video recording can help in preventing sexual harassment in the workplace. Audio recording apps are available for use on smartphones, and can for instance be used during job interviews.

Impact

The impact of sexual harassment can vary. In research carried out by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, 17,335 female victims of sexual assault were asked to name the feelings that resulted from the most serious incident of sexual assault that they had encountered since the age of 15. 'Anger, annoyance, and embarrassment were the most common emotional responses, with 45% of women feeling anger, 41 percent annoyance, and 36 percent embarrassment. Furthermore, close to one in three women (29 percent) who has experienced sexual harassment have said that they felt fearful as a result of the most serious incident, while one in five (20 percent) victims say that the most serious incident made themselves feel ashamed of what had taken place.

In other situations, harassment may lead to temporary or prolonged stress or depression depending on the recipient's psychological abilities to cope and the type of harassment and the social support or lack thereof for the recipient. Harnois and Bastos (2018) show an association between women's perceptions of workplace sexual harassment and self-reported physical health. In addition, a study conducted in 2010 indicated that workplace sexual harassment is linked to greater mental health issues and lower job satisfaction, regardless of assessment technique or gender.

Psychologists and social workers report that severe or chronic sexual harassment can have the same psychological effects as rape or sexual assault. For example, in 1995, Judith Coflin committed suicide after chronic sexual harassment by her bosses and coworkers. (Her family was later awarded six million dollars in punitive and compensatory damages). Victims who do not submit to harassment may also experience various forms of retaliation, including isolation and bullying.

As an overall social and economic effect every year, sexual harassment deprives women from active social and economic participation and costs hundreds of millions of dollars in lost educational and professional opportunities for mostly girls and women. However, the quantity of men implied in these conflicts is significant.

Coping

Sexual harassment, by definition, is unwanted and not to be tolerated. There are ways, however, for offended and injured people to overcome the resultant psychological effects, remain in or return to society, regain healthy feelings within personal relationships when they were affected by the outside relationship trauma, regain social approval, and recover the ability to concentrate and be productive in educational and work environments. These include stress management and therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, friends and family support, and advocacy.

Immediate psychological and legal counseling are recommended since self-treatment may not release stress or remove trauma, and simply reporting to authorities may not have the desired effect, may be ignored, or may further injure the victim at its response.

A 1991 study done by K.R. Yount found three dominant strategies developed by a sample of women coal miners to manage sexual harassment on the job: the lady, the flirt, and the tomboy. The ladies were typically the older women workers who tended to disengage from the men, kept their distance, avoided using profanity, avoided engaging in any behavior that might be interpreted as suggestive. They also tended to emphasize by their appearance and manners that they were ladies. The consequences for the "ladies" were that they were the targets of the least amount of come-ons, teasing and sexual harassment, but they also accepted the least prestigious and lowest-paid jobs.

The flirts were most often the younger single women. As a defense mechanism, they pretended to be flattered when they were the targets of sexual comments. Consequently, they became perceived as the "embodiment of the female stereotype,... as particularly lacking in potential and were given the fewest opportunities to develop job skills and to establish social and self-identities as miners."

The tomboys were generally single women, but were older than the flirts. They attempted to separate themselves from the female stereotype and focused on their status as coal miners and tried to develop a "thick skin." They responded to harassment with humor, comebacks, sexual talk of their own, or reciprocation. As a result, they were often viewed as sluts or sexually promiscuous and as women who violated the sexual double standard. Consequently, they were subjected to intensified and increased harassment by some men. It was not clear whether the tomboy strategy resulted in better or worse job assignments.

The findings of this study may be applicable to other work settings, including factories, restaurants, offices, and universities. The study concludes that individual strategies for coping with sexual harassment are not likely to be effective and may have unexpected negative consequences for the workplace and may even lead to increased sexual harassment. Women who try to deal with sexual harassment on their own, regardless of what they do, seem to be in a no-win situation.For example, after an anti-groping device allowing victims to mark their assailants with an invisible ink stamp has been released in Japan, some experts claimed it is wrong to put the onus on the victim.

Common Effects on Victims

Common psychological, academic, professional, financial, and social effects of sexual harassment and retaliation:

• Becoming publicly sexualized (i.e. groups of people evaluate the victim to establish if he or she is worth the sexual attention or the risk to the harasser's career)
• Being objectified and humiliated by scrutiny and gossip
• Decreased work or school performance as a result of stress conditions; increased absenteeism in fear of harassment repetition
• Defamation of character and reputation
• Effects on sexual life and relationships: can put extreme stress upon relationships with significant others, sometimes resulting in divorce
• Firing and refusal for a job opportunity can lead to loss of job or career, loss of income
• Having one's personal life offered up for public scrutiny - the victim becomes the "accused," and his or her dress, lifestyle, and private life will often come under attack.
• Having to drop courses, change academic plans, or leave school (loss of tuition) in fear of harassment repetition or as a result of stress
• Having to relocate to another city, another job, or another school
• Loss of references/recommendations
• Loss of trust in environments similar to where the harassment occurred
• Loss of trust in the types of people that occupy similar positions as the harasser or his or her colleagues, especially in case they are not supportive, difficulties or stress on peer relationships, or relationships with colleagues
• Psychological stress and health impairment
• Weakening of support network, or being ostracized from professional or academic circles (friends, colleagues, or family may distance themselves from the victim, or shun him or her altogether)

Some of the psychological and health effects that can occur in someone who has been sexually harassed as a result of stress and humiliation: depression; anxiety; panic attacks; sleeplessness; nightmares; shame; guilt; difficulty concentrating; headaches; fatigue; loss of motivation; stomach problems; eating disorders (such as weight loss or gain); alcoholism; feeling betrayed, violated, angry, violent towards the perpetrator, powerless or out of control; increased blood pressure; loss of confidence or self-esteem; withdrawal; isolation; overall loss of trust in people; traumatic stress; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); complex post-traumatic stress disorder; suicidal thoughts or attempts, and suicide.

Post-Complaint Retaliation and Backlash

Retaliation and backlash against a victim are common, particularly a complainant. Victims who speak out against sexual harassment are often labeled troublemakers who are on their own "power trips," or who are looking for attention. Similar to cases of rape or sexual assault, the victim often becomes the accused, with their appearance, private life, and character likely to fall under intrusive scrutiny and attack. They risk hostility and isolation from colleagues, supervisors, teachers, fellow students, and even friends. They may become the targets of mobbing or relational aggression.

Women are not necessarily sympathetic to female complainants who have been sexually harassed. If the harasser was male, internalized sexism (or jealousy over the sexual attention towards the victim) may encourage some women to react with as much hostility towards the complainant as some male colleagues. Fear of being targeted for harassment or retaliation themselves may also cause some women to respond with hostility. For example, when Lois Jenson filed her lawsuit against Eveleth Taconite Co., the women shunned her both at work and in the community - many of these women later joined her suit. Women may even project hostility onto the victim in order to bond with their male coworkers and build trust.

Retaliation has occurred when a sexual harassment victim suffers a negative action as a result of the harassment. For example, a complainant be given poor evaluations or low grades, have their projects sabotaged, be denied work or academic opportunities, have their work hours cut back, and other actions against them which undermine their productivity, or their ability to advance at work or school, being fired after reporting sexual harassment or leading to unemployment as they may be suspended, asked to resign, or be fired from their jobs altogether. Retaliation can even involve further sexual harassment, and also stalking and cyberstalking of the victim. Moreover, a school professor or employer accused of sexual harassment, or who is the colleague of a perpetrator, can use their power to see that a victim is never hired again(blacklisting), or never accepted to another school.

Of the women who have approached her to share their own experiences of being sexually harassed by their teachers, feminist writer Naomi Wolf wrote in 2004:

Another woman who was interviewed by sociologist Helen Watson said, "Facing up to the crime and having to deal with it in public is probably worse than suffering in silence. I found it to be a lot worse than the harassment itself."

Backlash Stress

Backlash stress is stress resulting from an uncertainty regarding changing norms for interacting with women in the workplace. Backlash stress now deters many male workers from befriending female colleagues, or providing them with any assistance, such as holding doors open. As a result, women are being handicapped by a lack of the necessary networking and mentorship.

Organizational Policies and Procedures

Most companies have policies against sexual harassment.

Organizations risk the following consequences for failing to properly investigate sexual harassment complaints:

• Loss of employees and students when victims leave school, resign, or are fired without cause
• Decreased productivity and job satisfaction due to increased team conflict
• Decreased productivity and increased absenteeism by employee and student victims experiencing harassment
  
• Decreased success for meeting financial and academic goals
• Increased costs in healthcare and sick-pay due to health consequences of harassment and retaliation
• Knowledge that harassment is permitted can undermine ethical standards and discipline in the organization, as employees and students lose respect for, and trust in, seniors who indulge in, or turn a blind eye to, sexual harassment
• The company or school's image and reputation can suffer if the problem is ignored or not treated properly
• The company will incur the costs of high jury awards, attorney fees, fines, and litigation when defending perpetrators, their failure to act, and their involvement in creating and fostering a hostile work environment 

Studies show that organizational climate (an organization's tolerance, policy, procedure etc.) and workplace environment are essential for understanding the conditions in which sexual harassment is likely to occur, and the way its victims will be affected. However, research on specific policy and procedure, and awareness strategies is lacking. Another element which increases the risk for sexual harassment is the job's gender context (having few women in the close working environment or practicing in a field which is perceived as atypical for women).

According to Dr. Orit Kamir, the most effective way to avoid sexual harassment in the workplace, and influence the public's state of mind, is for employers to adopt a clear policy prohibiting sexual harassment and make it clear to their employees. Many women prefer to make a complaint and have the matter resolved within the workplace rather than "air out the dirty laundry" with a public complaint and be unfairly criticized by colleagues, superiors, and employers.

Most prefer a pragmatic solution that will stop the harassment and prevent future contact with the harasser rather than turning to the police. More about the difficulty in turning an offense into a legal act can be found in Felstiner & Sarat's (1981) study, which describes three steps a victim (of any dispute) must go through before turning to the justice system: naming – giving the assault a definition, blaming – understanding who is responsible for the violation of rights and facing them, and finally, claiming – turning to the authorities.

Source: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_harassment
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