Sexual Harrassement in the Workplace

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Sexual harassment has been a rising dispute in the work place for years. According to Boland (2005), sexual harassment is defined when employment is conditioned on submission to sexual advances, or when unwelcomed sexual conduct is so severe and pervasive that a reasonable employee would find it to be an offensive working environment. This describes two of the more common types of sexual harassment; Quid Pro Quo, which is the type of sexual harassment that occurs when someone in authority tries to subject you to trading sexual favors for other benefits and Hostile Environment; which occurs when sexual harassment or any type of inappropriate behavior is allowed to go unchecked in a workplace to point that impacts the employee(s) ability to work or “interferes with an employee’s work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.” (FCC Encyclopedia, 2011) Common types of sexual harassment that may be overlooked can be found in sexual joking and sexist words. Calling a woman “doll,” “babe,” “sweetie,” or “honey”; using sexist phrases, like “dumb blondes”; claiming that “women cry more” or are “too emotional” can all be offensive to women. Asking male workers to “think above their belt buckles”; stating that “some jobs are just women’s work” can also imply different means of sexual harassment. Sexist behaviors such as staring at someone, looking up and down at their body, giving personal gifts, winking or licking lips can all be classified as grounds for sexual harassment complaints.
Although there are several laws in place to minimize sexual harassment in the work place, and the majority of companies offer annual trainings on sexual harassment, still each year thousands of cases are brought to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. According to the EEOC, men filing sexual harassment complaints have tripled within the recent years, approximately 11% of the complaints are men filing against

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