Sociological Theory
SOCIOLOGY ASSIGNMENT
SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
SEXUAL HARASSMENT
PERSONAL TROUBLE
Sexual harassment case was first started when Carmita Wood (44) decided to quit her job because she was sexually harassed by a distinguished professor. Wood was born and raised in the apple orchard region of Lake Cayuga and was a sole support of two of her children. She had worked in Cornell’s department of nuclear physics for eight years and advancing from a lab assistant to a desk job handling administrative chores. Wood stated that the professor would jiggle his crotch when he stood near her desk, furthermore he would deliberately brush against her breasts while reaching for some papers. However, this got even worse. During an annual Christmas party, when the lab workers were leaving, the professor cornered her in the elevator and forced to kiss her.
After this incident, Wood decided to use the stairs in the lab building instead of elevator to avoid a repeat encounter, but she was already under pressure. The stress of the furtive molestations and Wood’s efforts to keep the scientist at a distance while maintaining cordial relations with his wife, causing Carmita Wood to have physical symptoms. The physical symptoms included chronic back and neck pains and the numbness of her right thumb. When she could not stand the pain anymore, she requested a transfer to another department. Unfortunately, her request was denied and she decided to quit her job. Wood’s trouble did not end here, since she was unemployed back then, she wanted to claim her unemployment insurance but could not tell the actual reason why she resigned from her job due to shame and embarrassment.
Carmita Wood later met Lin Farley, a lecturer who gave seminar regarding unwanted sexual advances, and told her the whole story. Finally, there were two feminist lawyers that took on Carmita Woods’s unemployment insurance appeal. In 1974, Catherine Alice MacKinnon heard about the case of Carmita Wood and she
SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
SEXUAL HARASSMENT
PERSONAL TROUBLE
Sexual harassment case was first started when Carmita Wood (44) decided to quit her job because she was sexually harassed by a distinguished professor. Wood was born and raised in the apple orchard region of Lake Cayuga and was a sole support of two of her children. She had worked in Cornell’s department of nuclear physics for eight years and advancing from a lab assistant to a desk job handling administrative chores. Wood stated that the professor would jiggle his crotch when he stood near her desk, furthermore he would deliberately brush against her breasts while reaching for some papers. However, this got even worse. During an annual Christmas party, when the lab workers were leaving, the professor cornered her in the elevator and forced to kiss her.
After this incident, Wood decided to use the stairs in the lab building instead of elevator to avoid a repeat encounter, but she was already under pressure. The stress of the furtive molestations and Wood’s efforts to keep the scientist at a distance while maintaining cordial relations with his wife, causing Carmita Wood to have physical symptoms. The physical symptoms included chronic back and neck pains and the numbness of her right thumb. When she could not stand the pain anymore, she requested a transfer to another department. Unfortunately, her request was denied and she decided to quit her job. Wood’s trouble did not end here, since she was unemployed back then, she wanted to claim her unemployment insurance but could not tell the actual reason why she resigned from her job due to shame and embarrassment.
Carmita Wood later met Lin Farley, a lecturer who gave seminar regarding unwanted sexual advances, and told her the whole story. Finally, there were two feminist lawyers that took on Carmita Woods’s unemployment insurance appeal. In 1974, Catherine Alice MacKinnon heard about the case of Carmita Wood and she