Sexual Harassment Law

Running head: SEXUAL HARASSMENT LAW

Sexual Harassment Law

Katherine Torres, Second Trimester

International College, Naples, FL

Professor Jo Ahern

MNA4400 - Online

Research Paper Final

Due: August 20, 2007

Date Submitted: August 18, 2007

Abstract

Sexual harassment is a very important issue in today's workplace. An employee should always feel safe and comfortable in his or her job, and with the addition of The Civil Rights Act of 1964 into the legal system, the United States outlined a policy for all companies to go by in order to keep the company safe from disciplinary actions, and to also keep the employees safe from harassing types of behavior. By following these rules and having a policy in place, both the company and the employee should be able to avoid harassing situations.

Introduction

Sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature in the working environment (Snell & Bohlander, 2007, p. 606). There are many instances of sexual harassment in the workplace, and many people fall victim to this type of behavior every day. Employees of large and small employers filed over 13,136 sexual harassment complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and state fair employment agencies in 2004 alone (p. 108). This is a large problem because it is so widespread and hard to detect for most employers, and many companies do not have training programs in place to prevent this type of behavior from happening in the workplace. In order for a company to be successful and avoid sexual harassment lawsuits, the company must be aware of what sexual harassment is, how to avoid it, and how to train its employees to respect others personal, social and sexual status.

Nowadays, there are many laws around sexual harassment and how to prevent it, avoid it, and punish it. The rules of sexual harassment are covered under Title VII of The Civil Rights Act of 1964. The purpose of this paper is to describe the two different types of sexual harassment: quid pro quo and hostile work environment harassment, describe Title VII of The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (which makes it illegal for any of these behaviors in the workplace), the history of this law, the importance of the law, and how the law can help motivate employees, and also protect employees from becoming victim to sexual harassment.

Types of Sexual Harassment

There are two different types of sexual harassment: quid pro quo harassment and hostile work environment harassment. Both of these types of harassment make it hard for employees to be content with his or her job, but many employees do put up with this type of behavior when he or she believes it is the only way to keep the job. Also, it is sometimes hard to file a claim for these types of behaviors on the first offense - to make a solid case, there typically usually needs to be a repetitive behavior.

Quid pro quo harassment is when the employee is tied to some consequential behavior from the harassing employee in return for keeping his or her job, or to get a raise or promotion. There are two types of behaviors with quid pro quo harassment: social exchanges and threats. Social exchanges are more of a sexual bribery - promising the employee reward for his or her acceptance of the harassing behavior. This behavior is harder for the employee to recognize and stop because the employee is getting something in return for acceptance of the behavior, so sometimes deters the employee from recognizing that it is harassment. On the other hand, threats involve the coercion of a behavior by attaching punitive consequences to a failure to comply (Miller& Brase, 2001, p. 244). Although social exchanges and threats are both quid pro quo (getting something for something), threats are definitely a lesser-accepted form of this type of sexual harassment, because the employee usually feels angered and frightened by the behavior and is more likely to act on filing a claim. If an employee accepts and complies with the offer on his or her own free will, then the behavior is no longer sexual harassment. This type of behavior used to go undetected and unpunished in many situations (p.244).

Hostile Work Environment harassment occurs when unwelcome comments or conduct based on sex, race or other legally protected characteristics unreasonably interferes with an employee's work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment ("Understanding Workplace," n.d., para. 3). This type of harassment is not specific to one level of employee - executives, lower management, employees, and even customers can perform it. Hostile work environment harassment consists of any kind of conduct that makes the employee feel insecure and threatened with his or her job. Some examples of a hostile work environment include staring in a suggestive manner, making offensive comments about clothes or body parts, touching in any way that could make an employee feel uncomfortable, telling sexual jokes or making sexual gestures, sending or forwarding sexual or explicit emails, use of derogatory words against race or sex, and negative comments about someone's age, mental or physical impairment (para. 5). This student believes this type of environment is extremely hard for an employee to work in because he or she constantly feels like he or she is being taunted and bothered. Companies need to be very aware and protect employees from this type of behavior, and organizations can reduce legal liability to and the expense of the accompanying litigation of sexual harassment complaints by preventing the development of a hostile work environment with comprehensive and clear policies prohibiting harassment (Koen, 1990, p. 88).

History of Title VII of The Civil Rights Act of 1964

Over the past many years, laws prohibiting discrimination and sexual harassment have grown enormously in terms of the extent of the geographic coverage, the range of covered employers, the array of protected workers, and the spectrum of prohibited practices (Donohue, 1994, p.2583). In the mid-1940s, states began passing Fair Employment Practices