Sexual Harassment

What is Sexual harassment? Sexual harassment is one of the most difficult and prevalent problems in the workplace. Sexual harassment is defined as unlawful employment discrimination based on one’s sex. Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination that violates the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It also applies to employment agencies, labor organizations and the federal government. A victim of sexual harassment may be a woman or a man, limited circumstances the gay and lesbian situations and does not have to be of the opposite sex. The harasser can be the victim’s supervisor, an agent of the employer, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or a non-employee. A victim can be anyone who affected by the offensive conduct. Unlawful conduct may occur with economic injury to or discharge of the victim. Sexual harassing behaviors ranges form an offender making repeated offensive comments to showing pornography to sexual assault.

Through the years it was viewed as female advancements from supervisors, employers and coworkers. Sexual harassment is not just the female gender discrimination issue anymore. The problem is not restricted to the United States but exits throughout the world and across all cultures. In legal terms, Sexual harassment is any unwelcome sexual advance or conduct on the job that creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment. Some of these cases involve homosexual men in high positions attempting to gain sexual favors from heterosexual men in exchanges for promotion or with the threat of being fired. Another fact is that more heterosexual men harass, annoy, tease and threaten homosexual men who are in their employed by them

There are two types of sexual harassment at the work place. The first one is which an employer offers a promotion or some type of similar trade in return for sexual favors. This is referred to as quid pro-quo harassment. Quid pro quo sexual harassment, is where and employer conditions employment on unwelcome sexual advances, sexual favors or other physical or verbal sexual contact, such as a promotions or job conditioned on intimate relations with your employer.

The second type of harassment is one which a hostile work environment is created. Such an environment includes any situation in which an employer, supervisor or co-worker engages in conduct that makes a co-worker feel uncomfortable because of his or her sex. The conduct must be unwanted by the victim. Hostile working environment includes exposure to unwanted sexual advances, physical contact, sexual remarks, sexual photographs or other types of hostile or offensive work environments. To prove a hostile work sexual harassment a pattern of sexual harassment must be established an isolated incident will not do unless it is a very severe incident. (legaldefintions.com)

Most people do not realize that if an employer can be help accountable for the sexual harassment by supervisors and other employees whether or not they knew it was happening. The EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) governs sexual harassment as a form of sexual discrimination.

What is a concern is that most victims of sexual harassment are fearful to report to the human resources department for fear of retaliation and feeling that they have no rights. Most will feel that they have no legal standing despite repeated court decisions declaring that these and other examples of sexual harassment are illegal. Most victims harbor these blatant sexual offenses or worry