Sexual Harassment: An Evolving Creature
Posted on March 2, 2008
Filed Under Sexual Harassment |
Over the course of the 20th Century as women’s rights have improved in the United States, the issue of sexual harassment has grown increasingly prominent. Laws have been enacted to protect both men and women from unwanted sexual advances as well as any sort of sexual indiscretions.
Along with laws and statutes protecting racial and ethnic minorities, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 included language to protect women in the workplace. A federal organization was started named the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and their task, among others, was to protect employees from sexual harassment in the work place. Sexual harassment is not simply a dirty old man asking his secretary for favors, rather it encompasses any of the following:
- The victim as well as the harasser may be a woman or a man. The victim 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.
- The victim does not have to be the person harassed but could be anyone affected by the offensive conduct.
- Unlawful sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to or discharge of the victim.
- The harasser’s conduct must be unwelcome.
While it may seem like fifty years ago that men were chasing their secretaries around the office, over 12,000 cases of sexual harassment were reported in 2006 to the EEOC, and over 15% of those were men who claimed to be sexually harassed.
Some of these issues get even more complicated via retaliation discrimination. Meaning, if an individual presses charges or speaks out against an employer because he/she feels they were sexually harassed, the employer may suspend, deny to promote or even fire the individual who spoke out. As shameful as that may seem, over 22,000 cases of retaliation were reported to the EEOC in 2004, almost a 2-1 ratio in retaliation to complaints, meaning employers seem to want to make examples of people who speak out against them.
Institutions such as UCLA have put efforts into preventing sexual harassment and educating their employees as to not only what constitutes it, but how to go about dealing with it.
The issue is still a major factor in today’s working place, and people who even seem to be bastions of liberality in the work place have seemed to have crossed the line. Former California State Senate President, and long time Democrat, John Burton had charges filed against him by the former Executive Director of his charity.
The penalties for sexual harassment range from civil to criminal penalties. And individual found guilty or responsible for sexual harassment can be immediately terminated from employment, fined by a state government agency (i.e. the EEOC), have the employing
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This article points out the very real danger that an employer will attempt to retaliate against the reporting employee. It is very important to keep a detailed log, if you are being harassaed. This can help strengthen your case.