Sexual Harassment in the workplace

Essay by ZippyUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, November 2002

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Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

Introduction

Sexual harassment is very complex and problematic for one out of two women at some point during their working lives (Gutek, 1985). There are many complexities of sexual harassment, that aid in understanding the issues and how it has developed. The roots of its existence and its various definitions, along with the cultural attitudes that exist in our society regarding roles, also help in building an understanding of its development. Creating awareness of what constitutes sexual harassment can be accomplished by looking into the history of roles in society and how they have evolved, along with defining and investigating the extent to which it is a problem with workplace productivity. A step by step analysis of what the person that is being sexually harassed can do to prevent and report incidents and if new preventative measures need to be added for what still is believed to be the remaining concern with sexual harassment.

All of these factors will help employees define and understand sexual harassment in the workplace as well as promote the reporting of it.

Between 40 to 90% of women in the Unites States have been victims of some form of sexual harassment on the job (Sexual Har.2001). Yet, regardless of all its publicity, sexual harassment still remains hidden by most of its victims in todays society (Hotelling, 1991). The question of what constitutes sexual harassment continues to be addressed in human resource offices, courtrooms, break rooms, and living rooms. Sexual harassment is a frequently covered topic, however, the fact that it is not reported as frequently as it happens states that the victims that remain silent should be a concern. Since sexual harassment occurs mostly to women (Terpstra 1985), assumes that women are victims and men are harassers. Sexual harassment in...