Discussing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

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Currently, there are laws in the United States that address sexual harassment in the workplace.
According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, EEOC, (2010), sexual harassment occurs
when "submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's
employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance or creates an intimidating,
hostile or offensive work environment." Because the language used to define sexual harassment covers
a broad range of behaviors, it is often difficult to know exactly when boundaries are crossed. However,
the EEOC (2002) further explains that such behavior does not necessarily have to be directed at the
person it is affecting. This means that if a remark or behavior is offensive to others who may hear or
witness those behaviors, they do not need to be the object or person in which such behavior is directed,
to be offended or intimidated. In addition, harassment can occur with members of the same sex as
well as with those of the opposite sex.
While many employers have policies to address instances of sexual harassment in the
workplace, many do not offer training or fail to develop policies that focus on prevention of such
behavior. Much of the data gathered through polls and surveys indicates that prevention measures
may be more effective than simply having policies and procedures in place. Overall, women in
supervisory positions are 137% more likely to be victims of sexual harassment, followed by women in
general, gays and men with feminine characteristics (Sexual Harassment Support, 2009). Though
data does indicate the number of cases and incidence of sexual harassment in the U.S. is dropping,
it is still a fairly common workplace problem.
The reason policies and procedures to address sexual harassment are not as ...