14.5: Sexual Harassment

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Susan Rahman with Nathan Bowman, Dahmitra Jackson, Lushtak, Remi Newman, & Prateek Sunder
California Consortium for Equitable Change in Hispanic Serving Institutions Open Educational Resources (CC ECHO)

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Sexual harassment as defined by federal guidelines and legal rulings and statutes, consists of unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or physical conduct of a sexual nature used as a condition of employment or promotion, or that interferes with an individual’s job performance and creates an intimidating or hostile environment (National Sexual Violence Resource Center, n.d.).

Sexual harassment can be of one of two forms:

Quid pro quo (a person in a position of power offers rewards in exchange for sex
Hostile environment (other people's words/actions of sexual nature create an abusive situation for the victim)

Although anyone can be, and are, sexually harassed, women are more often the targets of sexual harassment, which is often considered a form of violence against women. This gender difference exists for at least two reasons, one cultural and one structural. The cultural reason centers on the depiction of women, as depicted in mass media, and the [gendered] socialization of men. Women are still depicted in our culture as sexual objects who exist for men’s pleasure. At the same time, our culture socializes men to be sexually assertive. These two cultural beliefs combine to make men believe that they have the right to make verbal and physical advances to women in the workplace. When these advances fall into the guidelines listed here, they become sexual harassment (National Sexual Violence Resource Center, n.d.).

The second reason most targets of sexual harassment are women is more structural. Reflecting the gendered nature of the workplace and of the educational system, typically the men doing the harassment are in a position of power over the women they harass. A male boss harasses a female employee, or a male professor harasses a female student or employee. These men realize that subordinate women may find it difficult to resist their advances for fear of reprisal; a female employee may be fired or not promoted, and a female student may receive a bad grade.

How common is sexual harassment?

This is difficult to determine, as the men who do the sexual harassment are not about to shout it from the rooftops, and the women who suffer it often keep quiet because of the repercussions just listed. But anonymous surveys of women employees in corporate and other settings commonly find that 40%–65% of the respondents report being sexually harassed (Rospenda, et al., 2009). In a survey of 4,501 women physicians, 36.9% reported being sexually harassed either in medical school or in their practice as physicians (Frank, et al., 1998).

Sidebar 14.4: Understanding Rape in a Cultural Context

Susan Griffin (1971, p. 26)Griffin, S. (1971, September). Rape: The all-American crime. Ramparts, 10, 26–35. began a classic essay on rape in 1971 with this startling statement:

“I have never been free of the fear of rape. From a very early age I, like most women, have thought of rape as a part of my natural environment—something to be feared and prayed against like fire or lightning. I never asked why men raped; I simply thought it one of the many mysteries of human nature.”