Sexual Harassment

SEXUAL HARASSMENT is unwanted sexual behavior that interferes with occupational or educational functioning and is a form of white-collar crime. However, there is no statutory law criminalizing sexual harassment, but court cases against harassers in civil court have been won based upon Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibiting sex discrimination.

The term sexual harassment was coined in 1970 when Carmita Wood, an administrative assistant at Cornell University sued the university for unemployment compensation after she left the university due to an illness, precipitated as the result of ongoing sexual advances from a university professor. In 1972, Congress passed the Equal Opportunity Employment Act extending the coverage of Title VII to state and local governments and empowering the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce, via lawsuits, the 1964 prohibition on sex and race discrimination in employment.

In 1980, the chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued a set of guidelines detailing prohibited behavior that applied to all federal agencies and to private businesses with 15 or more employees. The guidelines included the prohibition of three general types of behaviors: 1) physical or verbal behaviors that are sexual in nature, including comments, photographs, jokes, or cartoons; 2) unwanted sexual behaviors; and 3) sexual behaviors that interfere with the ability to complete work or studies or that make the subject feel uncomfortable or threatened.

Generally sexual harassment is characterized by two types, quid pro quo harassment, and the creation of a hostile work or educational environment. Quid pro quo harassment occurs when an employee's initial or continued employment or advancement is conditioned on the performance of sexual favors. A hostile environment is the result of unwelcome or offensive conduct of a sexual nature that makes working conditions uncomfortable for a reasonable person.

Specifically, a hostile work environment charge of sexual harassment may consist of verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that unreasonably interferes with the employee's work, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment. Sexual harassment has been shown to lead to high rates of job turnover, lower productivity, and negative health consequences.

Sexual harassment in federal agencies alone costs the government approximately $327 million from 1992to 1994. In 1994, 44 percent of women and 19 percent of men employed in civilian federal government agencies reported experiencing unwanted sexual attention over the last two years. While in a 1994–95 survey of military personnel, 71 percent of women and 36 percent of men were sexually harassed in the last 12 months. Crude and offensive behavior is most common among military personnel, but women are five times as likely as men to report experiencing unwanted sexual attention or coercion.

Twelve percent of military women report experiencing sexual coercion, and 41 percent reported unwanted sexual attention. Similarly, surveys in the[Page 738] private sector reveal that 45 to 68 percent of women experienced sexual harassment over a two-year period.