Sexual Harassment

As generally understood, sexual harassment is unwanted and offensive sexual attention involving conduct and communication of a sexual nature that may be verbal, visual, written, physical, electronic, or any combination of these expressions. The sexual expression is made by a harasser to a recipient or victim who may be offended and harmed by the annoying behavior. In legal terms, as described in the 1980 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines, sexual harassment includes unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other conduct of a sexual nature such that the annoying behavior (a) explicitly or implicitly represents a term or condition of employment, (b) constitutes the basis of employment decisions, or (c) has the purpose or effect of interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment. Legally, [Page 1959]such conduct results in substantial harm, sex discrimination, and the violation of employment or educational rights. Though much of the scholarship and policy surrounding sexual harassment has focused on the workplace, sexual harassment in schools has become a significant focus as well. This entry discusses the history of sexual harassment as a concept and as a crime, in workplaces, schools, and other settings, beginning with its naming in the mid-1970s followed by government regulations and court cases in the 1980s and 1990s as well as court cases that have shaped the legal status of sexual harassment as a form of sex discrimination. Consideration is also given to how sexual harassment affects organizational performance, its costs, and the responsibilities that organizations have to educate their members about the inappropriate behavior, while providing effective ways of preventing and responding to sexual harassment when it occurs. The entry concludes with a look at the challenges presented to institutions seeking to prevent sexual harassment and maintain positive, diverse learning and workplace environments.

When sexual harassment occurs in some situations, it makes consensual sexual relationships implausible or socially unacceptable, as when a teacher who is in a more powerful position harasses a student or when a manager harasses an employee under his or her supervision or influence. In addition to the power differences that underlie sexual harassment, gender differences matter. In the predominantly heterosexual social and organizational environment in which sexual harassment most commonly occurs, men are overwhelmingly harassers and women overwhelmingly the recipients of unwanted and offensive sexual attention. There is also same-sex and peer-to-peer or student-to-student sexual harassment. For the recipient, sexual harassment is disruptive and adversely affects performance outcomes and opportunities in schools or in other places where it occurs. Thus, it should be considered an obstacle to achieving diversity because it creates a hostile work or learning environment that limits opportunities for the success of those subjected to such harassment.

Sexual harassment has many complex and controversial dimensions. Federal, state, and local laws as well as court decisions have defined rights and protections for those who experience it. Many organizations have policies and programs for preventing and responding to sexual harassment. Its effects or consequences may be damaging to individuals as well as to the organizations and institutions where it occurs. It could adversely affect personal and organizational performance in other ways as well. If sexual harassment occurs and is not addressed promptly and adequately, it could lead to costly complaints and even legal action against an educational institution or other organization.

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