Hostile Work Environment

Hostile work environment is a category of sexual discrimination prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX). Title VII protects employees from discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, color, and national origin, and it applies to employers with 15 or more employees. Title VII is enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Title IX applies to recipients of federal aid and is enforced by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the U.S. Department of Education. This entry describes the application of the law on hostile work environment in the context of higher education.

[Page 260]Hostile work environment can apply to any of the protected classes under Title VII, which covers race, sex, religion, color, and national origin. Regulations from the EEOC, published in 1980, supplied definitions for harassment on the basis of sex:

As case law developed under Title VII, the first two categories of behaviors in the regulations became identified with quid pro quo (literally, “this for that”) sexual harassment, while the third category became identified with hostile work environment sexual harassment. Quid pro quo sexual harassment occurs when an agent for an employer uses supervisory status or power to induce a subordinate to grant sexual favors in exchange for employment benefits.

Through a series of cases, especially the U.S. Supreme Court's judgment in Harris v. Forklift Systems (1993), hostile work environment sexual harassment has required the showing of four elements: severity, pervasiveness, subjectively unwelcome behavior, and objectively unwelcome behavior. Severity and pervasiveness operate together, so that a severe action, occurring only once, could foster a claim. A single minor action, such as utterance of an epithet or asking someone for a date, no matter how subjectively unwelcome to the target of the speech, would not be sufficient to create a hostile work environment. However, repeated utterances of an epithet or requests for a date can become objectionable or irritating enough that a reasonable person would objectively view it as unwelcome behavior. To a certain extent, the legal theories defining hostile work environment sexual harassment under Title VII have become applicable to claims under Title IX as well.