Sexual Harassment

Modern social life is experienced in two overlapping spheres of relationships: a personal and a [Page 1461]professional sphere. The focus here is upon problem relationships that occur in the professional sphere. Specifically, this entry discusses the problem professional relationships that can constitute sexual harassment. Sexual harassment will be examined from both a legal and a social psychological perspective. Sexual harassment can occur in many relationship settings including the workplace, educational settings, and even relationships between landlords and tenants. The common stereotype of sexual harassment is one where a male supervisor makes sexual advances toward a female employee with the understanding that going along with his advances will result in a raise or promotion or that refusal will result in the employee's being fired or perhaps demoted. Although such a scenario certainly represents one form of sexual harassment, research consistently shows that such behavior is not the most common form of sexually harassing behavior that takes place in the workplace or other settings. The term sexual harassment was first coined in employment discrimination cases that were argued in U.S. Federal Courts. In U.S. law, sexual harassment is considered a form of illegal, gender-based discrimination. From a legal standpoint, the stereotypic sexually harassing behavior where a person in power uses his or her social position to sexually exploit an underling is called quid pro quo sexual harassment. Psychologists also refer to such behavior as sexual coercion. Though surveys show that experiences of sexual coercion are relatively rare, sexual coercion represents a socially significant form of sexual harassment because such experiences can be very psychologically stressful to those who are targeted.

Another form of legally recognized sexual harassment involves sexual or gender-related behavior that causes a hostile or offensive environment. In this form of sexual harassment, there is no necessary formal power imbalance between the perpetrator and the target of the behavior. Psychologists distinguish between two subtypes of hostile environment sexual harassment: unwanted sexual attention and gender harassment. Unwanted sexual attention is similar to sexual coercion except that the perpetrator does not attempt to tie going along with the behavior to any sort of reward or punishment. Nevertheless, the behavior in question is definitely sexual in nature and is unwelcome by the target of the behavior. Examples include staring at a target's body, unsolicited sexual touching, and persistent requests for dates after rejection.

Gender harassment is another type of behavior that can contribute to a hostile environment. Unlike sexual coercion or unwanted sexual attention, gender harassment does not involve an aim to gain sexual access to a target. Instead the aim of gender harassment often seems to be to express hostility. Women who work in traditionally masculine jobs such as firefighting, police work, or the military often report experiencing this form of sexual harassment. Examples range from the posting of offensive pornography on computers where others can see it to comments or jokes that demean a person with gender-specific insults (e.g., calling a woman a bitch). A graphic example of gender harassment was once reported by a woman who was one of the first female firefighters in New York City. One day on the job, she opened her lunch box to find a used condom in her sandwich, presumably placed there by her male coworkers. Research has consistently shown that gender harassment is the most prevalent form of sexually harassing behavior across all relationship settings.

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