Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is unwanted offensive sexual attention; it is overwhelmingly committed by men against women. About 34% to 60% of women and girls experience sexual harassment. Comparatively, 7% to 19% of sexual harassment victims are male, and 85% to 90% of sexual harassers (of both females and males) are also male. As in other forms of violence against women, fear of retaliation ensures the silence of witnesses, and the prospect of being blamed discourages efforts to seek help.

Sexual harassment limits opportunities of all females, even those without direct experience of it. The desire to avoid it and the need to escape it affect [Page 662]course enrollment and class attendance in school and application for employment and promotion in the workplace. In fact, the possibility of harassment affects where women and girls choose to shop, whether they take public transportation, and the side of the street on which they walk.

Sexual harassment is endemic within male-dominated domains. For example, it is an initiation tool used in college fraternities, military and paramilitary academies, and training camps.

Traditional gender ideology normalizes sexual harassment. Traditionalists have claimed it is a God-given right of men, an unavoidable byproduct of testosterone, and an instinctual need to reproduce.

Psychologists find negative connections for victims between sexual harassment and life satisfaction, self-esteem, trust of authorities, and romantic intimacy. Therapists note associations between victimization and stress disorders, such as insomnia, depression, and loss of appetite. Previous experience of other forms of interpersonal violence can heighten feelings of violation.

Minorities are more likely to experience a conflation of sexual and other forms of harassment. In the United States, Black women have felt doubly harassed by racialized sexual harassment. Harassment of gays and lesbians is sexualized homophobia.

Although the problem has existed for a very long time, the phrase sexual harassment is a relatively recent reference. Popularized in the 1970s by U.S. women's rights activists, the term is now common vernacular around the world. Sexual harassment is an endemic feature of everyday life and occurs in every public space, for example, in public commons, workplaces, and schools.

In 1981, U.S. government agencies added sexual harassment to their lists of employment and education discriminations, and nearly every industrialized nation has adopted similar prohibitions. In the United States, sexual harassment complaints are considered civil rights claims. In Europe, they are demands for a human's right to dignity.

More than 30 years of case law codifies the behaviors for which organizations are legally liable. Liable institutions must pay compensatory damages, and U.S. juries have awarded up to $30 million in punitive damages.