While male-female sexual harassment cases still predominate, same-sex and other forms of harassment are a growing trend. And often, there’s no sex involved.
When the term “sexual harassment” comes up, many people might think of scenes from the movie “9 to 5.”
In that classic film, an overbearing, over-leering boss (played by Dabney Coleman) constantly hits on his secretary (Dolly Parton), tossing double-entendres when he’s not actually chasing her around the desk—or offering her job advancement in exchange for her favors.
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While that depiction might still work for Hollywood, it doesn’t in reality. Recent data from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the courts show entirely new forms of sexual harassment are being defined.
One sign is a record number of cases of male-on-male harassment, recently reported by EEOC. In 2006, some 15.4 percent of cases were filed by men, up almost half again from the mid-1990s.
Not Manly Enough
While some cases involved gay men soliciting others out of sexual desire, a great number involved heterosexual men harassing other heterosexual men. … for not being “manly” enough.
Legal action against this form of discrimination goes back to a 1998 Supreme Court case called Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, a company which operated offshore oil drilling rigs.
In this case, the victim was a slightly built man, subjected to a barrage of sexual taunts, gestures and other affronts by his co-workers on a rig in the Gulf of Mexico. All parties were heterosexual. The victim was apparently harassed simply because he didn’t fit the stereotype his peers had of what he should be like.
Those defending the case asked for its dismissal because there was no harassment of the opposite sex, and no sexual desire involved, and also because it’s common in same-sex situations to engage in a certain amount of “locker room antics” or “horseplay.”
The Court was not buying it. It noted that harassers could be the same sex as their victims, and it removed any notion that sexual desire had to be the motivation.
“The prohibition of harassment on the basis of sex,” said Justice Antonin Scalia, in writing the Court’s opinion, “requires neither asexuality nor androgyny in the workplace. It forbids only behavior so objectively offensive as to alter the conditions of the victim’s employment.”
Not Feminine Enough
This type of situation has not been limited to male victims. In an earlier case called PriceWaterhouse v. Hopkins, a female senior manager at the accounting giant was denied promotion to partner. When she asked how she could get promoted, she was told to “walk more femininely, talk more femininely, dress more femininely,” says a report from the website FindLaw.com.
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The Supreme Court disagreed with this assessment. FindLaw’s interpretation of their decision: “It can be unlawful for an employer to foster an environment that punishes men and/or women for failing to conform to their assigned gender roles.”
How should employers guard against this wider definition of sexual harassment? The Braun Consulting firm offers the following suggestions:
–If it does not already do so, revise your sexual harassment policy to prohibit same-sex harassment.
–Train your managers and supervisors on the widened policy. In particular, have them guard against “horseplay” or “locker room antics.” There’s a fine line that’s easily crossed, with potentially devastating legal consequences.
–Investigate any allegations of sexual harassment vigorously, without regard to the gender of the parties involved. Same-sex situations should be handled in exactly the same manner as alleged harassment of the opposite sex.
Avoid Harassment Lawsuits!
Use BLR’s training program, Interactive CD Course: Sexual Harassment, to show your employees where the line to harassment is, how not to cross it, and what the consequences are if they do. Includes audio soudtrack, quizzes, even a completion certificate. Try it for 30 days, then decide. Read more.
I would like to know what are the rights of filing a harrassment suit that occured while being interviewed for a position?