Sexual Harassment In The United States

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Sexual Harassment Oanh Thi Yen Pham Introduction The majority of sexual harassment literature appears to have been published in the 1990s, with less being published in recent years. The emergence of the term "sexual harassment" can be traced back to the mid-1970s in North America, however, in the UK, the first successful case when sexual harassment was argued to be a form of sex discrimination was in 1986, which was under the Employment Protection Act (Aeberhard, 2001). Sexual harassment can be defined as "unwanted conduct of a sexual nature, or other conduct based on sex affecting the dignity of women and men at work which include physical verbal and non-verbal conduct" (Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), 2005). Defining Sexual…show more content…
Differences regarding the definition of sexual harassment, and the various methodologies used by researchers, will ultimately have a significant impact on the levels of sexual harassment reported. The way in which surveys ask respondents about sexual harassment and the methods used to collect data can have a profound impact on the findings (Smolensky & Kleiner, 2006). A World Health Organization (WHO) (Heise, 1999) multi country study, which examined women's health and domestic violence, found that the percentage of women who were reporting sexual abuse before the age of 15 in a face-to-face interview almost doubled when women were able to report their experiences anonymously. While qualitative methodologies, such as interviews, may be seen as more effective in terms of gaining an in-depth understanding of the experiences of victims of sexual harassment, such data collection techniques may in fact produce unreliable results because of respondents' reluctance to disclose such information face-to-face (Watts & Zimmerman, 2002). Thus, research into the actual methodologies used in sexual harassment studies would be extremely…show more content…
Furthermore, identification and prevalence rates of sexual harassment remain problematic due to differential methodologies and a lack of References Antecol, H. and Cobb-Clark, D. (2003), Does sexual harassment training change attitudes? A view from the federal level, Social Science Quarterly, Vol. 84 No. 4, pp. 826-42. Bimrose, J. (2004). Sexual harassment in the workplace: an ethical dilemma for career guidance practice?, British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, Vol. 32 No. 1, pp. 109-21. Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) (2005), Equal Opportunities Commission, London, Retrieved from http://www.eoc.org.uk/Default.aspx?page=15398&lang=en. Fitzgerald, L.F., Gelfand, M.J. and Drasgor, F. (1995), Measuring sexual harassment: theoretical and psychometric advances, Basic and Applied Social Psychology, Vol. 17, pp. 425-445. Grainger, H. and Fitzner, G. (2006), Department of Trade and Industry 14 Fair Treatment at Work Survey, DTI. Hunt, C. M., Davidson, M. J., Fielden, S. L., & Hoel, H. (2010). Reviewing sexual harassment in the workplace - an intervention model. Personnel Review, 39(5), 655-673.

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