The act, practice, or instance of different treatment or favor on the basis of a person's gender rather than individual merit could constitute sex discrimination. Sex discrimination can be directed at females or males. One type of sex discrimination is sexual harassment.
A Legal Definition: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in its 1984 guidelines, defined sexual harassment. This definition is relied upon by many courts in making legal decisions. The EEOC definition follows, with additional wording (in italics) to reflect coverage of students under Title IX of the Education amendments of 1972:
Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when:
1) submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of a person's employment or academic advancement;
2) submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for decisions affecting an individual's employment or academic standing;
3) such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with a person's work or academic performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive work, learning or social environment.
Note: Courts have called the first two conditions "quid pro quo harassment" and the third condition is called "hostile environment harassment."
A Behavioral Definition: A behavioral definition of sexual harassment is a common sense, everyday way of looking at the problem that helps us recognize sexual harassment when it occurs. The Educator's Guide to Controlling Sexual Harassment (Thompson Publishing Group, 1994) provides the following behavioral definition of sexual harassment:
Unwanted sexual or gender based behavior that occurs when one person has formal or informal power over the other. The three major elements of this definition are:
1) the behavior is unwanted or unwelcome
2) the behavior is sexual or related to the sex or gender of the person
3) the behavior occurs in the context of a relationship where one person has more formal power than the other (supervisor over employee, faculty member over student) or more informal power (one peer over another).
Quid Pro Quo Harassment: Something is given or withheld in exchange for something else. Typically the harasser is someone with formal power who can provide or withhold a benefit, service or evaluation and thus has the power to harm the person involved. Sexual advances by the harasser are unwelcome by the recipient. Threats or bribes may be direct or indirect.
Hostile Environment Harassment: An environment which involves unwelcome and pervasive, offensive or intimidating sexual behaviors which interfere with the recipient's ability to participate in the work or the learning environment. This type is more prevalent than the Quid Pro Quo type. Unwelcome behaviors may include offensive sexual bantering and joking, offensive pictures, using sexual or vulgar language, graffiti, sexual innuendos and overt sexual behavior.
Perspective Matters: One person may view certain sexual behaviors as flattering, friendly, or funny, while another person may view the same behavior as intimidating, hostile, offensive, demeaning and inappropriate. The perspective of the recipient of the behavior generally determines whether or not the behavior is harassing.
Once or Often: Some behaviors are so offensive that the first time they occur they are considered sufficient to incur charges while other behaviors, which by themselves are less serious may become sexual harassment when they are repeated. Also, behavior may be considered sexual harassment when repeated after a recipient indicates an objection or no interest.
Sexual or Gender Related: The behavior has some sort of sexual connotation to it or occurs because of the recipient's gender.
Power: Sexual harassment has more to do with power than with sex. Sexual harassment differs from ordinary flirting because it occurs in the context of a power imbalance allowing one person to intimidate another person. In cases of student to student or co-worker sexual harassment, power differences are often more subtle, but still may be present.
If you are unsure of whether you have experienced or been responsible for an act of sexual harassment...
...ASK ABOUT IT!