Sexual Harassment—A Global Problem

WORK had become a nightmare for a young secretary named Rena Weeks. True, the law firm that employed her had a prestigious name and offices in over two dozen countries. But she worked for a man who, according to her claim, would not stop grabbing and touching her. The humiliating assaults were punctuated by crude, suggestive speech.

Years ago, women in situations like this had little recourse—except maybe to quit. ‘Her word against his’ would have been the judgment of management. And even those inclined to believe the woman’s side of the story would probably have shrugged off the problem by saying, ‘What’s the big deal?’ But times have changed. Rena Weeks did more than simply get mad and quit. She sued.

A U.S. jury awarded her $50,000 in compensation for her emotional distress, along with $225,000 in punitive damages from her former boss. Then, in a move that got the attention of businesses and law firms all over the world, the jury ordered the law firm to pay a whopping $6.9 million in punitive damages for failing to correct the problem!

The Weeks case is by no means an isolated incident. Another recent lawsuit involved a national (U.S.) chain of discount stores. An employee named Peggy Kimzey claimed that her supervisor had made numerous crude sexual remarks to her. In 1993, Peggy Kimzey resigned from her job and sued. She was awarded $35,000 for humiliation and mental anguish along with a symbolic $1 in lost wages. The jury also decided that her former employer had created a hostile work environment by tolerating the harassment. The punishment? Fifty million dollars in damages!

Says Men’s Health magazine: “Sexual-harassment cases have been multiplying like bacteria. In 1990, the EEOC [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] handled 6,127 such complaints; by last year [1993] the annual total had nearly doubled to 11,908.”

An Abuse of Power

While staggering jury awards capture headlines, the truth is that few cases ever find their way into a courtroom. Most victims suffer their humiliation in silence—pawns in an ugly game of power and intimidation that is played out in offices, on streets, in buses, at lunch counters, and in factories. At times, there is outright coercion to have intimate relations. Most of the time, though, the molestation consists of subtler, yet shamelessly offensive, acts: unwelcome or inappropriate touches, lewd remarks, lascivious stares.

True, some reject calling such behavior harassment, arguing that it is merely a bungling attempt on the part of some men to attract the attention of the opposite sex. But many, like writer Martha Langelan, reject such attempts to excuse the offensive behavior. She writes: “It is not clumsy courtship, or rude courtship, or joking courtship, or ‘misunderstood’ courtship. It is not meant to appeal to women; it is behavior that serves another function entirely. Like rape, sexual harassment is designed to coerce women, not to attract them. . . . [It] is an expression of power.” Yes, oftentimes such mistreatment is simply another cruel means by which “man has dominated man to his injury.”—Ecclesiastes 8:9; compare Ecclesiastes 4:1.

Women usually react to sexual harassment, not with pleasure, but with feelings ranging from disgust and anger to depression and humiliation. Recalls one victim: “The situation destroyed me. I lost my trust, my confidence, my self-respect, and my career aspirations. My personality drastically changed. I had been happy-go-lucky. I became bitter, withdrawn, and ashamed.” And when the perpetrator is an employer or someone else in power, harassment takes on a particularly ugly appearance.

Little wonder, then, that courts have begun to punish offenders and compensate victims. Since the U.S. Supreme Court defined such mistreatment as a violation of civil rights, employers have increasingly been held legally responsible for maintaining a work environment that is not “hostile or offensive.”

Companies that tolerate sexual harassment may suffer low employee morale, higher absenteeism, lower productivity, and high employee turnover—not to mention financial disaster if victims decide to sue.

How Prevalent?

Just how prevalent is sexual harassment? Surveys indicate that more than half the women in the work force in the United States have experienced it. One book thus claims: “Sexual harassment is a pervasive problem. It happens to women in every profession from waitress to corporate executive. It occurs at every level of the corporate hierarchy and in every kind of business and industry.” However, the problem is hardly limited to the United States. The book Shockwaves: The Global Impact of Sexual Harassment, by Susan L. Webb, cites the following statistics:a

CANADA: “One survey showed that 4 out of 10 women reported being sexually harassed at work.”

JAPAN: “An August 1991 survey showed that 70 percent of the women who responded experienced” harassment at work. “Ninety percent said they were sexually harassed on the way to and from work.”

AUSTRIA: “A 1986 survey showed almost 31 percent of women reported serious harassment incidents.”

FRANCE: “In 1991 a study . . . found that 21 percent of the 1,300 women surveyed said they had personally experienced sexual harassment.”

THE NETHERLANDS: A study showed that “58 percent of the women responding [to the survey] said they had personally experienced sexual harassment.”

A Sign of the Times

Of course, molestation and harassment in the workplace are nothing new. Women—and sometimes men—were subject to such mistreatment even back in Bible times. (Genesis 39:7, 8; Ruth 2:8, 9, 15) But such misbehavior seems to be particularly prevalent today. Why so?

For one thing, in recent years women have entered the job market in record numbers. More women are therefore exposed to situations in which such abuses can occur. However, of even greater significance is what the Bible prophesied long ago: “Remember this! There will be difficult times in the last days. Men will be selfish, greedy, boastful, and conceited; they will be insulting . . . ; they will be unkind, merciless, slanderers, violent, and fierce.” (2 Timothy 3:1-3, Today’s English Version) The prevalence of sexual harassment is just one dramatic proof that these words are being fulfilled today. Interestingly, an article in Men’s Health magazine notes that “the increase in sexual-harassment complaints has been accompanied by an astonishing decline in general civility. Bad manners are everywhere.”

The prevalence of sexual harassment also reflects the “new morality,” which swept the world during the 1960’s. The tearing down of traditional moral boundaries has been accompanied by a shocking disregard for the rights and feelings of others. Whatever its cause, sexual harassment is a grim reality of the workplace. What can men and women do to protect themselves? Will there ever be a time when the workplace will be free of harassment?

[Footnote]

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Sexual Harassment—Myth Versus Fact

Myth: Sexual harassment is grossly overreported. It is just another fad, a product of media hype and hysteria.

Fact: By and large, a woman has much to lose and little to gain by reporting victimization. Indeed, only a minority of women (22 percent according to one survey) ever tell anyone that they have been harassed. Fear, embarrassment, self-blame, confusion, and ignorance of their legal rights keep many women silent. Many experts thus believe that the problem is grossly underreported!

Myth: Most women enjoy the attention. Those who claim they have been harassed are merely hypersensitive.

Fact: Surveys consistently show that women take offense at such rude treatment. In one survey, “over two fifths of the women said they felt disgust and about one third said they were angry.” Others reported feeling anxious, hurt, and depressed.

Myth: Men are victimized just as much as women.

Fact: Researchers for the National Association of Working Women (U.S.) report that “an estimated 90 percent of harassment cases involve men who have harassed women, 9 percent are same-sex . . . , and only 1 percent involve women who have harassed men.”

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Sexual harassment is not only about sex