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Sexual Harassment Within The Workplace

Decent Essays

Amanda Pirutti
Sociology of Gender
November 2015

SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE

Sexual harassment is any form of unprecedented sexual conduct in which the offender uses inappropriate language and actions that humiliate the sexuality of the offended. At workplaces, sexual harassment occurs when stakeholders of an organization engage in unwelcomed conducts of sexual nature, which makes the recipients (of the conduct) intimidated and uncomfortable. As Solotoff and Kramer (2014: 67) assert, sexual harassment is a widespread practice in the American workplace, and is more prevalent among women than men. This is evident from statistics that about 25% of women have experienced sexual harassment at workplaces (Solotoff & Kramer 2014: 68).
Sexual harassment at workplaces does range from derogatory comments, uncalled-for sexual advances, threats relating to sexual assault, to the act of rape. The prevalence of sexual harassment in workplaces, especially from supervisors and/or managers to their juniors, is on a constant rise because such employees (the offended) do fear to lose their jobs in case they decline the unwanted sexual advances from their bosses (Achampong 1999: 27). However, it is unacceptable that employees be subjected to sexual harassment from their seniors just because they risk losing the jobs they value most.
Usually, sexual harassment takes place in form of physical assaults such as inappropriate touching of workers’ bodies; verbal, where workers make

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