Uber Sexual Harassment Case Study

Coming from a country in a part of the world where being misogynistic is incredibly prevalent and often encouraged, I have witnessed and been around many acts of sexual harassment as well as victims of it. At a very young age, I learned that my first cousin was sexually harassed by her husband’s brother when they were alone and that is when I learned the true horrors of the world. Everyone knew the truth about what happened, but no one helped my cousin, not her husband, her father, or her brothers. Sadly, Where I’m from, a third world country, is not the only place things like this happen. There are acts of sexual harassment even in countries like America in big corporations such as Hollywood. We’ve learned about these many acts through recent

Providing training about harassment has proven beneficial to the business environment. As the former EEOC Chairman stated “Sex harassment has developed as one of the great lessons in how education can have an effect on an offensive practice.” There are education campaigns educating not only employees but employers about what harassment entails, how to prevent it, and how to deal with a claim. (Glazer, 1996) In fact, most

Harassment has plagued the world for centuries. Why should the workplace be any different? Sexual harassment and workplace violence are not only of historical roots, but contemporary issues are still present in the workforce today. Managers are addressing and combating modern sexual harassment and workplace violence, however instances still occur (Robbins, Decenzo & Coulter, 2011).

Sexual harassment is always a legal topic in the work environment because the ramifications are so severe, but at the same time very abstract to describe what can constitute sexual harassment. This paper will take into consideration different elements of the law including Employment Law and cases tried before the U.S. Supreme Court. It will also offer suggestions for corrective action pertaining to the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace.

Harassment, specifically sexual harassment, is one of those challenges faced by businesses and employers as of a result of workplace diversification. Inappropriate conversations, unwanted advances and uncomfortable physical contact are some of the ways sexual harassment can occur. According to Hellriegel and Slocum, “Sexual harassment refers to unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.” (p.52). To be clear, sexual harassment can, and has, affected both women and men over the years however up to half of all working women have reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment in the career (Vijayasiri, 2008, p.1). It wasn’t until 1986 though that the Supreme Court recognized sexual harassment as a violation of Title VII in the case of Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (O’Brien, 1994, p. 1). Before the high court’s ruling, however, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had begun to address the issue by drafting hostile work environment guidelines that included sexual harassment (O’Brien, 1994, p. 4). These guidelines would serve later to guide the high court’s decision. There are many more cases like this one we could look at. In 1991, sexual harassment became a household term as Anita Hill testified before congress stating she was sexually

Another solution is to put more serious punishments for culprits into action. This is a tactic used commonly by law enforcement officers, using the philosophy that if the punishment is more valuable than the “reward”, people will hopefully be less likely to attempt sexual harassment crimes. It is also a lot more “fair” if the punishment is more severe. The victim will be affected for their whole life because of the harassment, it only makes sense that the punishment should also be life affecting.

In fact, sexual misconduct and harassment include variety of unsolicited behaviors, it could be difficult to display all related sexual harassment behaviors in any policies, the ethical codes or even legal statute. For example, along with the development of technology, new types of sexually violent behavior have arisen. Without a mutual agreement, taking

Workplace bullying/ non- sexual harassment needs to be addressed in the same manner that sexual harassment would be dealt with. Sexual harassment needs to be reported to the human resources office, and if the issue is not properly handled or it’s dismissed, a harassment claim needs to be filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Sexual harassment in the workplace is a huge problem in recent history. It can happen to anyone and it can happen everywhere. It can affect all types of races, gender and age. Statistics today shows that more and more sexual harassment has become an issue due to the large number of cases presented. Mainstream media becomes consume covering sexual harassment because of the high profile cases. Sexual harassment becomes a topic on various TV shows, and on some major morning radio talk shows mostly everyday. Sexual harassment laws must be strengthened in order to fix what has become a serious problem today in the workplace.

In accordance with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) situations that sexual harassment might occur can be verbal and/or physical in manner such as:

In her article , “Women sue Uber for Racial , Gender discrimination” , Katerina Ang predicts the downfall of the modern transportation Uber , because of its chauvinistic tendencies towards their female employees. Ang argued that Uber’s discriminatory beliefs and actions are driving employees and customers away , mentioning that the “three female engineers [who] have sued the ridesharing platform in San Francisco’s Superior Court for discrimination” , were only but a few of those affected by Uber’s sexist atmosphere and locker room talk , supporting her claim of the company sexism by pointing out that an anonymous female who had worked in a group with male colleagues alleged that behind closed doors they “rank their female counterparts

In our society sexual harassment has been in the workplace for years. The use of sexual harassment in the workplace has been remembered best as a weapon used to keep women in their place which would cause them to forfeit promotions within their organizations. It was once believed that women were the only victims but the shift is now changing men are also reporting that they are also victims of sexual harassment on the job. In 1964 the Civil Rights Act was passed and employers began to recognize that they were liable for two types of sexual harassment. The first kind of harassment is Quid pro quo when a supervisor offers the employee sexual advances in order to get or keep a job, and also this harassment is used to determined if an

Based on the findings of the company TNA it was determined that there was a need for sexual harassment training of employees and supervisors. In the training on sexual harassment the areas covered were how to handle cases of sexual harassment, knowing if you were sexually harassed, and how to report harassment. Organizational results are the changes in key outcomes for the organization that can be linked to the training (Blanchard 2013). Training provided to employees

If someone feels unsafe, or if the situation just doesn’t feel right, they should search it up on the internet. They can search up, what sexual harassment is, what is considered sexual harassment, what are the actions they can take, etc. In today’s day and age the internet is right at our fingertips. If something sees off or just not right, search it up. When searching up what sexual harassment is, it may be surprising what is found, and so many situations such as there can be avoided. Simply because the person searched up the situation and stopped it before it got much more complicated.

It is proven that males tend to have a way of disregarding laws and rules, which makes sexual harassment more common towards females. According to Gutek and Morasch’s article on Sex-Ratios, Sex-Role Spillover, and Sexual Harassment of Women at Work, approximately 31.5% women working in male dominated workforce have been sexually touched, opposed to the 15% of women working in general, in the conducted data (Gutek,1). Studies show that a larger percent of men have the upper workforce positions, which means that they are usually in charge or are the boss of a select few. Women need to be informed about what is considered sexual harassment, and how to define what it is. Also, understanding that when this occurs, obtaining help is crucial and beneficial not only to the women but the job in general.