In today's ethics class, we went over a hypothetical where a partner at a firm was commenting on female associates physiques & mannerisms & standing behind them to rub their shoulders. We were split into groups to research statutes from the Professional Conduct Handbook what statutes prohibit such behavior.
During our discussions afterward, one male student commented that the behavior in question was "borderline harassment." A female student in his group stopped him to clarify that such behavior was indeed harassment. Not borderline harassment (whatever that is.) Many women around the room nodded in agreement. This prompted another male colleague to angrily ask if this hypothetical conduct was enough to "ruin someone's career over."
This exchange was interesting to me because of the disparity between what women & men perceive as sexual harassment. For women, I think that harassment is defined for many of us as any kind of unwanted attention with a sexual overtone (from remarks about a woman's body to unwanted touching). For some of the men in my class, I think the threshold is much higher--maybe more along the lines of overt harassment (blatant sexual touching). Also, for at least one male student, harassment was not a big deal, certainly not egregious enough to report to a higher up & risk "ruining someone's career."
I think it has a lot to do with what is at stake for each party. For women, dignity & self-esteem is at stake. One's self-worth affects all aspects of one's life & workplace. Thus, sexual harassment can invade how you feel about yourself in your personal life and at work. Sexual harassment is a big deal. For men, who maybe don't deal with a lot of negative attention in their daily lives, they perhaps cannot picture how disruptive harassment can be. Instead, they see the reporting of harassment as the greater problem, as it can damage someone's career over something so "small".
3 comments:
I think you have described the problem in and of itself. Women see any sexual comment or gesture as harassment, but not all men see it as such and might behave differently if they knew they were making someone uncomfortable.
It also seems like some men are very scared of the term sexual harassment because it lumps small things (like calling someone Dear) to large things (such as sexual touching) into one category. Indeed the before mentioned scenarios should not warrant the same action toward the offending individual, yet by saying "harassment is harrasment" is doing just that.
Your right about it all being called harassment. The distinguishing factor, career-wise, is what is determined by the court to be harassment. After all, most sexual harassment goes unreported, much less litigated.
When such cases do go to court, the judge interprets whether or not the conduct is harassment. So, men ought not to fear for their careers when inadvertently making a female co-worker uncomfortable.
Good to know. The justice system does work, LOL.
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