Women Studies
 

Women in the work place is nothing new.

Sexual harassment towards women is nothing new either.

All the sexual harassment lectures, classes, and information provided by the workplace are simply not enough. I learned more about sexual harassment in one class setting than I ever have in my entire life.

I’d like to share what I have learned and some statistics about sexual harassment with you today.

There are two different types of sexual harassment: quid pro quo and hostile work environment.

Quid pro quo is “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.”

Hostile work environment “must be determined whether or not the conduct unreasonably interfered with an individual’s work performance or created an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.”

According to a 2006 study by the American Association of University Women states that “62% of female college students report having been sexually harassed at their university with 80% of the reported harassment being peer-to-peer.”

The federal law that prohibits sexual harassment is the Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This law holds certain employers responsible for preventing and stopping sexual harassment at the workplace.

 A link with more in depth information on this topic is:

http://www.equalrights.org/publications/kyr/shwork.asp

How does all this relate to women? Sexual harassment occurs more often to women than men and because of that reason I believe we as women need to be educated and stay informed on what sexual harassment  looks like and how to handle it.