Sexual Harassment in the workplace and school slowly began to pick up speed in many parts of the U.S.A., In fact, the first sexually harassing cases did not come up until the late 1970s. The first signs of Sexual Harassment can also date back to the 1920s the birth of flappers and speakeasies were popular. Early 1900’s many women were scared to speak up or just didn't mind it as much as in the late 1900s. Women at this time didn’t have the power, nor the speaking capability, they were vulnerable to manipulation and the dominance of men. Slowly this changed, Sexual Harassment soon began to be noticed and women evolved over time to stop tolerating these actions.
There have been several accounts of sexual harassment in different fields of work throughout the years. But first, what really is sexual harassment? According to the Greenhaven Press, “an unwelcome tactile, visual, or verbal communication of sexual nature.” This idea can be explored with some of the more famous cases. Anita Hill, 1991, was known for her heroic behavior in standing up, she managed to successfully accuse Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. GreenHaven Press also did an analysis of the situation in 2018, they said, “91% of victims of rape and sexual assault are female, and nine percent are male.” This shows that either side is capable.
Sexual Harassment In School
Sexual harassment slowly has crept into many fields of work and has infected hundreds of college and professional athletes, and college coaches. A 2014 California study found that teenage boy athletes were about twice as likely as other boys to have recently abused their girlfriends in the past 8 months. Many today haven't learned and still continue their onslaught, Dozens of schools in the U.S. have been hit and hit by Title IX lawsuits. Many schools also are enforcing such policies in order to prevent this. In 2014, California’s Governor signed an affirmative consent standard for sexual behaviors in school domains. In Ladika Susan’s article, Sports and Sexual Assault, She interviewed one of the coaches at a high-end school campus and he had this to say, “If a male athlete is treated like a god from the time he is young and showered with fame, money, and female attention, is he at risk to think he has a different set of rules.” We’re still at a point in time in which we still think this behavior from the 1920s-1960s is still acceptable in which females are just objects and men do all the ordering around. It's immoral for these actions to happen.
Citizen/Govt Actions
These immoral actions have slowly managed to gain attention at the national level. according to Sharon's article, Sexual Harassment, and Abuse, she said, “In 32 states, legislatures have introduced bills dealing with sexual harassment. The bills, among other things, would expel lawmakers for misconduct or require harassment training for legislators.” This wasn’t the same back in the 1900s, more and more have been getting sick of being a ragdoll and have created many forms of movements to help this ripple this idea into the legislature. The ‘me too’ movement was one of the major pushers of the early 2000s, its purpose was to help survivors of sexual violence. The group used empowerment through empathy and practices like promoting anti-harassment policies. In less than half a year, the #metoo hashtag picked up speed and became viral. Later, a national dialogue was made to talk about this yet-unknown topic. Soon enough, the globe caught up with this and led a big impact, spreading this revolution worldwide. O'Malley Sharon’s article, Sexual Harassment and Abuse described that “ In early 2018, a group of more than 300 actresses, writers and directors created the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund and seeded it with $21 million to offer legal assistance to sexual harassment victims.” The #metoo started a gigantic snowball that rolled and split into different organizations to help out those who were drowning in suppression by those who sought sexual tension.
Believe it or not, Sexual Harassment has managed to stop quite a bit but not enough. Many policies have been made throughout the years(I did not list all of them.) The 1964 Civil Rights Act was one of the first to contain sexual harassment policies. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited employment discrimination based on a variety of different traits like gender, nationality, religion, color, etc... It covered both genders, and its main use was to primarily help out helpless women in the working fields. School started to become an issue for many students, especially athletes who thought they were superior. Later another act was passed, The Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which attempted to bad gender discrimination at schools that received federal funds and loans. Years later, The Civil Rights Act of 1991 was passed. This allowed many victims to rightfully collect compensation for the punitive damages that have been done against them.
H.T.P
Many people around the world always think of sexual harassment in an insignificant way, saying that if it doesn't affect them, then why care? But we should, still this problem affects only a small number of people, almost all of them women. In fact, 45 percent of men and 70 percent of women reported sexual harassment workplace, such as receiving verbal sexual jokes and unwanted touching. With a better understanding of sexual harassment and its harmful effects, people can work together to greatly reduce this workplace problem. Sexual Harassment is one of the world’s biggest problems, but maybe not as damaging as global warming. Nevertheless, we are in a state in which we think that this is right, man or woman, it's sad to see that our world has come down this low and that thousands of women or men around the world suffered the true pain. Many of the poor victims of this sexual behavior could have experienced a wide range of deadly symptoms, it could be potentially dangerous to their lifestyle and mental health. It ranges from sleep abnormalities and the lacking of self-esteem to the occasional depression and major stress disorders that come with the combo. These poor individuals who were/are harassed are at risk of hurting their professional careers. When sexual harassment has been introduced into a workplace, research shows that in these types of domains of pure concentration and creativity can lead productivity to decline, if it declines, many businesses cannot be able to produce goods as fast nor be as financially successful as other corporations. Many people have spoken out, and similar responses are said, “I see many cases of serious sexual harassment where the victim can’t get any relief because society hasn’t deemed it a serious problem,” says workplace discrimination expert Patricia G. Barnes. She’s right! We can't get this into our mind that in order to keep our society more stable with harmony, we must learn to not tolerate such behavior. We’ll be in muddy waters if we don’t manage to reduce the sheer amount of immoral acts. The EEOC has compiled up to 12,025 cases in 2006. They found out through their research that it has affected workplaces in a negative way by making their productivity fall to a low. Sexual harassment also leads to a negative public picture of the company. In the end, we must take care of our peers, for the sake of capitalism. Sometimes I feel that we forget that we’re all humans, we shouldn't tolerate this since it's terrible. Sexual Harassment had a lasting effect on us, nowadays, more women each day carry small weapons to defend themselves from men or vice versa. Nowadays, women and men cannot tolerate these types of attitudes towards them. More and more security measures have been placed to prevent it. Over time,
Work Cited
Ladika, Susan. 'Sports and Sexual Assault.' CQ Researcher, 28 Apr. 2017, pp. 361-84, library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2017042800.
O'Malley, Sharon. 'Sexual Harassment and Abuse.' CQ Researcher, 3 Aug. 2018, library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqr_ht_harassment_2018.
Inpamath Plus. “Woman In American Society.” Wylie, Texas, 2012, 196 Pages.
Greenhaven Press. “What is Sexual Harassment?” San Diego, California, David Slender, 1995. 89 Pages.
Hill, Anita. 'The Important Issue is Sexual Violence.' New York Times, 10 May. 2019, pp. A.23. SIRS Issues Researcher,https://sks.sirs.com.