The Me-Too movement is the latest and most prominent social movement aimed at fighting sexual abuse and harassment. The movement, together with college-related social movements, highlight the continued efforts in fighting these social ills. However, they also highlight the gaps and structures that perpetuate them and cause repeated offenses. Workplace harassment is a challenge most businesses spend hours training their staff about due to ethical and legal implications. However, the prevalence of these training policies does not seem to stop this problem on its own. Hence, the solution lies in continuously educating all the staff members and bystanders on Sexual Harassment, not in occasional training.
Sexual Harassment and its Development
Before the 1970s, there was no term for liability, ways of learning, reporting, or combatting acts of sexual abuse. Although no framework existed, women faced abuse in their social and professional lives but did not have a name to call their experience (Jones & Wade, 2020). It is estimated that anywhere between 25-80% of women in the United States (US) experience workplace harassment in their lifetime. The term sexual harassment (SH) carries different definitions, with each discipline having a variation of the elements that constitute it. Understanding these definitions, their adoption in businesses, and the overall conversation revolving around sexual harassment will help understand the challenges bedeviling the fight against it and, therefore, information on the best methods to tackle it.
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The legal definition which is used in courts and bodies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, EEOC, is any unwelcome verbal or physical conduct or advances of a sexual nature, requests for sexual favors which; are made concerning terms of employment. The submission to or rejection of such behavior is a consideration in employment decision making affecting an individual. This conduct results in creating conditions that interfere with one's work or create a hostile, intimidating, or offensive work environment. The two legally recognized forms of sexual harassment include the hostile work environment and quid pro quo. The former involves all unwelcome sexual conduct such as innuendos, touching, or sexual jokes, making an environment hostile for individuals. As such, the latter deals with cases of sexual misconduct by the authority of their supervisors' employees, aimed at determining the career advancement of individuals like determining promotion, working benefits, or career development opportunities (Ross et al., 2018). Sexual harassment falls under sex-related discrimination in Title VII of 1964, Title IX, and is, therefore, a factor that many businesses try to prevent (NAP, 2018). The objectives surrounding an SH policy may be a key piece in evaluating the effectiveness of various sexual harassment interventions.
Many sexual harassment definitions from the disciplines of the social sciences tend to be broader than the legal definition. Psychological definitions focus on whether the individual perceives certain behaviors to fit the definition of SH; sex-based definitions incorporate behaviors that intimidate, demean, and derogates an individual based on their gender and sexuality, including sex-neutral acts. In contrast, behavioral definitions focus on the grouping of behaviors that under specific contexts may be inherently or to be so offensive sex-related that they can be termed as SH (Roehling & Huang, 2015). In trying to limit their liability, companies tend to adopt the broader definitions leading to confusion among employees. The employees and sometimes their staff do not understand which definition is the correct one according to company policy, creating ambiguities and inconsistent application of the policy (Roehling & Huang, 2015). This ambiguity results in training not being effective since companies may want to train their staff about SH in detail and use the narrower legal definition as an evaluation tool. The harmonization of definitions in company policies and their clear communication is needed.
When they conduct SH training, companies' intentions are also essential in evaluating whether the training is transferred to the job. Many companies argue that most companies only conduct SH to avoid legal liability, while others argue that continuing training is essential (Freyd & Smidt, 2019). Reports show that 90% of US businesses conduct SH training which uses over 10 billion dollars annually (Roehling & Yuang, 2015). However, this training aims to reach legal effectiveness over traditional evaluation criteria that focus on skills development, knowledge acquisition, and behavioral change. Organizational context such as leadership support, implementation of aligned policies, the climate or culture, and the tolerance of SH are essential determinants of whether an SH policy will be effective. If leadership is relaxed on SH or adopts policies that send implied messages that so long the legal liability is evaded, then all other behavior is okay; SH will increase since employees know that companies will not investigate lesser degrees of harassment.
The training design, delivery, and framework are also critical in the effective fight against workplace sexual harassment. Companies focused on only conducting SH training for legal compliance and liability waiver may use passive training methods, which are of no value to the trainees (Desplaces & Ogilvie 2020). Online videos or two-hour sessions are not enough to teach all the tenets of SH and transform the employees' attitudes and perceptions to it (Freyd & Smidt, 2019). The policy adopted and its interpretation is also a key concern for all stakeholders. The most common policy is zero-tolerance which continues to divide expert opinion. Some say it is the only solution, while others, including the EEOC Select Taskforce on Harassment, labeling it a misleading effort that may be counterproductive (Roehling, 2020). This policy can either be interpreted literally, which means that the slightest misdeed will lead to employment termination, or figuratively which means that the employer aims to achieve zero cases of SH but will not generally terminate or punish all degrees of offenses and without considering the context.
While the literal interpretation has benefits, it has various drawbacks based on its unjust formulation and violation of due process. These advantages affect internal reporting mechanisms, with victims of lesser transgressions choosing not to report their colleagues for fear they will be sacked or supervisors who only act when the infraction is grievous to avoid losing their best employees (Roehling, 2020). It also receives pushback from unionized employees since it violates the "just clause," which stipulates termination should be on just and reasonable causes. The symbolic application has the advantages of reasonableness and flexibility but may also have several disadvantages. The two most common drawbacks include promoting inconsistent application since decision-makers are left to decide what disciplinary action to take for certain offenses (Roehling, 2020). Its broad formulation also violates procedural fairness since employees are not aware of their punishments for certain offenses. Policy formulation, therefore, needs to be approached carefully.
The phases of workplace sexual harassment also need to be evaluated due to the structural factors that perpetuate this problem. These phases are adapted from those developed by Stones, Phillips, and Douglas (2019), including the intro, assault, limbo, exposure, and aftermath. In the intro, perpetrators may often groom their future victims, especially in male-dominated and authority or discipline-centered professions such as medicine, clergy work, or the military. These immersive careers, which may blur the boundaries between professional and personal lives, put younger vulnerable individuals, especially women, into more contact with senior, more authoritative mentors, primarily men, creating an environment where the former feel the need to be "nice" and collegial (Stones et al., 2019). These two factors, which are reinforced by the need to maintain professionalism coupled with the respect of authority instilled in such careers, are exploited by abusers and may often lead to a victim failing to report an assault. Another critical factor that needs to be identified in the prelude phase is the intersectionality between class markers such as gender, economic class, age, race, and ability. Jones and Wade (2020) use the "Me-Too" movement to show that a minority of women are given a voice to communicate their experience while most women's plight is abandoned. The movement, which had begun in 2006 for poor young girls of color, only gained traction when celebrities, primarily white, used it. It means that women in most lowly professions or economic classes will have their experiences discounted hence may not even report them. Cassino and Cassino (2019) also note this with black, immigrant, and white Hispanic women being more vulnerable to harassment. Age and economic classes are also essential dynamics concerning SH since younger and poorer individuals whose careers are dependent on seniors may be more vulnerable to harassment.
In the limbo, exposure, and aftermath phases, victims are blamed, shamed, and often isolated. The failure to report incidents is a narrative used to discount the victim's experience and shift blame (Jones & Wade, 2020). Even existing interpretations of Title VII and IX assume that victims will report these incidents when they happen (NAP, 2018). In the 1981 Senate Judiciary Committee review hearing of judge Clarence Thomas, Anita Hill, who was the victim, was blamed for lying, initiating the conduct, and even threatened, as was Dr. Christine Ford in 2018 made similar claims against the Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Partisanship politics played a part in both cases, with the former involving two black individuals hence the call for racial unity. The latter the political divide between Democrats and Republicans hence the call for Kavanaugh's speedy appointment. In other professional settings, the same partisanship narrative is promoted so that victims are viewed as unprofessional and devious when they report on a colleague (Stones et al., 2019). All professionals, incredibly independent senior ones, need to support victims, help them achieve justice, and resume their career progress.
The Best Method of Preventing Sexual Harassment
Existing training efforts are not enough, and as discussed above, various interventions need to be adopted to counter the structural, procedural, and hierarchy factors that promote SH. These include training backlash, which causes white women, who make three-quarters of women in management, to lose ground due to victim-blaming, especially by men (Dobbin & Kalev, 2020). The solutions offered in this section are not independent solutions but part of policy formulation and improved training, including continuous education.
Education
Training alone is not enough to give employees awareness and understanding of SH issues. It has to be coupled with continuous education. Educating employees goes beyond fulfilling legal obligations but instead impacting their awareness, knowledge, perceptions, and skills regarding dealing with SH (Freyd & Smidt, 2019). Employers should inculcate education in their training design and delivery. Doing so will involve setting the time for such training to be a continuous exercise that should be a lifetime journey into understanding the development of SH since it evolves with society and correcting behaviors whenever they do not match desired outcomes. The delivery method should incorporate all levels of staff and promotes active learning. Senior staff, including supervisors, need to be educated on policy definitions to identify workplace SH and apply consistent disciplinary actions. It is also essential to teach all employees, including bystanders, the definitions, impact, and challenges in dealing with SH. Some employees, especially younger ones, may not realize when they are victims since they may misconstrue harassment with other factors such as professionalism or have had discounted SH experiences in past jobs and institutions such as school (Stones et al., 2019). Some gendered roles, such as the patience and loving care provided by nurses, predominantly female nurses, see them get the monikers sexually motivated, making patients, doctors, and even colleagues harass them (Ross et al., 2019). It is also essential to educate bystanders so that the culture of victim shaming and blaming can stop because harassers who feel ashamed are inclined to change when called out by independent parties such as colleagues (Dobbin & Kalev, 2020). Therefore, this will lead to improved internal reporting and identifying seemingly innocent practices that may promote SH. The broad education will raise awareness and make others hold harassers to account while supporting victims, ending the culture of tolerance and secrecy that promotes workplace harassment.
Policy Formulation
Education will lead to better policy formulation since training will be aligned to carefully formulated objectives, increasing effectiveness. It is essential since the Ellerth‐Faragher (E‐F) affirmative defense requires reasonably practical SH training in practice. In contrast, the Kolstad affirmative defense requires that the training on the institution's anti-discriminatory policy reflect reasonable faith efforts to educate trainees (Roehling & Huang, 2018). Another importance of education is that it provides research that can adopt best intervention practices or evaluate existing policies. Research into the intersection of various factors that make certain classes of people more vulnerable to SH will make employers enact policies with interventions to counter such factors. It may include increasing the number of female employees in senior positions in male-dominated fields such as medicine or making interventions to help younger and poorer employees receive support and direction from regulated channels to reduce the risks associated with overdependence on senior employees. It also requires management employees to be empowered through Ombuds offices that specialize in such matters, management training, or give them authority to directly deal with such issues instead of relying on "old school" investigatory frameworks (Dobbin & Kalev, 2020). Companies are also advised to include their employees and their unions to formulate policies to avoid pushbacks and counterclaims whenever they are disciplined. Another way of involvement is scenario-based training; outside professionals can even teach to make it more active and engaging (Desplaces & Ogilvie, 2020). This training will also help harmonize personal definitions to those found in the policy hence reducing gaps and ambiguities that give harassers the opportunity to violate the SH rules.
Workplace harassment is a social ill that continues to be a challenge for many businesses. Companies conduct Sexual Harassment training as legal compliance, but these alone are not enough to prevent it. Several structural, hierarchical, and procedural issues make workplace harassment prevalent in different industries. Understanding them will offer insights into the use of education and policy formulation relating to this problem in conjunction with training to prevent and even end this abhorrent practice.
References
Cassino, D., & Besen‐Cassino, Y. (2019). Race, threat and workplace sexual harassment: The dynamics of harassment in the United States, 1997–2016. Gender, Work & Organization , 26 (9), 1221-1240. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12394
Desplaces, D., & Ogilvie, J. (2020). Scenario-based training for sexual harassment prevention. Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management , 20 (2). https://doi.org/10.21818/001c.14180
Dobbin, F., & Kalev, A. (2020, May 1). Why sexual harassment programs backfire . Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/05/why-sexual-harassment-programs-backfire
Freyd, J. J., & Smidt, A. M. (2019). So, you want to address sexual harassment and assault in your organization? Training is not enough; Education is necessary. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation , 20 (5), 489-494. https://doi.org/10.1080/15299732.2019.1663475
Jones, T., & Wade, E. E. (2020). Me Too? Race, gender, and ending workplace sexual harassment. Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy , 27 (203), 203-225. https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/djglp/vol27/iss1/12
NAP. (2018). Chapter 7: Findings, conclusions, and recommendations. In Sexual harassment of women: Climate, culture, and consequences in academic sciences, engineering, and medicine. The National Academies Press. https://www.nap.edu/read/24994/chapter/9
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Ross, S., Naumann, P., Hinds-Jackson, D. V., & Strokes, L. (2019). Sexual harassment in nursing: Ethical considerations and recommendations. OJIN: The Online Journal on Issues in Nursing , 24 (1). https://doi.org/10.3912/OJIN.Vol24No01Man01
Smith, B. L. (2018, February). What it really takes to stop sexual harassment . https://www.apa.org. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2018/02/sexual-harassment
Stone, L., Phillips, C., & Douglas, K. A. (2019). Sexual assault and harassment of doctors, by doctors: A qualitative study. Medical Education , 53 (8), 833-843. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.13912
