Williams V Saxbe Summary

One of the first cases that was fought after the passing on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a case known as Williams v. Saxbe (1976). In Williams v. Saxbe, Ms. Williams was working with her supervisor and seemed to have a great working relationship until Mr. Brinson started making sexual advances toward her. When she refused, he continued to pursue her and he even started to say slanderous statements about Ms. Williams. Ms. Williams was eventually terminated for her position due to her lack of participation in Mr. Brinson’s requests. This court case is one of the first where the court stated that sexual harassment is a form of discrimination especially when a male supervisor makes sexual advances on a female employee (Berman, 2007). Bundy v. Jackson in 1981, was another court case that helped shape sexual harassment and employer retaliation on the employee. This was the right court case that actually ruled that sexual harassment was a violation of Title VII and the employer could be punished for participating in such actions. Also, this case was also the first that stated employers are responsible for the action of their supervisors. Therefore, if sexual harassment took place within the company, the EEOC would not only punish the …show more content…
Jacksonville Shipyards (1991) is another court case that presents the issue of sexual harassment and retaliation. Females were the minority workers at the shipyard and the men treated them rudely and presented the women with sexual pictures and made sexual states to the female workers. These actions made the female workers feel uncomfortable and some of them did not feel safe enough to perform their work. The male employees used sexual language, pictures and drawings, but no physical assault occurred. Even so, the court ruled in favor of the plaintiff that these actions are still sexual harassment and created a hostile work environment only to the female workers because of their gender (Mucklow,