Laws Governing Sexual Harassment Clearly sexual harassment has been around as long as men and women have shared the same space. United States history is marked with this type of inappropriate and often heinous behavior. Reva Siegel and Catharine MacKinnon discuss this long history in an article they co-authored for the Yale Press in 2003. Siegel and MacKinnon point out that, “… sexual coercion was an entrenched feature of chattel slavery endured by African-American women” (Yale Press, 2003, p.3). Siegel and MacKinnon infer that as the role of women changed in the United States, as women began holding non-traditional roles of authority, some men, who felt threatened, used harassment as a way to psychologically keep women in their place (Yale
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Heather Antecol and Deborah Cobb-Clark explored these costs in their paper entitled, Does Sexual Harassment Training Change Attitudes? A View from the Federal Level (Antecol & Cobb-Clark, 2003, Vol. 84, Issue 4, p826-842). The costs that they discuss are the cost of lost employee trust, loss of employee productivity and loss of market reputation (Antecol & Cobb-Clark, 2003). However, Emanuella Grinberg, of Cable News Network, wrote that the cost of unethical behavior and harassment in the workplace could cost millions of dollars if the company is found liable (CNN, 2011). In fortune 500 companies it is estimated that this figure is approximately $6.5 million, annually (Blakely, Blakely & Moorman, 1998). For these reasons it is easy to understand why a company would want to eliminate this type of behavior. One way organizations are attempting to do this is through sexual harassment training programs. This is clearly an effort to develop an attractive business environment that will in turn attract top talent, attract loyal customers and drive …show more content…
They should clearly communicate to employees that sexual harassment will not be tolerated. The Pew Research Center conducted a study that shows, “some 46% of women who say they have experienced gender discrimination in the workplace say it has hurt their career, including 35% who say it has had a large negative impact” (Pew Research Center, 11 Dec 2013, chap. 4). Table two depicts the demographics of the Pew Research Center study and lists black employees as having the highest reported incidents of sexual discrimination (Pew Research Center, 2013). A company can help counter this type of negative impact by providing sexual harassment training to their employees and by establishing an effective complaint or grievance process and taking immediate and appropriate action when an employee complains. Antecol and Cobb’s study of sexual harassment training supports this. They concluded, “results suggest that sexual harassment training programs may be useful in leading workers to be more sensitive to the issue of sexual harassment” (Antecol & Cobb-Clark, 2003, Vol. 84, Issue 4,
Heather Antecol and Deborah Cobb-Clark explored these costs in their paper entitled, Does Sexual Harassment Training Change Attitudes? A View from the Federal Level (Antecol & Cobb-Clark, 2003, Vol. 84, Issue 4, p826-842). The costs that they discuss are the cost of lost employee trust, loss of employee productivity and loss of market reputation (Antecol & Cobb-Clark, 2003). However, Emanuella Grinberg, of Cable News Network, wrote that the cost of unethical behavior and harassment in the workplace could cost millions of dollars if the company is found liable (CNN, 2011). In fortune 500 companies it is estimated that this figure is approximately $6.5 million, annually (Blakely, Blakely & Moorman, 1998). For these reasons it is easy to understand why a company would want to eliminate this type of behavior. One way organizations are attempting to do this is through sexual harassment training programs. This is clearly an effort to develop an attractive business environment that will in turn attract top talent, attract loyal customers and drive …show more content…
They should clearly communicate to employees that sexual harassment will not be tolerated. The Pew Research Center conducted a study that shows, “some 46% of women who say they have experienced gender discrimination in the workplace say it has hurt their career, including 35% who say it has had a large negative impact” (Pew Research Center, 11 Dec 2013, chap. 4). Table two depicts the demographics of the Pew Research Center study and lists black employees as having the highest reported incidents of sexual discrimination (Pew Research Center, 2013). A company can help counter this type of negative impact by providing sexual harassment training to their employees and by establishing an effective complaint or grievance process and taking immediate and appropriate action when an employee complains. Antecol and Cobb’s study of sexual harassment training supports this. They concluded, “results suggest that sexual harassment training programs may be useful in leading workers to be more sensitive to the issue of sexual harassment” (Antecol & Cobb-Clark, 2003, Vol. 84, Issue 4,