Sexual Harassment in the Work Place

Summary

Sexual harassment is bullying or coercion toward women in the workplace that is regarded as unwelcoming and offensive by boss or coworkers. It could be both verbal and behavioral conduct of a sexual nature and when this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment. There is no exact standard that sexual harassment is defined, but if the victim feels unpleasant, it could definitely be the issue. The general law may have some common purpose to prohibit sexual harassment by making it illegal in the workplace, but they could be varied according to cultures. Especially, sexual harassment in Asian culture seems more serious and hopeless when compared with that of Western or Europe. We are going to break our topic into history, comparison according to different cultures, discussion, and extended problems regarding sexual discrimination.

Sexual harassment in Wersten and Europe culture

The United States

There are two major studies conducted by the US Merit Systems Protection Board among US Federal Government employees. The first study was conducted in 1980 showed the result that 42 % of women and 15 % of men were victims of overt sexual harassment in the last two years among the sample group of 23,000 male and female employees (Aggarwal, 1992). The second study showed 36,000 resignations caused by sexual harassment in 1988 between 1985 and 1987 (Aggarwal, 1992). The US Merit Systems Protection Board burdened cost of US$267 million for the Federal Government in replacing employees (Aggarwal, 1992) and this issue extends to the financial problems.

Canada

As a work-related function, more than a quarter of Canadians have experienced sexual harassment in their place. Gender difference exists as women were more likely to experience sexual harassment than men three times. Statistics showed almost half of women aged 35-54 reported they experienced harassment. Also, 76% of respondents who have experienced sexual harassment suggested they were subjected multiple times as 48% had been harassed 205 times, while 28% had more than five experiences. After reporting such an experience by employees, one quarter found them "unresponsive and disdainful", but among complaints, 40% Canadian bosses conducted the investigation and took appropriate action.

Europe

In the United Kingdom, in 1976 survey on Red Magazine, over 9,000 women replied they experienced sexual harassment. More than 92% of the respondents perceived sexual harassment as a problem. (Dunwoody-Miller & Gutek, 1985). Sweden surveyed 2,000 women in 1988, and 17 percent of them just get over obscene language, sexual innuendoes, groping, lewd suggestions and outright rape attempts at the workplace. Also in Germany, a poll carried out in 1990 reported that 25 percent out of 9,000 women surveyed reported sexual harassment. Another 1992 survey revealed that almost two-thirds of women were being regularly harassed, but the problem was nearly half of their male colleagues were ignorant of their offensive behavior (Earle & Madek, 1993). Finland, a nationally representative Women‟s Safety study reported that 19.6% of women experienced a range of harassment behaviors over a one year period (Heiskanen & Piispa, 1998). In a French National Survey on Violence Against Women, which asked about the incidents both at work and in public areas occurring in the last year, 15% of the women reported some form of harassment (Jaspard, 2001). In Italy, 24.4% of women between the ages of 14 and 59 reported at least one type of sexual harassment in the last three years (Sabbadini, 1998).

Sexual harassment in Asian culture

China

One survey showed that 1 in 4 workers in Taipei experienced some kind of sexual harassment in the workplace and among that 36% (n = 493) of the women respondents and 13% (n = 415) of the men respondents reported they have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. Unwanted sexual jokes or comments was chosen as the most frequently reported type of sexual harassment and unwanted deliberate body contact, and unwanted requests/pressure for a date were followed up next. The major source of sexual harassment came from coworkers of the opposite sex.

India

Sexual harassment in India is also regarded as a serious issue although it has been not reported because of their social stigmas. The Gender Study Group among students in the University of Delhi conducted survey and found that most women respondents felt the harassment while male could overlook and ignore(Report on Sexual Harassment, 1996). Another report showed that 91.7 percent of inmates of women's hostels and 88.2 percent of all the women day scholars had faced sexual harassment on the roads and within the campus (Report on Sexual Harassment, 1996). Most of the sexual harassment of women in India is unreported and it may aggravate the problems.

Korea

Korea is one of the countries that have a high rate of sexual harassment in the workplace. According to the recent study, 80 percent of women in South Korea have experienced sexual harassment in the working people, but no any action was taken and they were likely to simply tolerate it. In many cases, the reason had to do with men’s ignorance toward sexual harassment which leads many women to believe the problems will not be solved even if they are reported. Fear of degrading and revenge was one of the factors prohibiting victims from reporting it. Respondents in their age twenties were the most frequently victimized at 7.7%, while irregular workers reported more cases than regular workers by an 8.4% to 6.4% margin. The government survey concluded the trend that individuals are more likely to be victimized when they are female, younger, and employed in more vulnerable irregular positions.

Discussion

Sexual harassment is a concerned issue in every culture, but in Asian culture which regards conformity as etiquette, it could be probably more natural and tolerated in the workplace. Women from Asian culture are less likely to advance one's opinion and reject one's demand directly as affected by patriarchy. The fear of degrading or unreasonably disadvantaged prohibits women from standing up their rights toward treatment. In addition, a more vertical relationship between workers in Asian culture influences the attitude toward sexual harassment.

Extended problems regarding gender equality

Wage difference

The most noticeable issue is wage difference and it can be the cause and the result of the sexual harassment. According to the statics in Canada. Canadian women earned 87 cents an hour for every dollar made by men in 2015. This wage gap could make women devalued in the workplace and implicitly create a hierarchy between two different genders. Also, due to the lower wage and lower status, women are likely to conform and tolerate men's unpleasant treatment.

References

Business, M. H. (2014, December 05). What Canadians say about workplace sexual harassment. Retrieved November 30, 2017, from http://www.macleans.ca/work/what-canadians-say-about-workplace-sexual-harassment/

Israel, S. (2017, March 09). Gender gap, quantified: StatsCan data shows women earn 87¢ to men's $1. Retrieved November 30, 2017, from http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/statistics-canada-gender-pay-gap-1.4014954

Kenny, K., Samah, A. A., & Chan, B. (2011). Sexual Harassment: Is it A Case of Gendered Perspective? . Sexual Harassment: Is it A Case of Gendered Perspective? , 1, 295-301. Retrieved from http://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol_1_No_19_December_2011/31.pdf

Luo, T. Y. (1996, September). Sexual harassment in the Chinese workplace. Attitudes toward and experiences of sexual harassment among workers in Taiwan. Retrieved November 30, 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12295886

8 out of 10 S. Korean workers experience sexual harassment, most don't report it. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2017, from http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/738499.html