Dreesing Contributing Sexual Hrassment
Dreesing Contributing Sexual Hrassment
Prepared by:
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Submission Date: 11/08/2022
Contents
SUMMARY...................................................................................................................................................2
DRESSING CONTRIIBUTE SEXTUAL HARRASMENT.......................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................2
METHODOLOGY...........................................................................................................................................3
DISCUSSION.................................................................................................................................................3
What is it workplace sexual harassment?................................................................................................5
COUSES OF SEXUAL HARRASMEN AGAINEST WOMEN............................................................................5
Top 5 Causes of Sexual Harassment........................................................................................................5
DRESS AND SEXUAL HARRASMENT.............................................................................................................6
IMPACT OF FEMALE DRESSING ON MAN’S SEXUALITY................................................................................8
CASE STUDY ON SEXUAL HRASSMENT IN WORKPLACE...............................................................................9
CONCLUSSION.............................................................................................................................................9
RECOMMENDATION....................................................................................................................................9
REDERENCE...............................................................................................................................................10
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SUMMARY
Sexual harassment in the workplace is one of the many difficulties that employees face. It
negatively affects people of both genders, though prominently females. This study will work
towards extending on existing studies by taking into consideration the female employees and
delve into understanding the affects sexual harassment in the workplace has on their mental
health and working performance of those affected. In addition, the study aims to further our
understanding of the various forms of sexual harassment that occur in the workplace, and to
explore both the factors that may lead to its increased occurrence and measures that could help
prevent it from occurring. For this purpose. The study will provide an understanding of how
sexual harassment in workplace impacts both physical and mental health of employees, and
preventive measures against it. Hence, it may help in attaining knowledge that may help develop
the programs against workplace sexual harassment. It believes and hope that by increasing the
knowledge in this field of study would contribute towards increased awareness and development
of programs that could help against workplace related sexual harassment.
INTRODUCTION
Sexual harassment” is defined as any behavior of a sexual nature that affects the dignity of
women and men, which is considered as unwanted, unacceptable, inappropriate and offensive to
the recipient, and that creates an intimidating, hostile, unstable or offensive work environment.
Sexual harassment in the workplace can be physical, verbal or non-verbal, and include the major
forms as follows:
(a) Physical forms of sexual harassment such as any unwanted contact, ranging from
intentionally touching, caressing, pinching, hugging or kissing to sexual assault or rape.
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(b) Verbal forms of sexual harassment include socially and culturally inappropriate and
unwelcome comments with sexual overtones such as sexually suggestive jokes or comments
about a person’s dress or body, made in their presence or directed toward them. They also
include persistent proposals and unwelcome requests or persistent personal invitations to go out.
(c) Non-verbal forms of sexual harassment include unwelcome gestures, suggestive body
language, indecent exposure, lascivious looks, repeated winks, and gestures with fingers. It also
includes the unwelcome display of pornographic materials, sexually explicit pictures and objects,
screen savers or posters as well as sexually explicit e-mails, notes or SMS messages
METHODOLOGY
Our methodology is secondary data the source of our data from books, Articles and News.
DISCUSSION
3.1. HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF THE LAW ON WORKPLACE
SEXUAL HARASSMENT
The practice and protest of sexual harassment have a long history, In the 1970s Catharine
MacKinnon and Lin Farley and the many other lawyers and activists who represented women in
and out of court were able to mount a concerted assault, of unprecedented magnitude and force,
on the practice of sexual harassment. Responding on many fronts to the demands of the second-
wave feminist movement, the American legal system began slowly to yield to this challenge, and
for the first-time recognized women's right to work free of unwanted sexual advances.
Sexual harassment law arose, first and foremost, from women acting as part of a· social
movement speaking out about their experiences as women at work; the term "sexual harassment"
itself grew out of a consciousness-raising session Lin Farley held in I 97 4 as part of a Cornell
University course on women and work. 41 But more was required for the American legal system
to recognize this experience of gendered harm as a form of legal injury, when for centuries it had
refused. We could speculate for a long time about the convergence of social forces and social
understandings that enabled legal recognition of the sexual harassment claim- a story involving
differences in the movements for race and gender emancipation in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, shifts in women's labor force participation, and much more.
By the early 20th century, women entered offices as secretaries. Previously “secretary” had been
a male job, sort of like an apprentice, but the job became feminized thanks to new devices like
the typewriter, which gave rise to a whole new category of mundane tasks for which women
were deemed uniquely suited. As anyone who has watched Mad Men knows, secretaries also
typically functioned as “office wives” to male bosses—fetching coffee, buying anniversary gifts,
and sometimes performing consensual and nonconsensual sex acts.
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Below is a brief timeline of the important dates in history that have shaped sexual
harassment in the U.S as we know it today.
1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed which prohibits employment discrimination based on
race, color, sex, religion, or national origin. (It's commonly referred to as "Title VII," because
that's the part of the Act that covers employment.) Title VII covers both men and women, but its
original intent was to protect women in the workplace. This remains its main emphasis today.
1972
Title IX of the Education Amendments is issued. This prohibits sex discrimination in schools
that receive federal funding.
1980
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) states that sexual harassment is a
form of sex discrimination prohibited by Title VII.
1986
In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court rules that sexual harassment can be sex
discrimination prohibited by Title VII. The case of Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson ruled that
speech in itself can create a hostile environment which violates the law.
1991
The Civil Rights Act of 1991 is passed. Congress modifies Title VII to add more protection
against discrimination in the workplace. Among other things, the Civil Rights Act of 1991 allows
harassment and discrimination plaintiffs the right to a jury trial in federal court. It also gives
plaintiffs the right to collect compensatory and punitive damages for the first time, subject to a
cap based on the size of the employer.
1994
The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 is passed. This limits acceptability of evidence of the
past sexual history of the plaintiff in sexual harassment cases. It permits such evidence against
sexual harassers accused of assault.
1995
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Congress passes the Government Accountability Act. This makes Congress's own members
subject to the same employment laws as the rest of the country.
Sexual harassment takes many forms, from subtle psychological pressure to outright sexual
assault. If you are facing harassment at work, contact an experienced employment attorney.
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uncomfortable which leads to sexual harassment complaints. All employees need to be
held accountable for following the established code of conduct.
3. Not Understanding Harassment: Some employees don’t fully comprehend what
counts as sexual harassment at their office. They might not realize that greeting a
colleague with a kiss on the cheek or complimenting their appearance is grounds for a
sexual harassment complaint. On the other hand, complaints also stem from employees
who think they’re being harassed but technically are not according to company policies.
By clearly defining sexual harassment, organizations can avoid these sticky situations.
4. Poorly Managed Policies and Procedures: Employee handbooks contain legal
jargon in order to remain compliant with the law, which can be hard for employees to
fully understand. They also tend to be reviewed only once, during new hire orientation.
When policies and procedures aren’t expressed clearly and spoken about frequently, the
rules are more likely to be broken. Organizations need to have policies in place that
explain proper behavior, have zero tolerance for inappropriate behavior, and contain a
written code of conduct. Continually reinforcing company policies and educating
employees will prevent a hostile work environment.
5. Excessive Stress: When under a lot of stress, an employee is likely to express their
emotions towards others. Verbal abuse, physical altercations, and other stress-releasing
actions create harassment situations in the heat of the moment. By creating a stress-free
work environment and teaching employees how to cope with stress, employees will be
less likely to act out against their colleagues irrationally.
Thus, there are theories that explain the concept and relationship between indecent dressing and
sexual harassment. The following theories fall into two groups that deal with indecent dressing
and sexual harassment. An attempt to explain the dimensions of indecent dressing, researchers,
came up with the down theory, reductionism (biological) theory and psycho-social or self-
efficacy theory.
The Down Theory (Theory of Sexy Dressing): The more commonly cited approach in
the study of sexy or seductive dressing is the psycho-analytic model of down theory. The
name of this theory comes from a Greek female legend "ELECTRA". She dreamt that all
the end downs were crying at a grave. The downs at the grave were crying over the death
of one of the downs who was Electra's sister. Electra's dream about her sister's death
made her develop hatred for her sister because her sister received more attention from
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others than she did. Electra may have at a conscious state take delight in her sister death.
Dressing to attract attention invariably leads undergraduates mostly the female gender to
wear "funny" or "indecent" cloths that are seductive and revealing. Giving the opposite
sex the impression of their readiness and availability for exploitation.
Biological (Sexual Selection) Theory: Reference of dominant looking man by the
female as the near evaluate because of high testosterone level indicates strong genus.
Studies that support this theory shows that male dominance increases when female is
more fertilized. The expression of this fertility is shown in seductive and revealing
dresses. This theory reveals that the frequency in wearing revealing and seductive
dressing change over the menstrual circle days girls wear revealing clothes when they are
fertile but the menstrual circle doesn't affect the way of dressing. The levels of those
chemical messengers were much higher in those girls that preferred seductive and
revealing dresses. Neutrophiles are passionate love hormones and also the male, sex
humorous testosterone was found to increase in love struck girls found wearing revealing
and seductive dresses. The love hormones (neutrophiles) were replaced by the what is
called cuddle hormone "Oxytocin" when girls start wearing decent cloths. Girls with
higher level of estrogen are more attractive, they have prettier faces and more prominent
body features.
Psycho Social Theory (Theory of Efficacy): This theory is pioneered by the works of
Bandura (1993, 1996 and 1997) who defines self-confidence as the ability to recognize
and execute the causes of a given course of action to solve a problem or accomplish a
task. Thus, some people have a stronger sense of self efficacy while others don't.
Furthermore, some have efficacy belief that encompasses many narrow efficacy beliefs
and some belief that they are efficacies only in easier task. Bandura's self-efficacy theory
focuses on expectancies of success; however, Bandura distinguished between two kinds
of expectancy beliefs; outcome expectations belief that certain behaviors will lead to
certain outcomes such as the belief that revealing clothes and dresses will attract potential
suitors using this theory, we found that contrary to general belief, girls who wear
revealing and seductive dresses have low self-efficacy, trading themselves as cheap. They
lack the confidence in the fact that attracting a male counterpart, they would be
sufficiently satisfied with these efficacy expectations. According to Bandura they are four
major determinants of goal setting behavior: choice, motives, willingness to expect effort
and persistence of the behavior.
Theory of Risky Sexual Harassment: There are various theoretical models that explain
the origin, symptom consequences of sexual harassment. The following theories tend to
explain sexual harassment. Three-fold theory, exchange theory, belief theory reasoned
action theory and self-efficiency theory they found focus on the effect of situational
beliefs and cognitive aspects of sexual harassment on individual chances.
Procedure:
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Purposeful sampling procedure was used to enlist participants. They were contacted in the two
hostels of the Yobe State University Damaturu. These were Hall A male’s hostel and the Hall B
female’s hostel. They were told what they were required to do and their consent obtained. 20
volunteers made up of males and females Thereafter, they were administered the dress pattern
and sexual harassment questionnaires. Both the male and female participants were further
categorized into decent dressers and indecent dressers. Of the 100 Participants, 53 were assessed
as unattractive and 47 as attractive. 47 were categorized as decent dressers, while 53 as indecent
dressers.
Mashagoana (2002) found those who wear transparent and seductive cloths to have low self-
concept thus, trading themselves as ‘cheap whores’, implying a lack of confidence in attracting a
mate. This inferiority complex drives them into seductive dressing as a make-up to attract the
potential mates. Gollub (2006) further explained that the crave for attention compel such
individuals to wear ‘funny’ cloths that are seductive and revealing making them very prone to
sexual harassment.
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workers report that severe or chronic sexual harassment can have the same psychological effects
as rape or sexual assault. For example, in 1995, Judith Coflin committed suicide after chronic
sexual harassment by her bosses and coworkers. (Her family was later awarded six million
dollars in punitive and compensatory damages.) Victims who do not submit to harassment may
also experience various forms of retaliation, including isolation and bullying.
As an overall social and economic effect every year, sexual harassment deprives women from
active social and economic participation and costs hundreds of millions of dollars in lost
educational and professional opportunities for mostly girls and women. However, the quantity of
men implied in these conflicts is significant
CONCLUSSION
When we began research for this article, I expected to find many cases involving allegations that
the plaintiff “welcomed” the sexual harassment by her workplace attire. We was surprised to find
that this was a rare case. Defendants were not using the woman’s dress to weasel out of claims,
but instead, the woman’s dress most commonly was present in allegations by plaintiffs. Plaintiffs
frequently raised comments about their dress as part of their sexual harassment allegations. This
would seem to open the door to defendants, who might use evidence of target dress to argue that
the plaintiff welcomed the harassment. Yet, that was not the case. I have tried to account for the
lack of case law and, in the process, have gone back to the root cause of sexual harassment:
power. Sexual harassment is about power; therefore, a target who is dressed provocatively is not
the ideal target for the would-be harasser, who appears motivated at least in part by his ability to
dominate his victim. Provocative dress does not necessarily signify submissiveness but instead
may be an indication of confidence and assertiveness. It is clear, however, that comments about
dress directed at plaintiffs are a component of sexual harassment allegations. Comments about
dress are used to undermine working women’s authority and should be considered seriously by
courts assessing sexual harassment claims.
RECOMMENDATION
Here are some clear guidelines for ensuring sexual harassment is not occurring in your
workplace. This should help you play a part in ending sexual harassment at work for good.
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A study by Einarsen, Hoel and Notelaers (2009) showed victim involvement in sexual
harassment and the impact
of those experiences in workplace in several different ways. Victims expressed feeling upset,
threatened, frustrated and
numerous other negative feelings. Additional research also produced similar findings
identifying added negative feelings
in both genders, including self-blame, humiliation, decreased self-esteem, loss of self-
confidence and damage to
interpersonal relations (Lim, Cortina and Magley, 2008)
A study by Einarsen, Hoel and Notelaers (2009) showed victim involvement in sexual
harassment and the impact
of those experiences in workplace in several different ways. Victims expressed feeling upset,
threatened, frustrated and
numerous other negative feelings. Additional research also produced similar findings
identifying added negative feelings
in both genders, including self-blame, humiliation, decreased self-esteem, loss of self-
confidence and damage to
interpersonal relations (Lim, Cortina and Magley, 2008)
A study by Einarsen, Hoel and Notelaers (2009) showed victim involvement in sexual
harassment and the impact
of those experiences in workplace in several different ways. Victims expressed feeling upset,
threatened, frustrated and
numerous other negative feelings. Additional research also produced similar findings
identifying added negative feelings
in both genders, including self-blame, humiliation, decreased self-esteem, loss of self-
confidence and damage to
interpersonal relations (Lim, Cortina and Magley, 2008)
A study by Einarsen, Hoel and Notelaers (2009) showed victim involvement in sexual
harassment and the impact
of those experiences in workplace in several different ways. Victims expressed feeling upset,
threatened, frustrated and
numerous other negative feelings. Additional research also produced similar findings
identifying added negative feelings
in both genders, including self-blame, humiliation, decreased self-esteem, loss of self-
confidence and damage to
interpersonal relations (Lim, Cortina and Magley, 2008)
A study by Einarsen, Hoel and Notelaers (2009) showed victim involvement in sexual
harassment and the impact
11 | P a g e
of those experiences in workplace in several different ways. Victims expressed feeling upset,
threatened, frustrated and
numerous other negative feelings. Additional research also produced similar findings
identifying added negative feelings
in both genders, including self-blame, humiliation, decreased self-esteem, loss of self-
confidence and damage to
interpersonal relations (Lim, Cortina and Magley, 2008)
A study by Einarsen, Hoel and Notelaers (2009) showed victim involvement in sexual
harassment and the impact
of those experiences in workplace in several different ways. Victims expressed feeling upset,
threatened, frustrated and
numerous other negative feelings. Additional research also produced similar findings
identifying added negative feelings
in both genders, including self-blame, humiliation, decreased self-esteem, loss of self-
confidence and damage to
interpersonal relations (Lim, Cortina and Magley, 2008)
A study by Einarsen, Hoel and Notelaers (2009) showed victim involvement in sexual
harassment and the impact
of those experiences in workplace in several different ways. Victims expressed feeling upset,
threatened, frustrated and
numerous other negative feelings. Additional research also produced similar findings
identifying added negative feelings
in both genders, including self-blame, humiliation, decreased self-esteem, loss of self-
confidence and damage to
interpersonal relations (Lim, Cortina and Magley, 2008)
A study by Einarsen, Hoel and Notelaers (2009) showed victim involvement in sexual
harassment and the impact
of those experiences in workplace in several different ways. Victims expressed feeling upset,
threatened, frustrated and
numerous other negative feelings. Additional research also produced similar findings
identifying added negative feelings
in both genders, including self-blame, humiliation, decreased self-esteem, loss of self-
confidence and damage to
interpersonal relations (Lim, Cortina and Magley, 2008)
A study by Einarsen, Hoel and Notelaers (2009) showed victim involvement in sexual
harassment and the impact
of those experiences in workplace in several different ways. Victims expressed feeling upset,
threatened, frustrated and
numerous other negative feelings. Additional research also produced similar findings
identifying added negative feelings
in both genders, including self-blame, humiliation, decreased self-esteem, loss of self-
confidence and damage to
interpersonal relations (Lim, Cortina and Magley, 2008)
A study by Einarsen, Hoel and Notelaers (2009) showed victim involvement in sexual
harassment and the impact
12 | P a g e
of those experiences in workplace in several different ways. Victims expressed feeling upset,
threatened, frustrated and
numerous other negative feelings. Additional research also produced similar findings
identifying added negative feelings
in both genders, including self-blame, humiliation, decreased self-esteem, loss of self-
confidence and damage to
interpersonal relations (Lim, Cortina and Magley, 20
REDERENCE
1. Paludi, Michele A.; Barickman, Richard B. (1991). "Definitions and incidence of
academic and workplace sexual harassment". Academic and workplace sexual
harassment: a resource manual. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. pp. 2–
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2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_harassment
3. https://www.rainn.org/articles/sexual-harassment
4. REVA B. SIEGEL, (A Short History of Sexual Harassment), Directions in Sexual
Harassment Law Catherine A MACKINNON & REVA B. SIEGEL EDS.
FORTHCOMING YALE PRESS 2003.
5. The History of Sexual Harassment Law, https://www.employmentlawfirms.com/.
6. A primer on the history of sexual harassment—and why it deserves a place in diversity
training, publish: 03-08-21, https://www.fastcompany.com.
7. By Chris Huber. (2018). Director of Business Development and Casey Bean, Digital
Marketing Coordinator
8. Ibrahim, A. A., & Haruna, A. (2014). The Psycho-Social Aspect of Indecent Dressing:
Influence of Gender, Dress Pattern and Physical Attractiveness on Sexual Harassment.
Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 19(3), 14-19.
9. Chukwudi, F., & Gbakorun, A. A. (2011). Indecent dressing and sexual harassment
among undergraduates of Nasarawa State University, Keffi. Journal of Sociology,
Psychology and Anthropology in practice, 3(2), 25-31.
10. Beiner, T. M. (2007). Sexy dressing revisited: Does target dress play in a part in sexual
harassment cases. Duke J. Gender L. & Pol'y, 14, 125.
11. Sexual Harassment in Workplace: A Literature Review August 2021 The
International Journal of Humanities & Social Studies 9(18):29-34
DOI:10.24940/theijhss/2021/v9/i8/HS2108-023
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