Sexual Harassment
The Equal Employment Opportunities Commission has defined sexual harassment in its guidelines as: Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when: submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's employment, or submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as a basis for employment decisions affecting such individual, or such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment. (Preventing Sexual Harassment, SDC IP .73, 2011) I believe that sexual harassment is a form of discrimination because the behavior is unsolicited and deliberately offensive. The behavior can be physically violent or psychologically damaging to someone. If someone says or does something to make you feel uncomfortable, or if you are put at risk in any way, it constitutes harassment.
Even in this day and age, harassment is widespread. Sexual harassment is one of the most common forms of harassment in the workplace. People are harassed for many reasons, from their political or religious beliefs to the way they look. Although it is not prohibited by law to tease, or make offhand comments, harassment is illegal when it is frequent or severe enough that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision (such as the victim being fired or demoted). The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, a supervisor from another department, a co-worker, or someone who does not work for the company, such as a client or customer. Ultimately, your employer is responsible for any kind of harassment that affects you at work.
Victims of harassment are often made to feel powerless, especially in the workplace. Sometimes they come to accept the behavior for fear of being...