Sexual Harassment and Labor Relations - Essay Example

Sexual Harassment

Introduction

In the second half of the 20th century, in the United States gender policy has been radically changing. The main content of this change was the creation of an effective state mechanism to ensure equal rights and equal opportunities for men and women in all spheres of life. Under the influence of the mass women's movement of the 1960 – 1980s, in the United States, as well as in Western Europe, it becomes necessary to carry out a revolutionary transformation in its consequences the gender system (Gruber and Fineran). Talking about the final eradication of discriminatory practices, argued for centuries, of course, is not necessary. Nevertheless, the principles of equality have become an integral part of the United States of gender policy.

The topic of sexual harassment has been chosen because of its actuality and validity. The HMO, for instance, singles out this issue as one of the most current and urgent (Watters and Hillis). This is determined by the fact that the negative phenomenon of sexual harassment unites interdisciplinary approach, since the issue function in various aspects of human life: it means that such sciences as psychology, sociology, criminology, etc. are to be involved in the problem of harassment in the contemporary society. Thus, the paper is aimed at observing the contemporary status of the sexual harassment issue and finding out the key solutions to the problem.

General Overview

There is a huge amount of information on the topic. In order to present the most recent one, it was decided to investigate the scientific databases in order to find the appropriate materials for the analysis. In the United States, the term of sexual harassment is formulated as a crime that violates the privacy of a person harassment (phone calls, letters, surveillance and so forth), intrusive soliciting, harassment; and it is usually done with a sexual motive. It is necessary to draw attention to the reference to “private life” in this formulation (Gruber and Fineran). This term of “private life” can be detected and defined as the behavior of a sexual nature, purpose and outcome of which affects the dignity of another person and / or creating a hostile workplace in the European Community legislation, where harassment (this item was introduced to it in 2002), or aggressive hectic situation. Again it draws attention to the phrase “the dignity of the other person.”

The very word “sexual harassment” is as old as the existence of the phenomenon of sexual harassment (Teseo et al.). However, in the US public debate it is widely penetrated in the late 1970s. It is not surprising, since at this time the mass arrival of women in career starts. Time of the married housewives had been left behind, the society is perceived as a kind of unmodern lifestyle, which gets popular formula of “one family – two careers.” Arisen as a result of this competition for good job positions made the gender issue especially topical.

It seems that there is another reason for the 'appearance' of harassment over the years. This time, the maturity of the baby boomer generation, which declared itself a youthful rebellion in the 1960s, radically changed the lives of modern Western society (Gruber and Fineran). Among many other things, changed the rules of private behavior. Society and people have become more tolerant, more open, less restrained in showing their feelings, which was especially unusual for the Anglo-Saxon culture.

The death of Lady Diana struck the British not only the tragedy of this event, but also their own very strong emotional reaction to it (Teseo et al.). Today, public people and ordinary citizens openly discuss topics before forbidden, personal, family. Treatment for alcoholism, cancer, plastic surgery no longer be a secret. All sorts of reality shows, and transferred to our soil, are also a manifestation of this change. Marketers working on repositioning the old brands to reflect this new trend of “openness of feelings.”

However, this is the much greater social openness, variability of the rules of private behavior, however, has not diminished in Western society values ​​privacy. In this situation, it took the new rules - the need to better define the boundaries of the “private” and “non-private” life (Gruber and Fineran). This re-division of the borders, in our opinion, owes much to the problems of harassment (as, indeed, and political correctness). Arising under the great influence of the feminist movement, it is now a part of the discourse on human rights – both of men and women.

Findings

In the 1960 – 1970s the first phase of the feminist struggle strategy to ensure formal legal equality leads to the assertion of a “gender-neutral” legislative practice (Teseo et al.). This practice included not only the women's struggle for the equality but was aimed also at the sexual harassment prevention. Then, in the 1980 – 1990s, the transition to a strategy of equal opportunity claims “gender-sensitive” policies of the “affirmative action,” providing certain benefits to women in employment, education and entrepreneurship (Espelage et al. 464). The main stages of the evolution of this policy are closely related to the two major currents of American feminism: liberal “movement for women's rights” and “radical liberation movement.”

In 1960 – 1970s in the center of the discourse of liberal feminism the problem of solving the legal discrimination against women and the formation of anti-discrimination policy principles appeared (Watters and Hillis). The key concept of this discourse becomes a dichotomy of “equal” (as the same) and “different.” These two categories to some extent denoted women who had undergone sexual harassment. Because during the 1960s, the resurgent women's movement was still in the shadows already reached its mass scope of the movement for the civil rights of African Americans, the strategy and tactics of the fight against discrimination on grounds of sex is largely determined by the scope of the discourse of racial equality (Espelage et al. 464).

In American law, in contrast to many European systems of masked discrimination, there was a concept, designed to justify the legal inequality based on race and gender (Watters and Hillis). It is in contradiction with the basic understanding of the law in a democratic state, which assumes application of the same standards to all citizens without exception (Gruber and Fineran). Legal doctrine, formulated by the US Supreme Court in the late 19th century, tried to resolve this contradiction. The legal terms of the US Constitution was considered the same “treatment of persons who are in the same position.” Accordingly, the discrimination could be recognized only by the practice of unequal treatment of people who are in the same position.

The judicial doctrine has received the official name of equal but separate treatment. The lack of women's equal rights with men, is thus not contrary to the principles of American constitutional state, because they both are in unequal position in nature. The courts of all instances have received legal justification of refusal to accept complaints regarding discrimination based on race and gender.

This equal treatment led, according to the authors of the new policy, to perpetuate gender inequality. For example, the absence of a system of kindergartens and programs to protect against sexual harassment different effects on workers, male and female (Watters and Hillis). On the women's competitive impact hidden structural barriers (Teseo et al.). Anti-discrimination legislation is not able to withstand the factor of informal social ties “men's clubs.” Only a targeted redistribution of resources can approve the principle of equity. In order to ensure equal opportunities taking into account the existing differences in the group considers it necessary to use the material and administrative resources and thereby put pressure on the sphere of private business (Gruber and Fineran). The new network of institutions and the institutions of executive power at the state level passed from the control of compliance with anti-discrimination laws to the approval of new top radical practices improve the status of women.

“Affirmative action” with the help of federal funding mechanism created most favorable conditions for women in all spheres of life (Espelage et al. 464). Universities applying for grants and subsidies from the federal authorities were required to provide certain privileges for admission and to provide scholarships to women in the first place. Scientific and technical federal agencies and foundations created special divisions and programs aimed at the professional advancement of women, especially in traditionally “male” fields of science. State support has provided a radical growth of women entrepreneurship in small and medium-sized businesses.

Within the framework of gender-sensitive policies providing special rights for women was concentrated around the issue of maternity leave and maternity, state support for child care system, protection against pornography and violence on the streets and in the family, from sexual harassment in the workplace (Teseo et al.). The coming to power of the neo-conservatives in the early 1980s. extremely complicated formation of a new gender policy (Watters and Hillis). Republican rhetoric of limited government intervention in the social sphere became a convenient argument for blocking the bills related to the specific interests of women. The bill requiring employers to provide unpaid leave for parents taking care of children, came in 1991, a presidential veto of George. W. Bush, who considers this measure burdensome for business (Espelage et al. 464). The same fate befell the federal legislative initiative for the conservation of the workplace and the provision of unpaid leave in connection with pregnancy and childbirth. By the end of the 1990s. Only several states have similar laws in the United States. At the federal level, also failed to adopt a law obliging include medical expenses for the child's birth in the public employees insurance funds.

Sexual harassment in the workplace under the new legislation of the 1980 – 1990s was considered as a violation of workers' rights (Espelage et al. 464). Equal Opportunities Employment Opportunity Commission supervises the implementation of laws and ensures the promotion of lawsuits. Many of the tasks set a new stage of the gender policy, remained unresolved. The transition from anti-discrimination policies to the strategies of individual equality equal rights and opportunities for women and men, taking into account the differences requires efforts to restructure the entire system of gender in the American society, including gender culture and everyday practices (Teseo et al.).

Discussion and Conclusion

It can be concluded that modern gender discourse is a combination of modernization and traditional, even archaic layers. As in other areas of public consciousness, there is not so much co-existence of different tendencies (which would of course), but the presence of a holistic “non-classical” complex, which by the media is perceived as completely organic and non-conflict. This complex has the following features:

• Strong installation (for education, self-realization, career, construction); according to the data of mass surveys, women are ready to see in politics, business, the key positions of the state, including as president of the country (Teseo et al.);
• tolerance as a willingness to accept a wide range of rules of private behavior and at the same time as a waiver of moral assessments of ways to achieve a new goal, “success,” as a consequence of cynicism;
• lack of group solidarity (complaints of sexual harassment, as a rule, does not cause the support circle of colleagues and friends, and the type declaration to recruit young woman without children are not perceived as discrimination but as an opportunity to use its competitive advantage of those who comply with these requirements (Teseo et al.).

Particular attention is to be paid on the archaic elements not separated the family, sexual labor relations. The formal regulation of labor relations is registered only in large companies, Western-style, work that is attractive, but often this ethic is perceived as 'foreign,' in terms of harassment. In all other cases there is a mix of private and public, simple communication is often more convenient for both parties (an employer and an employee). Last often completely dependent on the first, at the same time, these simple connections provide a very simple and affordable mobile channel in the implementation of the career, getting other bonuses in the comfortable living of the life cycle. Perhaps historically much earlier than in developed countries, the inclusion of women in social production helped to maintain an employment relationship of the archaic features inherent in traditional agrarian era, pre-manufacturing, production.