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Sexual harassment

Sexual harassment still a reality in the workplace

Charisse Jones
USA TODAY

The U.S. may be on the verge of electing the first woman president and women are making gains in the workplace, but the high-profile case involving a newswoman's lawsuit against Fox News CEO Roger Ailes has put a spotlight on an issue that experts say still remains an all-too frequent reality in the workplace: sexual harassment.

Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson has filed a lawsuit against the CEO of Fox News, Roger Ailes, for sexual harassment and retaliation.

Former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a complaint Wednesday alleging that Ailes made inappropriate overtures toward her. She also alleges that she endured sexist behavior from Steve Doocy, one of her former co-hosts on the program Fox & Friends.  21st Century Fox says it has "full confidence" in Ailes and Doocy and has "commenced an internal review of the matter," and in a statement Ailes said Carlson’s allegations are false.

While a case involving a TV personality and a powerful news executive garners headlines, surveys show that roughly one in four women say they have been harassed on the job. And with many victims too frightened to speak up, attorneys and employment experts say the actual number of such instances is likely far higher.

“Yes, we have more women in our society, in our culture, in high-profile and leadership roles,’’ says Maya Raghu, director of workplace equality at the National Women’s Law Center. “But a big reason why most people experiencing sexual harassment don’t come forward is there’s still a lot of fear.  As long as there is that threat of losing your job, of how you appear to your friends, your peers, that’s going to continue to keep this issue from being resolved.’’

Thin employer efforts to combat and deal with sexual harassment may be to blame for the prevalence of such claims. Following two Supreme Court cases in 1998,most employers have implemented policies regarding sexual harassment to shield themselves from liability if an employee claiming harassment fails to go through those steps to make their initial complaint. Despite the layers of laws, critics say many employer programs are too superficial to completely thwart such behavior.

Gretchen Carlson files sexual harassment suit against Fox's Ailes

Often such efforts are “a regulatory compliance issue that doesn’t have enough teeth,’’ says Beth Brascugli De Lima, a human resources consultant and head of HRM Consulting in Murphys, Calif., noting that in California, where a state law mandates supervisors undergo training, two-thirds of the classes are on the Internet. “It’s extremely difficult to have an effective sexual harassment training ... if you’re not in the room with an individual, having to look across the table and hear the concern in (the) voice’’ of someone who feels they’ve been  harassed.

Nearly three decades ago, the nation fixated on televised Senate hearings in which attorney Anita Hill accused her former boss, Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas, of making inappropriate sexual comments when she worked as his aide. More recent high-profile allegations of sexual harassment include those made against Dov Charney, the former CEO of retailer American Apparel, who was fired in 2014  following a string of such complaints, and the resignation of Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd in 2010 in the wake of similar charges.

Academia has also had a rash of allegations. Dean Choudhry, the dean of University of California Berkeley’s law school, resigned in March after his executive assistant  filed a lawsuit alleging he regularly harassed her. That same month, Enrichetta Ravina, an assistant professor of finance at Columbia University, filed suit against the school and a senior faculty member, Geert Bekaert, whom she claims made sexual advances.

A new look at sexual harassment in the workplace

The standard definition of sexual harassment, according to Title Seven of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, “is conduct that makes the workplace hostile to a reasonable person either because of the severity of a few incidents, or because of the pervasiveness of even less severe conduct,’’ says Catherine Fisk, a professor of labor and employment law at the University of California, Irvine.

Another reason sexual harassment is so pervasive is different perceptions of what it is. For those who are accused of it, “a lot of this is really a lack of understanding of how to behave in the workplace,’’ says Brascugli De Lima, the human resources consultant. “And what makes it difficult in some cases is what is harassing behavior to one person is not harassment to another. Most of these cases are not clear, bright lines. ‘’

For those who feel uncomfortable with a colleague’s behavior and want to report it, they should first follow their workplace's protocols. They can also contact the EEOC or their state fair employment agency.

“High-profile cases certainly get people talking,’’ says the National Women’s Law Center's Raghu, “and certainly starting a national conversation about these issues might make more people comfortable about coming forward and reporting what happened.’’

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