Dealing with Sexual Harassment
By Tara Haelle, Graduate Student, The University of Texas at Austin
When Samuel*, a student at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, began working at a pharmacy when he was 19, a middle-aged female coworker began coming up behind him while he was working and whispering suggestive comments in his ear.
“I felt uncomfortable, but I just thought she was joking around,” Samuel says. “My coworkers were older than I was, and they were able to see it was clearly sexual harassment.” So they reported it, and she was fired. Although Samuel still felt bad for her at first, he said he didn’t realize how much the behavior actually had been affecting him.
“After it was all settled down, the workplace was a lot calmer, and I felt safer,” he says.
Zero Tolerance in the Workplace
Samuel’s experience is a textbook sexual harassment case: He was in a hostile work environment, the legal term for a workplace that becomes so intimidating and offensive from harassment that it affects a reasonable person’s ability to do their job, according to Vanessa Willock, an Equal Employment Opportunity compliance specialist at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. But the harassment he experienced could happen anywhere—at school, at a restaurant, at home—and it is still sexual harassment.
Although a person doesn’t always have to be fired, harassment will not stop unless someone speaks up.
“They should tell somebody because it won’t just stop as some people believe,” says Willock. “Education is the best way to prevent these things from happening.” But equally important is having an effective reporting and investigation process in place to address concerns and take immediate action.
“The appropriate action is going to depend on the situation and the behavior, but if it does occur, it will not be tolerated.”
How to Confront the Behavior
Willock advises people who experience harassment to first try asking the other person to stop the behavior. But if they don’t feel comfortable confronting the person, or if the behavior is severe, they should report it to someone in authority. That could be a supervisor, a trusted professor, the dean of their school, the chair of the department, an employer, or the Office of Equal Opportunity, which nearly every college has. The Office of Equal Opportunity is also the place to find out about your university’s policies and procedures regarding harassment.
Willock added that some people may feel reluctant to report behavior if they fear they won’t be believed, that they’ll be labeled a troublemaker, or that they’ll experience retaliation. But most universities have anti-retaliation provisions to protect whistleblowers and people who feel discriminated against.
“You cannot be retaliated against for raising concerns,” she says, adding that federal and state laws exist to protect those who assert their rights.
Harassment on Campus
For Adrian, a junior at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, the harassment came from another student hassling him about his sexual orientation. The student told others to “beware” of Adrian, and he made inappropriate sexual gestures toward Adrian. The situation soon escalated.
“It got into a physical altercation because he kept getting into my face,” Adrian says.
Because they attended the same university, Adrian reported it to a resident assistant, who told him she would take care of it. He hasn’t experienced further harassment from that student, but the incident continues to affect him.
“It made me more wary about whom I should disclose information to and where I should go,” he says. Fortunately, he says, Wright State works hard to create a safe community by taking hate crimes and harassment concerns seriously. But he doesn’t think everyone realizes that his experience qualifies as sexual harassment.
“Anything written or said about a person’s gender or comments about a person’s orientation—that’s still sexual harassment,” says Adrian.
Understanding What Harassment Is
Some schools don’t necessarily distinguish sexual harassment from other forms of harassment. Any derogatory comments or behavior regarding race, color, religion, ethnicity, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, or veteran status can qualify as harassment, says Gwendolyn Hood, the director of Equal Opportunity Programs and University Compliance Office at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
So how can you tell what qualifies as sexual harassment? Where does the line get drawn between a joke and serious offense, or between welcome flirting and harassment?
“Conduct of a sexual nature is unwelcome when the student being harassed did not request or invite the conduct and regarded it as offensive or undesirable,” according to the U.S. Department of Education. If it’s behavior you ask a person to stop (even if it’s just asking you out), or if the behavior interferes with your ability to work, that’s also harassment.
“All I know is if it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t right,” says Jasmine*, a creative writing junior at the University of California, San Diego. She would know: She experienced ongoing harassment from her science teacher in high school, who would regularly stare at her and make inappropriate comments about her appearance.
She tried reporting him to an assistant principal, but the administrator said he couldn’t do anything except file the report until another complaint came in. Her biggest frustration was that others had also experienced the harassment, but no one else reported him. And so he continued.
“I wish that I had urged them to report it because maybe we could have done something to get him removed from the school,” she says.
Helping the Harassed
As with Samuel’s coworkers, Jasmine’s friends had the ability to help the situation had they reported the behavior. Anyone who witnesses potentially discriminatory or derogatory behavior can and should report what they see or hear if they suspect harassment.
Students seeking specifics on their college’s definitions, policies, and procedures should consult their university’s office of student affairs or the office that handles Equal Employment Opportunity claims, even if the harassment is unrelated to employment.
Even if you feel “it’s no big deal,” it’s worth speaking up.
“It is a big deal if it’s unwanted,” Adrian says. “The best way to address it is to talk about it and if it happens, make it clear that it’s unwanted. And if it happens again, say something.”
*Last name withheld for privacy.
TARA HAELLE IS A GRADUATE JOURNALISM STUDENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN.
Find Out More
Click to learn more about sexual harassment from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Click for more ways to prevent sexual harassment on campus from the American Association of University Women.
Click for more ways you can get involved to prevent sexual assault from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
Examples of Sexual Harassment
• Dirty Jokes
• Repeatedly asking someone out after they've said no once
• Remarking on a person's body
• Touching someone without their explicit consent
• Hugging or kissing someone without their explicit consent
• Tickling, petting, squeezing or brushing against a person
• Any unwelcome sexual advance
• Requests for sexual favors
• Offering a bonus, promotion, higher grade, or other positive consequence in exchange for a physical or sexual activity
• Written communication, jokes, comics, graphics or images of a sexual nature that is displayed
• Touching one's self in a sexual way in the presence of others
• Displaying sexual objects
• Discussing sex or one's own sexual activities in front of others
• Sexually suggestive sounds or gestures, such as sucking noises, winks or pelvic thrusts
• A neck or shoulder massage
• Name-calling, especially with sexually suggestive words
• Phone calls of a sexual nature
• Stalking
• Spreading rumors about a person's sexuality
• Judging a person's sexuality
• Direct or indirect threats or bribes for unwanted sexual activity
• Unsolicited sexually explicit or personal questions
A good rule of thumb: If you wouldn't say it or do it in front of your entire family at Thanksgiving dinner, don't do it at work or at school.
