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Speaking out on sexual harassment
Over the years, as Ellen Peirce talked with female executives visiting the Kenan-Flagler School of Business, she heard many of them
say that
they wouldn't report a case of sexual harassment to their employers. One executive told Peirce that if she were harassed,
she'd quit her job rather than hassle with filing a complaint.
Peirce, associate professor of legal studies, began to wonder why women, even those in positions of power, felt this way.
Since the mid seventies, federal courts and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had recognized that sexual
harassment violated the Civil Rights Act. But statistics confirmed what Peirce had been hearing: of respondents to a 1991
New York Times/CBS poll, only 33 percent of those who were harassed reported it.
Peirce teamed up with Benson Rosen, professor of management and senior associate dean for academic affairs at the
business school. Peirce, Rosen, and Ph.D. student Tammy Bunn Hiller sent questionnaires around the country and
received replies from 1,215 women, most in managerial positions. In addition to answering multiple-choice questions,
respondents returned 250 pages of handwritten comments.
Slightly more than a third of the women said they had been sexually harassed, but of these, only 20 percent had spoken up.
"Forty percent of our respondents said they hadn't even seen the sexual harassment policy of their firm or didn't know
if it existed," Peirce says.
And more than half of all the women thought the policies were only formalities, created just to satisfy the law.
"Women who voice sexual harassment complaints perceive that this is not something that others respect them for
doing," Peirce says. "There's the perception that they should be tough in the workplace and just put up with it, not wimp
out." In the survey, many women suggested that all employees, not just women, should be urged to speak out when they
notice offensive behavior.
Also, respondents said they would be more likely to speak up if they were assured privacy and anonymity, if management demonstrated true support
for sexual-harrassment policies, and employers had a policy of no retaliation against
those who file complaints.
Peirce and Rosen recommend that companies discuss with employees exactly what kind of behavior is unacceptable,
perhaps using role-playing or films. As they have conducted training sessions for executives, Peirce and Rosen have found
that men often don't recognize some types of sexual harassment.
Most people are familiar with quid pro quo harassment, in which a
superior says to an employee, "Have sex with me or you're fired," Rosen explains. But a hostile environment - which
might include persistently demeaning language, lewd posters, or suggestive
comments - also makes work difficult.
"If a woman finds a behavior offensive, that's at least enough grounds for a complaint," Rosen says.
"Then employers must decide if the behavior would offend a reasonable woman.
If so, it must be stopped."
- Angela Spivey
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