Sexual harassment is a violation of human rights. It is a manifestation of power relations and women are much more likely to be victims of sexual harassment precisely because they more often than men lack power, and are in more vulnerable and insecure positions, Some men resented female employees and perceived them as a threat in traditionally male dominated work environments. Sexual harassment is often carried out with the motive to cause embarrassment and humiliation to women. It stems from chauvinism, sense of entitlement to the body of females.
Some women don’t even know they have been sexually harassed.
What is sexual harassment?
Sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.
It can be subtle or obvious, ongoing or a one-time occurrence, severe or moderate.
For instance, the conduct can be made as a term or condition of an individual’s employment or education. The acceptance or refusal of such conduct is used as a factor in decisions affecting an individual’s employment or education.
The conduct unreasonably impacts an individual’s employment or academic performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment for that individual’s employment, education, living environment, or participation in a University community.
For more clarity, description of sexual harassment are –
Unwanted sexual statements: Sexual or “dirty” jokes,
Unwanted personal attention: Letters, telephone calls, visits, pressure for sexual favors, pressure for unnecessary personal interaction and pressure for dates where a sexual/romantic intent appears evident but remains unwanted.
Unwanted personal attention: Letters, telephone calls, visits, pressure for sexual favors, pressure for unnecessary personal interaction and pressure for dates where a sexual/romantic intent appears evident but remains unwanted.
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Unwanted physical or sexual advances: Touching, hugging, kissing, and fondling, touching oneself sexually for others to view, sexual assault, intercourse or other sexual activity.
Sexual harassment comes in many different forms. It can be subtle or obvious, ongoing or a one-time occurrence, severe or moderate.
All varieties of physical and verbal sexual harassment should be taken seriously, as they can often progress from not-so-serious to very severe in a short amount of time. The nature of the sexual harassment case you are dealing with will determine how you go about addressing it.
Some Male Bosses create a hostile environment for their target. They make the work place very hot for their target and others. A kind of throwing tantrums.
Here are some of the steps a victim of sexual harassment you can take,
• Speak out against the culprit: This is often the simplest and most direct way to deal with sexual harassment. By getting to the root cause of it and addressing the culprit, you will make your message loud and clear that the behavior in question is not acceptable. While in some cases this verbal warning is enough to make the culprit stop, many cases escalate from this point on.
• Report the harassment to the appropriate people: Taking it to the next level, you may choose to take the harassment incident(s) to a supervisor, human resources department or internal social case worker. Make sure to follow exactly whatever company policies or procedures are in place so that your case will be treated with the appropriate timeliness and seriousness.
Most times, summary dismissal is the punishment for Sexual harassment at a place of work.
• Take legal action: Lastly, the most dramatic step you can take in dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace is filing a lawsuit against your employer. It would help if there are eye witnesses to the sexual harassment or evidences to that effect. E.g Chats relating to demand for sex from he Employer. nude pictures, etc.
An advantage of seeking legal action against a Pervert boss is the Victim may be able to get their jobs back, receive lost wages and acquire damage costs for the events that occurred.
No woman should have to endure sexual harassment at work or in school, it is not normal and appropriate steps must be taken to put an end to this anomaly by exposing this rot and applying the necessary measures to deal with it in our systems.
Bukola Afolabi Ogunyeye is the Executive Director and Founder of Morna International Children’s Foundation (MICF). She is a Child rights Activist, a Business woman, and an Author. She also has passion for women’s issues. She strongly advocates for gender equity.
Her hobbies are reading and listening to music.
