Dealing With Sexual Harassment

1. Dealing With Sexual Harassment Think about this true story: A graduate student encounters her professor at a tavern one night. The professor asks her for a ride home and she obliges. On the way home, the prof grabs her and asks her to spend the night with him. She refuses. The next week, he returns her assignment with a note stating that he refuses to read, grade, and make comments on it. It is a good paper because she’s gotten it published. Since the incident happened off campus, is it sexual harassment?

2. Dealing With Sexual Harassment Here’s another true situation: A lecturer works closely with her dean. One day in a meeting, he asks her to have a sexual relationship with him. She refuses saying that she values their professional relationship but wants to keep it at that level. He tells her that if they cannot have a sexual relationship, they will not be friends. For the next month, he makes her job difficult until she finds another position outside of the university. Is this sexual harassment even though a student is not involved?

3. Dealing With Sexual Harassment Here’s a third situation: An advertising professor is showing videos of award- winning European ads during class. One of the ads features nearly nude women modeling skimpy clothing in seductive poses. Is this sexual harassment?

4. Dealing With Sexual Harassment At the end of this module, you will: • Be able to describe the nature of sexual harassment. • Recognize non-obvious situations that are sexual harassment. • Know ways to avoid being involved in sexual harassment.

5. What Is Sexual Harassment? There are many definitions for sexual harassment. Many universities have adapted the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) guidelines:

6. EEOC Guidelines Adapted “Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when: • Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment or admission to an academic program,

7. EEOC Guidelines Adapted, cont’d 3. Submission to or rejection of such conduct is used as the basis for decisions affecting an individual’s employment status or academic standing, or • Such conduct has the purpose or effect of substantially interfering with an individual’s performance on the job or in the classroom, or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work or study environment.” (From Phyllis Crocker in Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 1983.)

8. Definition According to UTD According to the UTD handbook, Sexual harassment is found at: http://www.utdallas.edu/utdgeneral/business/hr/sexual_harassment.htm (Remember to close your browser to come back to this module.)

9. Main Issue in Sexual Harassment The main issue with sexual harassment is that is an unethical abuse of power between someone with power over another person. In academic settings, the faculty-student and administrator- faculty relationships are not balanced in power.

10. Sexual Harassment is a Perception It is important to remember that sexual harassment happens from the Aggrieved person’s PERCEPTION. In other words, a behavior or comment is considered sexual harassment if the STUDENT feels harassed. The faculty member’s intent in doing or saying something is not important relative to the student’s perception of being harassed.

11. Behaviors of Sexual Harassment What are exact behaviors of sexual harassment? Obvious behaviors are: • Touching • Targeted verbal propositions

12. Not So Obvious Behaviors Not so obvious behaviors might be: • Sexist jokes or stories • Sexual jokes or stories • Innuendos • Showing explicit media (e.g. showing an ad of a nude man in a mass media class) • Staring

13. Types of Effects of Sexual Harassment According to psychologist Linda Manning, there are three kinds of effects of sexual harassment: • Effects on the victim • Effects on the harasser • Effects on the university community

14. Effects on the Victim Effects on the victim include: • Powerlessness • Humiliation • Stress • Sense of betrayal • Depression As a result of sexual harassment a student might drop a course, change a major, quit a job, or perform poorly academically.

15. Effects on the Harasser Effects on the harasser include: • Embarrassment • Loss of professional credibility • Possible termination • Lawsuits

16. Effects on the University Community Effects on the university community Include: • Public relations problems • Possible loss of students • Lawsuits • Possible loss of federal funding

17. What Can You Do to Prevent Sexual Harassment? • Read the UTD policy carefully. • Put a written policy against discrimination in your syllabus • Encourage students to make you aware of any breach of your policy • Avoid using sexist comments or stereotypes

18. What Else Can You Do? • Be aware of students’ perceptions of your power and the impact of your behavior on students. • Before making statements or showing images in class, consider all ways students might interpret them. • Respond immediately to students’ concerns or complaints .

19. Summary Now you know that sexual harassment is based on a power imbalance between faculty and students and others in the UTD community. You’ve thought about the fact that what constitutes sexual harassment is a perception and not the intent of the faculty member.

20. Summary, cont’d You recognize that sexual harassment not only includes obvious behaviors and comments; it also includes behaviors like staring, or even showing media with stereotypical images. You have thought about ways to avoid sexual harassment in your teaching.

21. Conclusion In the first beginning example, even though the professor and graduate student were off campus, he was still her professor and thus he had power over her grade for the semester. This is a clear case of sexual harassment.

22. Conclusion, cont’d The second beginning example was definitely sexual harassment and could have resulted in a workplace lawsuit. Sexual harassment does not only happen between faculty and students; it can happen at many levels in the university setting.

23. Conclusion, cont’d The third beginning example is a potential problem. If any student in the classroom feels uncomfortable about seeing the nearly nude female models in the advertisement, there could be complaints of sexual harassment. This is a gray area in which faculty are to use good judgment. Click here to test what you’ve learned.

24. Which of the following is the basis for sexual harassment? • Men and women learning in the same classrooms. • Power imbalances. • Lecherous professors. • Loss of professional courtesy. Check your answer.

25. Which of the following is the basis for sexual harassment? • Men and women learning in the same classrooms. • Power imbalances. • Lecherous professors. • Loss of professional courtesy.

26. Sexual harassment is not based on __________ but rather is a result of _____________. • Words, an action • Intent, a perception • Gender, sexual intent • What you say, how you say it Check your answer

27. Sexual harassment is not based on __________ but rather is a result of _____________. • Words, an action • Intent, a perception • Gender, sexual intent • What you say, how you say it

28. Which of the following is NOT a possible consequence of sexual harassment? • Loss of federal funding • Loss of professional standing • Lawsuits • Apologies Check your answer

29. Which of the following is NOT a possible consequence of sexual harassment? • Loss of federal funding • Loss of professional standing • Lawsuits • Apologies To exit this module, press the <esc> key.