Monday, November 21, 2011

Conflicts of Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is a problem in our society with many different sides and opinions surrounding it. Katie Roiphe's article "In Favor of Dirty Jokes and Risqué Remarks" is an opinion piece based on debates about this problem. From a sociological standpoint, the conflict theory is a great way to analyze Roiphe's article, and the issue of sexual harassment in general, because of the conflictions within the problem.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/opinion/sunday/sex-harassment-what-on-earth-is-that.html

The most obvious conflict is between the men and woman in question, as most sexual harassment cases happen between the two genders. When we think of gender discrimination we almost always think of men exploiting women, but men are being discriminated against too. This is an underlying conflict of the widespread assumption that it is always men sexually harassing women. Why is it perceived differently when men make a derogatory sexist comment than when women do? This article suggests that it is because women are seen as fragile, but Roiphe argues, "the majority of women in the workplace are not tender creatures and are largely adept at dealing with all varieties of uncomfortable or hostile situations. Show me a smart, competent young professional woman who is utterly derailed by a verbal unwanted sexual advance or an inappropriate comment about her appearance, and I will show you a rare spotted owl" (Roiphe). According to this author, the general view of women as fragile and easily offended conflicts with the reality of their strength. Is this conflict making it easier for women in the workplace to take advantage of remarks made by their coworkers?

Classifying such remarks is a conflict of its own. People may take offense to other kinds of rude jokes or mean remarks, but we don't classify it as illegal until a sexual reference is included. Roiphe doesn't think that we should necessarily be legislating against these flirtations in the workplace when "we don't legislate against [other] meanness, or power struggles, or political maneuvering, or manipulation in offices" (Roiphe).

Using the conflict theory as a tool to identify why sexual harassment is happening in the workplace provides some interesting insight. Some statistics gathered by the Equal Employment opportunity Commission (EEOC) show that of the women participating in this poll that had been harassed, 43% of them were harassed by a supervisor, 27% by an employee senior to them, 19% by a coworker at their level, and only 8% were harassed by a junior employee. The statistics also show that the number of sexual harassment complaints from men has more than tripled in recent years. (Statistics can be found at

http://www.sexualharassmentlawfirms.com/Sexual-Harassment-statistics.cfm). I don't think that these days men are three times as more willing to file complaints about sexual harassment, suggesting that these numbers of sexually harassed men have always been this high they just weren't saying anything, I think it is because more women are reaching positions of power in the workplace, thus harassing men below them. Much of the problem is coming from conflict between people in positions of power and those working below them. The percentages of harassment cases very clearly decrease with positions of power, according to these statistics. If this is true in most cases, I think the issue that needs to be addressed is less about sexually offending someone and more about issues with power and control in positions of authority.

This author suggests that life wouldn't change, if not improve, if restrictions against sexual harassment weren't so strict. I wonder if we would see more or less problems with harassment if these rules were changed. In my opinion, much of the progress will come with time. During World War II, women had to take the men’s' places in the workplace as they went to war. When they returned many of the women stayed. This was a new concept to men during that time period, but it's become much more commonplace to have women in the workplace today. When we hear the phrase 'sexual harassment', the first conflict that comes to mind will usually be men vs. women, but I think the conflicts being shadowed by this initial thought may be more important to recognize.

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