Sexual Harassment: A Health Hazard for Women Workers

Conley Frances , Lecturer at Schlesinger Lib, Oct 23, 1991.

Telephone conversation with Ronald Ratney, Northeast Regional Administrator for OSHA, October 23, 1991, Boston, Ma.

Emery Margaret . “The Price of Saying No,” People, Oct 1991, p. 44–50.

Crull Peggy , “The Impact of Sexual Harassment on the Job: A Profile of the Experiences of 92 Women,” in Sexuality in Organizations: Romantic and Coercive Behavior at Work, ed. Neugarten Dail and Shafritz Jay , Oak Dale, IL, Moore Pub. Co (1980), 67–71. Also see Farley Lin , Sexual Shakedown: The Sexual Harassment of Women on the Job. New York, McGraw Hill, 1978. Gutek Barabara A. , Sex and the Workplace: The Impact of Sexual Behavior and Harassment on Women, Men and Organizations. S.F. Josey-Bass, 1985, and Hearn J. , and Parkin W. , ‘Sex’ at ‘Work’ The Power and Paradox of Organization Sexuality. Brighton, Wheatsheaf Books, 1987.

Kasinsky Goldsmith R. , “Rape, A Normal Act?” Canadian Forum, VoL XL, Sept 1975, and Glass Becky , “Workplace Harassment and the Victimization of Women,” Women Studies Int. Forum, 11, 1, 1988: 55–67.

Gutek B. , and Morasch , “Sex Ratios, Sex-Role Spillover, and Sexual Harassment of Women at Work,” Journal of Social Issues 38, No. 4, 55–74.

Crull Peggy , “Searching for the Causes of Sexual Harassment An Examination of Two Prototypes,” 225–244 in ed. Bose Felberg , and Sokoloff ,. Hidden Aspects of Women's Work,. New York, Praeger, 1987.

Safran Claire , “What Men Do to Women at Work,” Redbook, Nov. 1976.

Merit Systems Protection Board , Sexual Harassment in the Federal Workplace: Is It A Problem? 1981, 2–3 and An Update, 1988,39.

Collins E.G.C. , and Blodgett T. , “Sexual Harassment — Some See It —Some Won't,” Harvard Business Review, 59, 2, 1981, 76–95.

Frankel Paul , “Bared Buttocks and Federal Cases,” Society, May/June 1991, 4–7. These figures may suggest that the most sexualized organizations may be found in institutions which officially have sexual prohibitions. An interesting theme to pursue in future research.

People, Oct. 28, 1991, p 46.

People, Talk at Schlesinger Library, Oct 23, 1991. As a result of actions taken by the Dean of Stanford School of Medicine, Dr. Conley returned to her job.

Schroedel Jean Reith , Alone in a Crowd: Women in the Trades Tell Their Stories, Philadelphia: Temple U. Press, 1985, 64–75, 70–71.

It is no accident that the court cases began to surface in the mid-'70s when women began to join the untraditional work force in larger numbers See Gutek , “Sex and the Workplace” and, Hearn/Parkin , “Sex” at “Work.”

Feminist theorists Liz Kelly and Elizabeth Stanko also present the behavior of sexual harassment as part of a continuum of sexual violence. They argue that nonroutine assaults such as rape are extensions of the more commonplace intrusions of sexual harassment. Stanko Elizabeth , Intimate Intrusions: Women's Experience of Male Violence, London: Rutledge & Kegan, Paul, 1985, 59–69, 70–82. Kelly Liz , Surviving Sexual Violence. Minneapolis: U. of Minnesota Press, 1988, 97–137

Strebeigh Fred , New York Times Magazine, Oct 6, 1991. See also MacKinnon Catharine , Sexual Harassment of Working Women, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979. In Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson. 1986, the Supreme Court ruled that hostile environment as well as quid pro quo was sex discrimination.

Crull Peggy , “Sexual Harassment and Women's Health,” p. 111 in ed. Chavkin Wendy , Double Exposure Women's Health Hazards on the Job and at Home, New York Monthly Review Press, 1984. There is little empirical systematic evidence on the question of causality establishing a link between sexual harassment and stress symptoms. It suggests an important area of future research.

Crull Peggy , “Sexual Harassment and Women's Health” p. 107.

Reith Schroedel , Alone in a Crowd, p 59–60.

Crull Peggy , “Searching for the Causes of Sexual Harassment,” p. 236. (Lipsett v. University of Puerto Rico) 1983; Sexual Harassment Brief Bank , 1985, p. 279; Gnyette v. Stauffer Chemical Co. )

Brewer John , “Policewomen in the RUC,” British Journal of Sociology, VoL 42, No 2, June 1991, 231–248,239.

Gruber James and Bjorn Lars , “Blue Collar Blues: The Sexual Harassment of Women Autoworkers,” Work and Occupations 9, No 3, August 1982: 271–98 p 288–95.

Schroedel , Alone in a Crowd 132–139 134–135,138. I was not able to cover the effects of race and sexual harassment in this paper. See Ellis Judy , “Sexual Harrassment and Race,” J. of Legislation 8, (1) 1981, 30–45, Gruber J. , and Bjorn Lars , “Blue Collar Blues.”

Wescott Gail , People, 46.

Balamaci Marilyn , People, 44–45.

Merit Protection Board , Sexual Harassment in the Federal Workplace, p 75–84.

Working Women , (1988) cited in Schafran Lynn , “The Harsh Lessons of Professor Hill,” New York Times, Forum, Sun., Oct. 13, 1991, F13.

Conley Frances Dr. , Schlesinger Library lecture, Oct 23, 1991.

Estrich Susan “Sex At Work,” Stanford Law Review 43 (April 1991) 813–861 p. 860.

Gutek Barbara , Sex & The Workplace, “The Impact of Sexual Behavior and Harassment on Women, Men and Organization,” 174.

Coal Employment Project , “Sexual Harassment in the Mines: Legal Rights, Legal Remedies,” AFSME , “On the Job Sexual Harassment What the Union Can Do;” and Modern Language Association of America , “Sexual and Gender Harassment in the Academy: A Guide for Faculty, Students and Administrators,” New York, 1981.

Brown Alex , and Sheridan Laurie , “Pioneering Women's Committee Struggles With Hard Times,” Labor Research Review, Spring, 1988, 63–77, p. 68–69. It is one of the oldest union women's committees in the country, established in 1987. It took root in one of the oldest, most democratic and progressive union locals in the labor movement.

Brown A. , and Sheridan Laurie , ibid., p 69.

Harvard University and Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (AFSCME, AFL-CIO) Personnel Manual, July 1,1989, 38–43.