Introduction
Sexual harassment is generally characterized as unwelcome sex-related actions which are considered offensive by the victim and which surpass one's coping abilities or endanger one 's health. This includes unwelcome verbal and non-verbal sexual activities, as well as unwanted physical actions that are difficult for the individual to deal with or handle. Sexual assault also involves attempted sexual assault, attempted rape and rape. Sexual harassment and assault at work bring an enormous personal impact on women's lives. Women who are victims may experience a lot of negative impacts such as physical and mental health issues, career disruptions and lower earnings. Furthermore, sexual assault can affect or prevent women from entering into better paying jobs. It can also overlap with other types of bigotry and abuse for way of race or ethnicity, sexual identity, or age.
This research paper highlights how workplace sexual assault impacts the economic development and safety of women. It also provides approaches to prevent sexual harassment and to decrease the terrible effect of violence on individuals.
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Job Conditions Associated with High Rates of Harassment
Recognizing work related elements linked to a high chance of sexual harassment and work associated assault might also assist to end sexual harassment in unique areas and situations. There are some key threat elements which include:
- Working in an isolated place. Many employees, such as lady janitors, domestic workers, and farmworkers, who mostly operate in isolated spaces, face higher rates of sexual harassment (Fernandaz Campbol 2018; Yeung and Rubensten 2013; Yeung 2015). Isolation leaves women unprotected to individuals who might feel powerful due to lack of witnesses.
- Working in a job controlled by men. About six out of ten women working in construction were harassed or asked for sex as stated in a survey in the nineties. (LeBreton and Loevy 1992). Also, the 2014 RAND army sexual assault and harassment study estimated that in the previous year 26 percent of active female participants were sexually harassed or discriminated because of their gender. (National Defense Research 2014).
- Lack of legal immigrant status or having a temporary visa for jobs only. Undocumented employees or others on temporary work permits can also be at risk of abuse. Clothing factories, Farming, and housekeeping services are areas in which many females who are unregistered and immigrants work. Which places them at a high chance of being harassed. Individuals that have been sexually assaulted in a place of work and file complaints have equal protection from deportation as survivors of domestic violence via U visa (Hyunhye Cho 2014). But still, there are those who believe their legal status would be put at risk by reporting abuse or attack. Some may even not know their rights, or may find it difficult to get legal support without speaking english properly. Actions against people who complain of sexual assault in the workplace can also include threats of notifying Immigration or canceling temporary job visas.
Sexual Harassment can Effect Individuals
Harassment can affect a person in many ways, such as harming them mentally and bodily health, also their chances to improve in their careers. And it can ruin their life in countless ways.
Negative outcomes mental and physical wellbeing
Few research shows that sexual harassment has bad mental health effects and can lead to depression, one study mentioned that one in ten women who experienced harassment gone through so much that they met the definition of PTSD. These results can sometimes last for many years even after the harassment (Houle et al. 2011). Harassment can have a bad impact on psychological well being and behaviors at work even if it is less severe. Besides that, researchers have found that abuse also can lead to higher risks of workplace injuries by disrupting employees when working in dangerous jobs (Sugerman 2018). These negative effects can result in major costs for mental and physical health services.
Forced to change well-paying jobs
Unemployment is a big issue for some women because they feel like they have to leave work because of sexual harassment before finding a new job (The Nation 2018). Also study suggests that there is a big connection between harassment and job shift, round eight in ten ladies who faced sexual harassment started a new job within two years after being harassed. As a result of that job change, they were in significant financial stress.
Harassment has resulted in economic pressure even when women were able to discover work quickly after they left their old job (McLaughlin, Uggen, and Blackstone 2017).
Opportunities reduced
Becoming a professional employee in many professions and improving one's career relies on the job guidance and mentorship of previous qualified employees. Harassment can prevent women from having access to these learning possibilities (Sugerman 2018). For women in the academic sciences, medicine, and engineering, study shows that harassment affects their profession improvement by leading them to give up opportunities, even drop out of important projects, or step down from management possibilities. (Nation Academy of Sciences 2018).
Guidlines on Preventing Sexual Harassment in a Workplace:
Providing tools and awareness and installing modern technology to prevent and tackle sexual harassment in the workplace is crucial to making workplaces safer for all workers.
- • Employers need assess the potential risks that may be to related to sexual harassment and abuse, and perform surveys to find out to what extent harassment is a problem within their organization.
- • Employers should place strict and detailed anti harassment policies, and regularly communicate those policies to the staff.
- • Employers must instruct supervisors and middle management about how to respond to sexual harassment circumstances correctly.
- • Employers should provide instruction on behavior and mutual respect in the workplace and instruction on recognizing a potentially harmful situation. And how to respond to it.
- • Labor unions need to make sure that they comply with the equal necessities and reporting systems.
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