Have you ever witnessed someone in a workplace setting being abused sexually due to their type of sex? The majority of people who work in offices and workplace settings have said that they have witnessed first-hand harassment of the female sex from the more dominated male sex (Johnson). Over the course of many generations, women have usually been seen as to stay in the home and only cook, clean, and take care of the kids. Usually, in these situations, the dominant male in the family is the breadwinner and makes the money that the family needs to have to live a nice life off of. As more generations passed, more and more women is starting to leave the kitchen and finally get jobs in office buildings and workplace environments. With more women entering the workplace, there was a high level of harassment that was directed toward a woman in many different forms from their male counterparts. These attacks were categorized as harassment.
Sexual harassment in the workplace may be understood as unwanted sexual advances or obscene acts or language. Sexual harassment represents one of the ways in which someone in the workplace attempt to assert their dominance over another through aggressive behavior. Many times, women cannot speak if they are being harassed because of pressure, and shame. Maybe the boss said that this can get her promotion which is why she would have kept quiet. All this harassment and stress can cause many health problems for women. They can suffer from depression, they can get post-traumatic disorder, high or low blood pressure, sleep problems, and miscarriages if pregnant. These harassments can have negative effects on women and make them feel very uncomfortable. So, to what extent does harassment in companies affect women and their health? Harassment covers a wide range of offensive or unwanted behavior in order to make other people uncomfortable.
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Most often women are the victims of harassment and the offenders are male. Harassment is a form of illegal and discrimination and all the human rights laws prohibit this act, but the ratio of harassment is continuously increasing although laws are present in our society. Victims of harassment often suffer emotional and psychological harm, including stress, depression, and anxiety. They often experience decreased confidence and self-esteem. Physical health problems may arise such as loss of sleep and appetite, weight fluctuations, nausea, and headaches. Castner, Jessica has a PhD in Nursing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Master's in Public Health Nursing from the University of Missouri-Columbia and Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Marquette University. She states that gender harassment, and retaliation for addressing discrimination, are pervasive in the higher education setting. “A 2018 National Academies of Sciences, Medicine, and Engineering report provides the much-needed action blueprint for academic sector-wide improvements.” (Castner, 2019, Paragraph 1) Healthy work environments that prevent and eliminate gender harassment are necessary to fully support the leadership, career trajectories, and contributions of women in academic roles, including academic nursing.
A synthesis of the evidence reveals that gender bias, even when subtle, results in limited hiring, promotion, and leadership opportunities for women in academia. (Castner, 2019) An experienced, with harassment, can either trigger symptoms of depression and anxiety that are new to the person; or it can exacerbate a previous condition that may have been controlled or resolved. Patients may also see a worsening of symptoms. Someone going through or dealing with the aftermath of sexual harassment may also exhibit symptoms of PTSD, especially if the harassment leads to violence and/or assault. The effects of harassment on workers can also in turn hurt organizations by affecting worker morale, productivity, absenteeism, turnover, organizational commitment, as well as the external reputation of the employer.
Effective prevention rests on a detailed analysis of the current context of workplace harassment and abuse, including the characteristics of perpetrators, worker profiles (e.g., age, race, sexual orientation), and the timing of harassment. Prevention strategies include clearly stated company policies that provide workers and supervisors with proper training and sanctioned tools to respond to abuse and abusers. Illegal sexual harassment falls under the umbrella of a more comprehensive category, discriminatory behavior. Both women and men can and do experience all three forms of sexual harassment, but some subgroups face higher rates than others. For example, women who are lesbian or bisexual, women who endorse gender-egalitarian beliefs, and women who are stereotypically masculine in behavior, appearance, or personality experience sexual harassment at higher rates than other women. Likewise, men who are gay, transgender, petite, or in some way perceived as “not man enough” encounter more harassment than other men. Note that sexual harassment is often ambient, meaning it is “not clearly targeted at any individual or group of individuals” in the work or education environment or behavior that goes beyond the direct target of the harassment.
Harassment is determined by a general frequency of sexually harassing behavior experienced by others and can include all types of sexually harassing behavior. For example, it can include pornography being displayed in a common area or sexually abusive language being used publicly in the work or education environment. Ambient unwanted sexual attention and sexual coercion refer to observed instances of unwanted sexual pursuit, targeted at a fellow employee. In other words, one need not be personally targeted to feel the effects of harassment (much like second-hand smoke). Some researchers further define the verbal insults associated with gender harassment, along with accompanying nonverbal affronts, as microaggressions. This term refers to “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative” (Paragraph 9) messages to or about historically stigmatized groups. This term can also be broken down into three categories: micro assaults, microinsults, and microinvalidations. There is some concern that microaggression remains a poorly defined construct, with porous boundaries.
Additionally, the use of the term micro is misleading, as it implies all these experiences are minor or imperceptible acts. Yet some microaggressions, such as referring to people by using offensive names, are obviously offensive and can be deeply damaging. Similarly, the root word aggression is also misleading, as most experts reserve this term for behavior that carries intent to harm. For these reasons, our committee chose to focus on incivility, a term in greater use in the workplace aggression literature. (Sciences, National Academies, 2018)Schultz, V is a Ford Foundation Professor of Law and the Social Sciences, Yale Law School. The author distinguishes her and the libertarian's concept of sexual harassment law, as well as presents the issue of harassment in the workplace in the U.S. The author agrees with libertarians that many companies are prohibiting sexual conduct and expression in the name of sexual harassment law. (Schultz, 2006) Just like in the Myth of Sisyphus, men are acting absurd by harassing women. In the myth, the author’s philosophy of the absurd is introduced. Man's futile search for meaning, unity, and clarity in the face of an unintelligible world devoid of God and eternal truths or values. In philosophy, 'the Absurd' refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek inherent value and meaning in life and the human inability to find any in a purposeless, meaningless or chaotic and irrational universe.
The harassment shows a person’s inability to understand the cruel reality of abuse, and how meaningless thing it is. (Camus, 1955) Harassment can also wreak havoc on a victim’s job performance and career trajectory. Fear and decreased confidence can cause some people to withdraw from the workplace and disengage from co-workers. They are more likely to be tardy, absent, distracted, and neglect duties. If victims of harassment report the harassment, they may suffer advancement setbacks such as being passed over for promotions, being left out of key meetings, retaliation, and being labeled a troublemaker. Financial problems like lost wages and unpaid leave are also possible. Begum, N is a lecturer, Department of Management, Bangladesh University of Business & Technology. Sarmin, S is an Assistant Professor, Department of Management, Bangladesh University of Business & Technology. They state that women empowerment mainly emphasizes the participation of women in all aspects of life; economic, social, cultural, political, legal, and psychological.
This research examined the impact of ready-made garment industry on women empowerment considering 12 garment companies located in Gazipur district of Bangladesh by applying the feminist theories of economics and liberal feminism. “A sample of 360...women workers have been used for this study. Analysis indicated that the relationship between RMG industry and women empowerment has been found to be positive while not all the factors exhibited statistical significance but most of the factors exhibited statistical significance.”(Begum & Sarmin, 2016, Paragraph 1) Current study has also found that women workers of the RMG industry are well capable of performing their duties in-line with their male counterparts and have significantly changed their societal status. Therefore, the conclusion is that the RMG industry has a positive impact on women's empowerment. (Begum & Sarmin, 2016) J. Howard Miller made the poster of Rosie the Riveter “we can do it” poster. It represents how women are capable of doing anything they want.
This poster supports the argument of Begum and Sarmin about women's empowerment. This poster boosts female power and confidence that they can do anything they set their mind on and nothing can stop them. Even if it has to do with fighting for women harassment (We Can Do It, 1942). Abusive and harassment, no matter what type, are the most important issues that need to be focused in order to empower women. The prospect is significant and needs to be maintained by the combined actions from individuals, families, societies, and governments. (Begum & Sarmin, 2016) There are many ways women harassment can be fought off. For example, self-defense training, and laws, but the only way to officially stop it is by educating people. that contribute to a welcoming culture where everyone feels they are valuable team members and also attract talented job applicants. A company harassment policy should: Define harassment and give examples, state that harassment is not tolerated, explain the harassment reporting system with a designated HR person for reporting claims, communicate the disciplinary consequences of harassment, outline the investigation and remediation process, state that retaliation against employees reporting harassment is prohibited.
Employers must hold employees, and themselves, to high standards. Everyone deserves a workplace free from harmful harassment, and all employees should be expected to behave like professional adults while on the job. Not only could workplace harassment lead to expensive lawsuits, it creates a toxic culture that cripples team cohesion and harms productivity.(Schultz, 2006) Another way is to be a reasonable person. If a person in the same or similar circumstances would find the conduct intimidating, or abusive, then it's probably harassment. It includes consideration of the perspective of persons of the same race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, or disability as the harassment victim. For example, if a female employee complains of harassment, make that you take the perspective of a woman, not a man, when deciding. If, in the perspective of another woman, you would find this conduct harassing, it probably is. It is very important to be able to identify the situation before acting, so you do not get hurt as well while helping others. Another thing that can be done is to have classes in companies that explain a woman's life and how harassment affects her. Make them think that if someone was to abusive their sister, mother, or daughter, how would they feel. Would they want this to happen to someone in their family? If not, then why would someone else want it to happen to theirs. Yes, laws can help, but if laws were that powerful and effective then we wouldn’t have any criminals and laws can’t always prevent someone from doing something wrong, but it does remind them about the consequences. It is true that this can take quite a long time, a few years or more, but the feeling of guilt because of this understanding, and enlightenment about this cruel approach is the best way to pull the plant of harassment out of its roots.