Definition of Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment is a concept that has become a growing concern globally as it occurs in all areas of life and also in the workplace (Chaudhuri, 2007). Sexual harassment can take many different forms, overt or covert, and behavior perceived as sexual harassment may be characterized differently by everyone. Therefore, it is difficult to make a precise and common definition of sexual harassment (Sarmaşık, 2009). However, in general sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature (Scholcoff et al., 2020). Although sexual harassment may seem like a situation that only concerns the abused person, it is actually a social phenomenon. It is because sexual harassment shows that there is a situation arising from inequality between the sexes (Durmuş, 2013).
Sexual harassment, which could be seen on the street, on travel and even in the family and which could be exposed by people whom the person knows or does not know, may also be perpetrated by colleagues or managers in the workplace. With the continuation of sexual harassment cases in different sectors for the last 30 years, more women are exposed to sexual harassment as more women join the workforce nowadays (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, 2018). In the United States, more than a quarter of women reported having been sexually harassed at work (Edison Research, 2018).
On the other hand, sexual harassment in the workplace is any undesirable sexual behavior that is perceived as a threat, border violation and attack by the exposed person, negatively affecting the employee's ability to do his/her job (Adams et al., 2019; Çelik & Şenol Çelik, 2007). Sexual harassment is a term often used to describe the unwanted sexual attitudes and behaviors of men towards women in the workplace. Unwanted touching, speaking, insinuation, actions and attitudes are considered within the scope of sexual harassment. However, it is also possible for women, albeit to a lesser extent, to perpetrate passive sexual harassment by provoking men at a disturbing level (Arslan, 2001). Sexual harassment in the workplace has been handled from different perspectives by different countries and has been accepted as gender discrimination, violation of personal rights or abuse of power (authority) in order to gain sexual interest (Bakırcı, 2000). However, fundamentally, workplace violence and harassment are violations of basic human rights (International Labour Organization, 2019).
There are some elements for a behavior to be defined as sexual harassment in the workplace. These are listed below:
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The behavior in question must occur in the workplace or in a work-related environment. Harassment that occurs while away from the workplace for business is also considered as sexual harassment in the workplace.
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The behavior must be about the person's gender, sexuality or sexually suggestive subjects. A word expressing gender discrimination or anecdotes containing sexuality can be evaluated within this scope.
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The behavior must be done without the will or consent of the person was harassed.
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It must affect the person's working conditions or working environment. The behavior of a manager who dismisses or does not promote the employee that does not accept his offer of sexual intercourse or the decrease in the work efficiency of an employee due to the behaviors can be given as examples for these matters.
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For some behaviors, it must be a continuous behavior. Sometimes a single behavior can be considered as sexual harassment, and for some behavior to be considered as sexual harassment, it must be a repetitive behavior such as a colleague who persistently invites to a dinner/coffee date despite being rejected.
If these elements occur in the workplace, they are described as “sexual harassment in the workplace”. However, in order for a behavior to be qualified as sexual harassment, it does not need to meet all the elements (Yeşiltaş, 2005).
Sexual assault is different from sexual harassment in that it “covers a range of unwanted behaviors – up to but not including penetration – that are attempted or completed against a victim’s will or when a victim cannot consent because of age, disability, or the influence of alcohol or drugs (United States Department of Justice, 2010). Sexual assault and sexual harassment in the workplace are global problems (Kearl, 2018; Shafran- Tikva et al., 2021; Smith & Ortiz 2021; Ulusoy et al., 2011; World Health Organization, 1997) that disproportionately affect women and can negatively affect their economic and career outcomes (Dougherty et al., 1996; McLaughlin et al., 2017). Approximately 40% of women in the United States, for example, indicated they received unwanted sexual advances or experienced sexual harassment in a professional or work setting (Graf, 2018). In studies examining the sexual harassment of nurses in Türkiye, it was determined that the rate of exposure to sexual harassment ranged from 1.5% to 75%.
Sexual harassment and related behaviors are intended to insult and humiliate the person (Berdahl, 2007) and at the same time, it is a show of power that is frequently used to intimidate or pressure the employee (Güngör, 1999 as cited in Sarmaşık, 2009). It is possible to evaluate this show of power as a product of the power of the manager to reward and punish, especially when one of the parties is in the position of manager (usually male) and the other in the position of employee (usually female). The fact that women are harassed by their subordinates even when they are in a managerial position can be explained by subordinates' traditional gender role perceptions of women and their efforts to “justify” these perceptions, as well as an attempt to “provide equality” (Solmus, 2005).
Toker and Sümer (2010), in their study to determine the perception of sexual harassment of female employees in Türkiye, revealed five different dimensions of sexual harassment in the workplace. These dimensions show parallelism with the results of studies conducted in the USA (Toker & Sümer, 2010). However, one of these dimensions, the “insinuation of interest” dimension, which does not explicitly include sexuality but includes an insinuation of interest towards women, is not found in studies conducted in the USA (Toker, 2016). The result of this study can be considered as an example of cultural differences in the interpretation of sexual harassment. In a study carried out with 49 female residents the most frequent act of harassment, “gazing at the physician in a lewd manner”, was reported by 51% of participants (Ulusoy et al., 2011). Similarly, in another study, 61.4% of the nurses reported that they were exposed to “gazing in a lewd manner” (Erdemir et al., 2011).