Unraveling, Understanding, and Complying with Sexual Harassment Laws Today

Unraveling, Understanding, and Complying

With Sexual Harassment Laws Today

In 1986, the case of Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, was presented to the United States Supreme Court. In its first ruling on sexual harassment, the court changed our working environment forever when they determined that sexual harassment, including a hostile work environment, was an illegal form of employment discrimination (Felder 306).

The Civil Rights Act, passed in 1964 by Lyndon Johnson, was the first federal law that would eventually make discrimination against women illegal. It is interesting that when the original civil rights bill was introduced it did not include discrimination against gender. According to Lynne Eisaguirre, author of Sexual Harassment, “Discrimination based on gender is attached to the bill at the last moment, when conservative Southern opponents introduced an amendment prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex; they assume that adding sexuality equality is so preposterous that the amendment will scuttle the entire bill…The Johnson administration wants the Civil Rights Act passed so badly that it decides not to oppose the amendment.” The passing of this federal law opened the door for employees to seek judicial remedies for violations of their legal rights.

The term sexual harassment was actually coined in the 70’s when women entered the workforce in record numbers. In a 1991 edition of CQ Researcher, Charles Clark wrote “The 1970s ushered in an era of dramatic efforts to curb workplace discrimination of all forms. The classic scenario of bosses blackmailing subordinates for sex has steadily broadened. Legally defined sexual harassment now includes lascivious comments, off-color jokes and 'leering,' murky areas that raise debates over freedom of speech. . . many companies have adopted guidelines and grievance procedures. Still, courts are crowded with sexual harassment cases.” Three predominant cases in the 1970s, Miller v. Bank of America, Corne v. Bausch & Lomb, and Barnes v. Train, failed miserably when the courts interpreted “sexual harassment based on sex as a ‘personal matter’ between two individuals, and not as action directed