Sexual Harassment In Sport

Sexual harassment is always a legal topic in the work environment because the ramifications are so severe, but at the same time very abstract to describe what can constitute sexual harassment. This paper will take into consideration different elements of the law including Employment Law and cases tried before the U.S. Supreme Court. It will also offer suggestions for corrective action pertaining to the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace.

In addition, the institutional culture of the athletic department permitted in an unconscious way for these sexual abuses to continue. However, drastic measures need to be administered to coaches in order to limit their power over the schools. The Facts and the Institutional Culture

Continuing to brain wash the young men today with the “sports is a mans world” mentality only helps to repeat the cycle of nearly oppressing women in the industry. It keeps men feeling secure when it comes to their masculinity, yet making a woman’s fight for respect a never ending struggle.

Harassment, specifically sexual harassment, is one of those challenges faced by businesses and employers as of a result of workplace diversification. Inappropriate conversations, unwanted advances and uncomfortable physical contact are some of the ways sexual harassment can occur. According to Hellriegel and Slocum, “Sexual harassment refers to unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.” (p.52). To be clear, sexual harassment can, and has, affected both women and men over the years however up to half of all working women have reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment in the career (Vijayasiri, 2008, p.1). It wasn’t until 1986 though that the Supreme Court recognized sexual harassment as a violation of Title VII in the case of Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (O’Brien, 1994, p. 1). Before the high court’s ruling, however, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had begun to address the issue by drafting hostile work environment guidelines that included sexual harassment (O’Brien, 1994, p. 4). These guidelines would serve later to guide the high court’s decision. There are many more cases like this one we could look at. In 1991, sexual harassment became a household term as Anita Hill testified before congress stating she was sexually

Recently, there was a major bullying scandal, not in a school, or a playground, but within one of the franchises of the NFL. The case involved two of the Miami Dolphins offensive linemen, Jonathan Martin and Richie Incognito. Richie Incognito was accused of verbally abusing Jonathan Martin, as well as sending threatening text messages and voicemails. As this story was coming to light, rumors arose that it was at the direction of the coaching staff to toughen up Martin and to make him “more of a man.” These rumors were never proven to be true, but because of the public’s perception of the culture of football, and the NFL in particular, the rumors seemed believable. Many players made statements in support of Richie Incognito, saying that many of the things said in that locker room were said across the league. They said it was just a part of the culture of the game and that Martin “broke the code” when he left the team. This lack of concern from many of the players in the league leads to the question of what role masculinity plays in professional sports like the NFL. In a league where reputation is everything, whether it is related to on-field intimidation or simply to lead to a big contract, how does masculinity shape this reputation and the league itself?

When you are a part of Greek life you are popular. In professional sports, with men sports the National Football League, National Basketball Association, Major Baseball League etc., there is a history of hazing to accept new rookies into the league. Even though, the organization have dangerous activities, but ignore outrageous events they may have to endure to become part of the organization. Hazing is classified into three types subtle, violent, and harassment. Subtle hazing is mainly deception, or not having to do the same thing other new members had to do. These falls under “reasonable hazing” to others, but to me it is not. With subtle hazing when a pledge is lining up you could call a guy run a lap but referring to him as a girl. Mainly, required greeting of members in a specific manner when seen on campus. With harassment hazing is causes stress, a relative degree of discomfort, physically or emotionally, to the new members

Sports have always been an intrical part of America's culture and society, from playing baseball in the front yard to knocking a homerun out of the ballpark, but this playing in the fields only applied to boys. Unfortunately, before Title Nine was established in 1972, there was a great deal of harassment towards women playing educational sports. This new amendment to the Civil Acts, broke down the barriers for women, and demanded proportionality between men's and women's athletic programs. Due to the way of society 35 years ago, Title Nine was necessary for women to receive equal rights in educational sports.

When talking about the profession of athletic training, the first thing that always came to my mind regarding sexual harassment was an act made by a professional athletic trainer towards a student- athlete. After reading this articles, I learned that sexual harassment does not always only effect a student-athlete, but it may also effect other individuals, including “coaches, athletic administrators, certified athletic trainers, athletic training students, therapists, and other health-care professionals as well”.1 The statistic that struck me the most when reading the “Perceptions of Sexual Harassment in Athletic Training” article was that during a survey of 525 undergraduates, almost 29 percent of men reported that they were sexually harassed by a collegiate professor at least one time”.2 Whenever I hear of sexual harassment, my first instinct is that the victim of the sexual harassment is a female, but after reading the articles I realized that many males are also affected by sexual

Male student athletes make up 3.3% of the population but are responsible for 19% of sexual assaults and 35% of domestic violence.  One in three college sexual assaults are committed by an athlete or athletes.  From 1995 to 1998 there were an average of one hundred sexual assault charges against athletes a year.  In 1995, 8.5% of the general population charged with a crime were sexual assault, 36.8% of crimes involving athletes were sexual assault.  The general population conviction rate is 80%, athlete conviction rate is 38%.(NCAVA)  Since not all rapes are reported we can assume that these numbers are much higher.  Most athlete rapes are acquaintance rapes.  Many of the women blame themselves and do not report the crime.  These are very scary statistics.  Proving that there is a problem and steps need to be taken to change these statistics.

Harassment has plagued the world for centuries. Why should the workplace be any different? Sexual harassment and workplace violence are not only of historical roots, but contemporary issues are still present in the workforce today. Managers are addressing and combating modern sexual harassment and workplace violence, however instances still occur (Robbins, Decenzo & Coulter, 2011).

Sexual harassment is a demeaning practice, one that constitutes a profound affront to the dignity of the employees forced to endure it.  By requiring an employee to contend with unwelcome sexual actions or explicit sexual demands, sexual harassment in the workplace attacks the dignity and self-respect of the victim both as an employee and as a human being. Sexual harassment is well defined as an unwelcome sexual request for sexual favors and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature. In many countries, sexual harassment is considered a form of sexual abuse and employment discrimination. Sexual harassment is most prevalent is organizations both professional and academic, though it can occur almost anywhere.

Work place policies regarding sexual harassment is the main issue discussed in this article. Sexual harassment has continued to be a challenge within the workplace. According to a recent review of sexual harassment related resolutions, employers have paid over $732,976.00 in sexual harassment fines (Hobson, Szostek, & Fitzgerald, 2015). The EEOC has issued written guidelines for appropriate strategies employers should use to handle workplace sexual harassment and specific ways to address it. It is the employer’s duty to proactively work to protect all employees from any type of sexual harassment by following sexual harassment policies and procedures that are put in place. Failure to implement and follow the policy and procedure in the workplace can and most likely will lead to liability should an EEOC investigation or lawsuit occur. The employer needs to disperse copies of the policies and procedures and post them in central locations throughout the organization and address sexual harassment in the employee handbooks. The policy and procedures need to clear

Harassers can do a lot more than just physically hurt their victims. The embarrassment, shame, anxiety and other emotional problems that inevitably occur from being sexual harassed is disturbing and infuriating. Sexual harassment occurs anywhere a person could go; is that not a scary thought to people, especially women, everywhere? Knowing this statement is true makes sexual harassment an injustice that needs to be stopped.

Providing training about harassment has proven beneficial to the business environment. As the former EEOC Chairman stated “Sex harassment has developed as one of the great lessons in how education can have an effect on an offensive practice.” There are education campaigns educating not only employees but employers about what harassment entails, how to prevent it, and how to deal with a claim. (Glazer, 1996) In fact, most

Sexual harassment in the workplace is a huge problem in recent history. It can happen to anyone and it can happen everywhere. It can affect all types of races, gender and age. Statistics today shows that more and more sexual harassment has become an issue due to the large number of cases presented. Mainstream media becomes consume covering sexual harassment because of the high profile cases. Sexual harassment becomes a topic on various TV shows, and on some major morning radio talk shows mostly everyday. Sexual harassment laws must be strengthened in order to fix what has become a serious problem today in the workplace.