Sexual Harassment
Harassment refers to a wide spectrum of offensive behavior. When the term is used in a legal sense, it refers to behavior, which is found threatening or disturbing. The main categories of harassment, often recognized in law, include:
•    Sexual harassment (with a much stricter definition in the workplace). It involves unwanted and unwelcome, words, deeds, actions, gestures, symbols, or behaviors of a sexual nature that make the target feel uncomfortable
•    Legal harassment - Legal actions against an individual or a group, for example SLAPP suits


•    Psychological harassment - Repetitive unprovoked intrusions or interruptions. This can take the form of verbal comments, actions or gestures
•    Racial harassment - The targeting of an individual because of their race or ethnicity. This type of  harassment includes words, deeds, and actions
•    Religious harassment - Verbal, psychological or physical harassment is used against targets because they choose to practice a specific religion


•    Hate speech - Comments provably false or irrelevant which express or encourage hate towards a particular group
Sexual Harassment
In general, the law proscribes acts which are considered either sexual abuse, or behavior that the Government in a given country considers to be inappropriate and against the social norms. Sexual harassment is unwanted and unwelcome behavior, or attention, of a sexual nature that interferes with your life. The behavior may be direct or implied.  Sexual advances, such as repeated unwanted statements about sexual orientation or sexuality, invitations for dates, requests for sexual favors, persistent phone calls, notes, or gifts, and direct sexual contact such as physical touching, feeling, grabbing, impeding or blocking, or direct sexual assault or rape and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature all constitute sexual harassment. Sexual harassment can affect an individual’s work or university or school performance, and can create an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment.


Forms of Sexual harassment relationships
Usually sexual harassment may occur in a variety of circumstances. Very often the harasser is in a position of power or authority over the victim (due to differences in age, or social, political, racial, and educational or employment relationships). Forms of harassment relationships include:
•    The harasser can be anyone, such as a client, a co-worker, a teacher or professor, a student, a friend or a stranger and even a family member
•    The victim does not have to be the person directly harassed, but can be anyone who finds the behavior offensive and is affected by it.
•    The victim can be male or female. The harasser can be male or female.
•    The harasser does not have to be of the opposite sex.
•    The harasser may be completely unaware that his or her behavior is offensive or constitutes sexual harassment or may be completely unaware that his or her actions could be unlawful.
While such conduct can be harassment of women by men, or vice-versa, many laws around the world which prohibit sexual harassment recognize that both men and women may be harassers or victims of sexual harassment. It is important to note, most claims of sexual harassment are made by women.
Sexual harassment at workplace and how to avoid from it
Studies show that organizational climate (an organization’s tolerance, policy, procedure etc.) and workplace environment are essential for understanding the conditions in which sexual harassment is likely to occur, and the way its victims will be affected. Another reason which increases the risk for sexual harassment is the job’s gender context (having few women in the close working environment or practicing in a field which is atypical for women).
So the most effective way to avoid sexual harassment in the work place — the employer must adopt a clear policy prohibiting sexual harassment and make it very clear to his/her employees.  Note that many women prefer to make a complaint and to have the matter resolved within the workplace rather than to “air out the dirty laundry” with a public complaint.

Two types of sexual harassment in the workplace
There are generally two types of sexual harassment in the workplace. Quid pro quo has been recognized as actionable for decades, but hostile environment has only been recognized as an actionable behavior since the late 1980s as courts have made findings that the loss of employment or constructive dismissal has been caused by such behavior.
Quid pro quo means “this for that” or “something for something”.  Quid pro quo harassment occurs when an employer, or an employer’s agent, implicitly or explicitly attempts to make submission to sexual demands a condition of employment. Thus, an employee may perceive that he or she must tolerate sexual advances or engage in a sexual relationship in order to continue employment, to achieve advancement, or to avoid adverse employment consequences such as poor evaluations or demotions Quid pro quo harassment is equally unlawful whether the victim resists and suffers the threatened harm or submits and thus avoids the threatened harm.
Hostile environment sexual harassment occurs when an employee is subjected to comments of a sexual nature, unwelcome physical contact, or offensive sexual materials as a regular part of the work environment. Some situations that have been ruled to constitute such a hostile environment are:
•    Posting pictures of pornography in employee’s cubicles;
•    Consistently telling “dirty” jokes or stories where all employees in the work area can hear them;
•    Tolerating employees who make sexually suggestive remarks about other employees within earshot of others;
•    Allowing peer employees, clients, suppliers, delivery persons, or even customers  to persist in unwanted attention, such as asking for dates;
•    Allowing the use of derogatory terms with a sexual connotation (e.g. “pussy”, “girlie-man”, “player”) to be used to describe co-workers;
•    Allowing frequent physical contact, even when it is not sexual.
The line between “quid pro quo” and “hostile environment” harassment is not always clear and the two forms of harassment often occur together. For example, an employee’s job conditions are affected when a sexually hostile work environment results in a constructive discharge. At the same time, a supervisor who makes sexual advances toward a subordinate employee may communicate an implicit threat to retaliate against her if she does not comply.
Retaliation
Retaliation is as illegal as the sexual harassment itself, but also as difficult to prove. Retaliation is illegal even if the original charge of sexual harassment was not proven. Retaliation has occurred when an employee suffers a negative action after he or she has made a report of sexual harassment, file a grievance, assist someone else with a complaint, or participate in discrimination prevention activities. Negative actions can include being fired, demotion, suspension, denial of promotion, poor evaluation, unfavorable job re-assignment–any adverse employment decision or treatment that would be likely to dissuade a “reasonable worker” from making or supporting a charge of discrimination.

EEOC definition
In 1980 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission produced a set of guidelines for defining and enforcing Title VII (in 1984 it was expanded to include educational institutions). The EEOC defines sexual harassment as:
Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when:
1) Submission to such conduct was made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment
2) Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual was used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual
3) Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment
1) and 2) are called “quid pro quo” (Latin for “this for that” or “something for something”). They are essentially “sexual bribery”, or promising of benefits, and “sexual coercion”.
Type 3) known as “hostile work environment,” is by far the most common form. This form is less clear cut and is more subjective.
Note: a workplace harassment complainant must file with the EEOC and receive a “right to sue” clearance, before they can file a lawsuit against a company in federal court.