Sexual Harassment Resources

This page is offered as a free resource to additional information available on the Internet about Sexual Harassment. In case you missed it there is an excellent article on Sexual Harassment here.
To avoid sexual harassment issues in your workplace be sure you have participated in a sexual harassment training awareness seminar.

General Links:

The U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board has conducted studies, surveys and general research on the problem of sexual harassment in the federal workplace since 1980. The findings indicated that there was a perceived harassment problem at all levels of the federal government. The most recent study is Sexual Harassment in the Federal Workplace: Trends, Progress, Continuing Challenges, (November 1995). This report contains data comparisons with the similar 1980 and 1987 surveys conducted by the MSPB. The 1980 survey report, Sexual Harassment In The Federal Workplace: Is It A Problem?, is available in the Documents Department under the SuDoc number, MS 1.2:Se9, and the 1987 survey, Sexual Harassment In The Federal Government: An Update, is available under the SuDoc number MS 1.2: Se9/2. The full text of the 1987 report is available online at the University of Maryland Women's Studies Sexual Harassment site.

Protecting Students from Harassment and Hate Crime: A Guide for Schools was published by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (January 1999). The Office for Civil Rights also maintains a very useful Questions and Answers About Sexual Harassment site.

Sexual Harassment: It's Not Academic (and mirror site) is an Office for Civil Rights (Department of Education) pamphlet dealing with sexual harassment at all academic levels. This site provides school administrators, teachers, students, and parents with fundamental information to assist them in recognizing and dealing with sexual harassment under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

The Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Education (January, 2001) is a detailed policy guide of regulations entitled Revised Sexual Harassment Guidance, (the same from the Federal Register) in order to provide educational institutions with the standards used by the Office to investigate allegations of sexual harassment of students, under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, along with a complete PDF version of same. Two OCR web sites provide a Summary/Discussion and a complete copy of the 1997 OCR Sexual Harassment Guidance policy, and the UNCG University Counsel also maintains a PDF scanned copy of the 1997 version from the Federal Register.

Nondiscrimination On The Basis Of Sex In Education Programs And Activities Receiving Or Benefiting >From Federal Financial Assistance is a copy from the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 34, Chapter 1, Part 106, giving the latest Federal regulations concerning sex discrimination and federal aid compliance.

Guidance to Colleges and Universities Regarding Sexual Harassment is a key policy letter addressed to college and university presidents and signed by the Secretary of Education (January 1999).

Facts About Sexual Harassment is a brief explanation of sexual harassment as it violates federal law, from the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), January 1997. Questions and Answers for Small Employers and the highly detailed Enforcement Guidance are two other helpful EEOC sites. The Sexual Harassment Charges: EEOC & FEPAs Combined statistics site provides data on the number of charges handled by the EEOC and FEPA, thru the most recent completed fiscal year, and the monetary settlements involved.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (as amended) prohibits sex discrimination in the workplace (of which sexual harassment is a form). Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits sex discrimination by recipients of federal funds. Also available is the Code of Federal Regulations section on Title IX, and the similar CFR section on Title VII.

The Violence Against Women Office (VAWO) handles the Justice Department’s legal and policy activities regarding violence against women.

Primer On Sexual Harassment (and the plain text version) of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS)

Return To Top

U.S. Military

Sexual Harassment: Zero Tolerance includes a policy statement by the Secretary of Defense, and links to other Defense Dept. documents, news releases, and related military sites.

Department of Defense 1995 Sexual Harassment Study is a highly detailed summary of a 1995 DOD sexual harassment survey. This survey documented a significant decline in sexual harassment complaints in the military. Another DOD 1995 Sexual Harassment Survey site, with a PowerPoint summary is attached.

The U.S. Navy Equal Opportunity Office maintains a useful Sexual Harassment Prevention site with links to the Navy Sexual Harassment Policy, the Navy Equal Opportunity/Sexual Harassment Survey, and a complaints procedure site, with an Equal Opportunity/Sexual Harassment Complaint Form.

The Zero Tolerance Policy of the U.S. Navy Recruiting Command. This contains a clear statement of the Navy's sexual harassment policy.

Official Department Of The Navy Sexual Harassment Policy from the Office of the Secretary of the Navy, and a PDF file copy is available.

Complaints Of Sexual Harassment from the United States Code, Title 10, Section 1561, Armed Forces, General Military Law. "Miscellaneous Investigation Requirements and Other Duties" which are the legal responsibility of commanding officers investigating complaints of sexual harassment.

Department of Defense "Defense Viewpoint" site article, entitled Survey Shows Decline in Sexual Harassment, discusses the results of a 1995 DOD survey on harassment.

Return To Top

Important Court Decisions:

Davis v. County Board of Education (1999) Schools and school districts can be held liable for student-on-student harassment, under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. "Title IX damages action may lie against a school board in cases of student-on-student harassment, but only where the funding recipient is deliberately indifferent to sexual harassment, of which the recipient has actual knowledge, and that harassment is so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it can be said to deprive the victims of access to the educational opportunities or benefits provided by the school." U.S. Supreme Court.

Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services (1998) Same sex harassment and harassment of males is judged to be legally possible and actionable, under Title VII. U.S. Supreme Court.

Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, Florida (1998) Employers are responsible for the misconduct of supervisors, even if the employer was not aware of the behavior. Also, the failure to disseminate its sexual harassment policy to each employee, failure of city officials to make any attempt to keep track of the supervisors' conduct, and not maintaining a policy and procedure that allowed employees to by-pass their direct supervisor to register complaints about improper harassment were noted by the court. However, the court went on to state that, "...Title VII is not meant to be a "general civility code." Its purpose is to attempt to draw a distinction between the ordinary tribulations of the workplace, such as the sporadic use of abusive language, gender-related jokes, and occasional teasing and actionable misconduct." U.S. Supreme Court.

Burlington Industries v. Ellerth (1998) Even if the harassed employee did not suffer any significant damages or tangible impact upon their job or person, the employer may still be held liable for the harassment, and the employee can recover against the employer. The facts of this case were determined to fall under the "hostile and abusive" work environment standard defining harassment. U.S. Supreme Court.

In the 1998 Williamson v. the City of Houston, Texas, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that in dealing with a harassment complaint, an employer cannot use its own policies to insulate itself from liability by placing an increased burden on a complainant to provide notice beyond that required by law. In other words, the complaint must be acted upon, and the city's own policy placed an affirmative duty on the supervisor to pass such information up the chain of command.

Rorie v. United Parcel Service, Inc., a 1998 decision from the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals, is similar to Williamson, above, with the court reaffirming the need for an employer to set up a comprehensive, easy to use, preventative mechanism that is published and circulated to every employee to identify and report harassment and retaliation. Such mechanism should include the Chief Operating Officer or a person similarly situated who is trained in the process for handling a complaint charging harassment.

Gebser v. Lago Vista Independent School District (1998) In a somewhat different ruling from Ellerth above, the Court ruled that a school district is not liable for harassment which it was unaware of and which was not administratively reported. "We conclude that damages may not be recovered in those circumstances unless an official of the school district who at a minimum has authority to institute corrective measures on the district's behalf has actual notice of, and is deliberately indifferent to, the teacher's misconduct." U.S. Supreme Court.

Lois E. Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite Co., a 1997 8th Circuit Court of Appeals decision, the nation's first, successful class-action, sexual-harassment, hostile work environment lawsuit. This decision also drastically limited the ability of defense attorneys to subpoena documents that reach all the way back to a plaintiff's childhood and thereby bring into question the moral and emotional character of the victim. An excellent monograph, Class Action : The Story of Lois Jenson and the Landmark Case that Changed Sexual Harassment Law, by Clara Bingham & Laura Leedy Gansler, was published in 2002 and is available in this library.

Harris v. Forklift Systems (1993) The Court ruled that an abusive and hostile work environment is illegal even if the employee charging harassment did not suffer psychological damages. "The applicable standard, here reaffirmed, is stated in Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (below). Title VII is violated when the workplace is permeated with discriminatory behavior that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to create a discriminatorily hostile or abusive working environment." U.S. Supreme Court.

Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (1986) One of the earliest cases in which the Court affirmed and extended the definition of a hostile work environment ("...harassment that, while not affecting economic benefits, creates a hostile or offensive working environment...") prohibited under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. U.S. Supreme Court.

Silva v. University of New Hampshire, a 1994 U.S. District of New Hampshire decision which overturned the suspension without pay of a tenured faculty member for comments made in the classroom. This link is to the search engine for opinions of this court. Simply put "Silva v UNH" into the search window and it will bring up the complete decision. According to the Center for Individual Rights (site below), Silva won an important victory. "Subsequently, the University reinstated the professor permanently and paid substantial damages and fees (nearly a quarter of a million dollars!) to settle the case. Silva is considered the first case to address the conflict between free speech and sexual harassment at a university. The district court's opinion provides a firm defense of academic freedom against overly expansive harassment regulations."

Return To Top

Educational Institutions

The full Sexual Harassment Policy and Procedures of UNC-Chapel Hill is a detailed and thoughtful example of a university policy statement. (PDF scanned version).

Davidson County Community College Sexual Harassment Policy and Procedures from the "General Catalog and Student Handbook".

Mayland Community College Student Handbook maintains a "Sexual Harassment Policy" statement and a "Sexual Harassment Grievance Procedure". Simply click on the appropriate link.

Sandhills Community College Sexual Harassment Policy and Procedures from the college personnel manual, and the Sexual Harassment Policy from the faculty handbook.

Southwestern Community College Sexual Harassment Policy and Complaint and Procedures.

Stanly Community College Sexual Harassment Policy with definitions, complaint and investigation procedures.

This Maricopa County (Arizona) Community College Sexual Harassment site has links to their institutional policy, complaint procedures AND an excellent online Tutorial.

Penn State University Delaware Campus maintains this excellent and thoughtful Information On Sexual Harassment site, with example harassment situations, links to other web sites, legal aspects with examples of court cases, and a, "What If?" section covering many aspects of harassment. An very informative site.

These University of Texas sites, Policy on Sexual Harassment and Sexual Misconduct, Prohibition of Student Harassment, and Prohibition of Sexual Assault are highly informative.

The University of California San Francisco Office of Sexual Harassment Prevention & Resolution maintains a number of useful sites, including the UCSF Policy and both Informal and Formal grievance procedures. The site also includes an excellent online, interactive Tutorial.

The Women's Studies Database of the University of Maryland maintains a highly detailed Gender Issues, Sexual Harassment site, with a variety of documents, including the full text of the 1987 Merit Systems Protection Board Report on sexual harassment in the federal government, the 1993 New York Task Force Report from Governor Mario Cuomo's New York Task Force on Sexual Harassment, and the Defense Department Tailhook '91 report of the Navy investigation, among other important government and official reports and studies.

UCLA Law School Professor Eugene Volokh has created some very interesting web sites, featuring his articles, as well as other sources, which question the legality of extreme sexual harassment issues when freedom of speech and of expression is involved. A National Speech Code From The EEOC discusses the legal problems and issues involved in the EEOC interpretation of a "hostile environment" in the workplace. See also his highly thought-provoking site, Freedom of Speech vs. Workplace Harassment Law - A Growing Conflict, and his article, A Hostile Environment For Free Speech.

The The Wellesley College Centers for Women and their Center For Research On Women have an ongoing project on Sexual Harassment In Schools and a number of Sexual Harassment Publications, by subject, available for sale. Their Research, Education and Action site for Sexual Harassment and Bullying lists their ongoing projects in this area. Nan Stein, a senior researcher and project director for the Center For Research On Women, also has an important interview in the Harvard Education Letter, entitled, Sexual Harassment Erodes the Notion That School Is a Safe Place. Her Flirting or Hurting? A Teacher's Guide on Student-to-Student Sexual Harassment in Schools (Grades 6 through 12), 1994, formed the basis for the WGBY public television program of the same title, mentioned below.

Gender Harassment on the Internet is a detailed and thoughtful paper prepared for the course, "Law and the Internet" at Georgia State University College of Law. Most of the links are now dead, but the paper itself is a useful and informative piece.

Return To Top

Professional Organizations

The American Bar Association maintains a number of sites, including, Sexual Harassment And Bar Association Policy, Sexual Harassment: No Stranger To The Classroom, Sexual Harassment: The Employer's Role In Prevention, and Running The Gauntlet No More: Using Title IX To End Student-To-Student Sexual Harassment.

The American Medical Association site where sexual harassment issues are discussed, in the Code of Medical Ethics section, including policy opinion E-3.08, Sexual Harassment and Exploitation Between Medical Supervisors and Trainees.

Stop Sexual Harassment Now is a pamphlet prepared by the National Education Association which explains the 1997 U.S. Department of Education "policy guidance" on sexual harassment of students under Title IX. The NEA also maintains a  Sexual Harassment: Introduction site, with links to Legal Terms in Sexual Harassment Law, Responding to Sexual Harassment, Preventing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace, Remedies for Harm from Sexual Harassment, and Sexual Harassment and Students.

The American Association of University Professors maintains a Sexual Harassment Resources site, which includes a "Sexual Harassment: Suggested Policy and Procedures for Handling Complaints".

Federal Law Prohibits Student-On-Student Sexual Harassment ~ Court's Sexual Harassment Ruling Puts Schools On Notice ~ Clarifying Cases of Sexual Harassment are all articles explaining recent Supreme Court decisions. They were published in the American Psychological Association web journal, "APA Monitor Online".

The Feminist Majority Foundation maintains a Sexual Harassment Hotline Resource List which has a variety of related Internet Resources.  What To Do If You Or Someone You Know Is Sexually Harassed  Other sites include "What Is Sexual Harassment", "Sexual Harassment and Workplace Issues", "Preventing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace", "Legal Remedies", and "Sexual Harassment in Schools, Colleges and Universities".

Stopping Sexual Harassment is a useful guide from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO. The site contains information and articles on  Sexual Harassment - A Union Issue, What Is Sexual Harassment?; Some Myths and Facts; Sexual Harassment Is Against the Law; What To Do If You Are Sexually Harassed; What the Union Can Do; To Union Representatives. The APPENDIX includes: 1992 AFSCME Sexual Harassment Resolution; Sample Cover Letter For Survey; Sexual Harassment Survey; Sample Contract Language; Sample Policy Statement.

The National Organization for Women (NOW) maintains several sites, including NOW and Sexual Harassment, Sexual Harassment Issue Report, and Women-Friendly Workplace and Campus Campaign, with links to a court cases and other information.