Article Review #3

Ali Marnon

Intro to Gender & Sexuality H

T/Th 12:30-1:45

Blog Topic: Sexual Violence Against Women

Article Review #3

Fitzgerald, Louise F. "Sexual Harassment: Violence Against Women in the Workplace." The American Psychologist 48.10 (1993): 1070-076. Print.

            In Louise Fitzgerald’s article “Sexual Harassment: Violence Against Women in the Workplace” she explore sexual violence in the workplace. In her article she notes that “Sexual harassment has been a fixture of working life since women first offered their labor for sale in the marketplace” (Fitzgerald, 1070). Fitzgerald looks at the nature and prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace, what kind of consequences that sexual harassment has on job performance and the mental states of its victims, and the what legislative initiatives that can be put into place to help combat sexual violence in the workplace. Fitzgerald looks at how often and what kind of consequences sexual violence has and how to put an end to sexual violence in the workplace setting. Fitzgerald argues that we need to take all of these factors and work to put an end to the violence that occurs in a workplace.    

            In her article, Fitzgerald examines the nature of sexual violence along with its prevalence in the workplace. The list of types of sexual violence that can be found occurring in the workplace setting can be just as extensive as any other setting. However, Fitzgerald notes that “the great majority of harassment in not physically violent but rather reflects intrusive, unwanted, and coercive sexual attention” (1071). To illustrate this point, Fitzgerald looked at a study that was conducted to look at the prevalence of different forms of sexual violence. In this study, of which Fitzgerald failed to name, they found that sexual remarks were reported being experienced by 33% of the women participating. Another 26% reported touching and 15% said that they were pressured to attend dates with coworkers. Fitzgerald also found that women were more likely to experience sexual violence in workplaces where “women have traditionally been under-represented” (1071). She also states that the “government estimates that approximately 12,000 female federal workers were victims of rape or attempted rape by supervisors or coworkers” (1071). The encounters of sexual harassment did not just occur once. Fitzgerald finds that some of these experiences can occur for several months at a time.

            The next thing that Fitzgerald looks at in her article is the consequences that sexual violence has on job performance and the women’s mental health. One consequence noted by Fitzgerald is job loss. Of the women being sexually harassed in the workplace, “25% resigned due to the stresses of the complaint process of the harassment itself” (1072). Women may be afraid to come forward if they are being sexually harassed by someone in the workplace since 50% were found to be fired if they came forward to file a complaint against their harasser. The consequences on women’s physical and psychological well-being were found to include “anxiety, depression, headaches, sleep disturbance, gastrointestinal disorders, weight loss (or gain), nausea, and sexual dysfunction” (1072). This list could probably be expanded as Fitzgerald also looks at how harassment is associated with mental disorders such as depression and PTSD. She notes that mental disorders can be the product of sexual harassment.

             Lastly, Fitzgerald looks at legislation that could be reformed in order to prevent sexual harassment from occurring in the workplace. She came up with five ways that legislation could be reformed. The one that Fitzgerald claims to be the most important is having employers make a policy that they strongly uphold and display prominently so that every employee will know what the policy is. Fitzgerald’s reasoning is that “weak policies or those that are laxly enforced are similarly related to higher incidence levels” (1074). If we are trying to reduce the amount of sexual harassments that occur, then having a strongly enforced policy would be a good idea. Another legislature change that Fitzgerald proposes is to increase the amount that can be paid out to sexual harassment victims. Her third idea is to make sure that any woman who quit due to sexual harassment be allowed to collect unemployment. Fitzgerald mentions how “oftentimes, their unemployment is considered to be “voluntary” and thus not eligible for compensation” (1074). The fourth change that Fitzgerald would make is to “extend the statute of limitations for filing sexual harassment charges” (1074). The current length of time to file a charge currently is about 180-300 days depending on which state you live in. Her last change would be not to revictimize the victims through the legal system. She says that “evidence that seeks to make the victim responsible for sexual harassment should be statutorily excluded in all states” (1074).

            This article relates to my blog topic of sexual violence against women as Fitzgerald’s article looks at sexual violence against women in the workplace. Fitzgerald whole point throughout the piece is to look at the effects that sexual violence can have if it’s committed in the workplace and what we need to do to stop it from occurring. Fitzgerald’s article is similar to my review of Zinnstag’s “Sexual Violence against Women in Armed Conflict: Standard Responses and New Ideas”. They both look at sexual violence and how affects people in certain situation. They also both believe that we should reform legal system so that it will no longer be revictimizing the victims. Both of the authors also acknowledge that women may be ashamed to come forward after the have been sexually harassed or violated and that we should make it easier for them to feel comfortable and safe to do so. The articles differ in the areas in which they examine sexual violence. Fitzgerald explores sexual violence in the workplace while Zinnstag explores sexual violence in armed conflict situations. Another difference is that Zinsstag doesn’t particularly look at the types or how prevalent sexual violence is in armed conflict whereas Fitzgerald looks at this in the workplace. Zinsstag mostly looks at how to gain justice and get support for the sexual violence that they endured during armed conflict. The information included in this article widened my knowledge on how hard the legal system makes it for victims to get the restitution for the crimes committed against them. I was not aware that we had a cap on damages that could be paid to victims of sexual harassment. I was also not aware that there was such a strict limitation to the amount of time that could pass before you could no longer file charges. I don’t think that she left anything out that I would have liked her to address in her article. She did a nice job of including everything a reader would need to understand her viewpoint and her reasoning.