Workplace Sexual Harassment: Definitions, Predictors, Outcomes, and Prevention

Comprehensive vocabulary review cards detailing workplace sexual harassment definitions, legal bodies, reporting statistics, risk predictors, masculinity contest culture, empirical outcomes, and organizational prevention measures.

Workplace Sexual Harassment

Unwelcome behaviour in the workplace based on sex, gender, or sexual orientation that negatively affects the work environment or leads to adverse job-related consequences for the employee; includes any comment, conduct, or gesture that is known or ought to be known to be unwelcome and is likely to cause offense or humiliation.

Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO)

An administrative body that hears applications, determines whether an individual's human rights have been violated under the Human Rights Code, and possesses the authority to issue legally binding orders to remedy violations.

Human Rights Legal Support Centre (HRLSC)

An agency that provides guidance to individuals who believe they have experienced discrimination, assists in preparing and filing applications with the HRTO, and may provide legal representation during hearings.

Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment

A form of sexual harassment involving employment blackmail or trade-offs, characterized by bribes offering rewards in exchange for sex, threats to penalize individuals refusing sexual advances, or explicitly/implicitly mandating that an employee dress in a sexualized or gender-specific manner.

Unwanted Sexual Attention (Sexual Pressure and Coercion)

A category of sexual harassment involving non-reciprocated, sexually directed behaviours such as suggestive comments, compliments, inquiries about sexual activities, repeated requests for dates, spatial invasions, physical intimacy propositions, unwanted touching, or leering.

Gender Harassment

A range of verbal and nonverbal behaviours that police and reinforce traditional heterosexual gender norms, including derogatory remarks regarding women's competence, paternalism, crude language, displaying pornography, or disparaging individuals who fail to conform to sex-role stereotypes.

Canadian Reporting Trends (Statistics Canada, 2020)

Survey data showing that while $82\%$ of Canadians worry about women being sexually harassed and $72\%$ worry about men being falsely accused, $25\%$ of individuals experiencing sexual harassment within the prior two years did not report the occurrence at work.

Barriers to Reporting Sexual Harassment

Organizational and psychological impediments preventing victims from coming forward, such as ambiguity over policy definitions, fear of employer retaliation, fears regarding career stagnation or job loss, and concerns over confidentiality and procedural speed.

Target Risk Factors for Sexual Harassment

Individual characteristics that heighten the probability of being targeted; although all women can become victims, women who exhibit more non-traditional or "masculine" traits (such as assertiveness and independence) experience heightened targeting.

Perpetrator Risk Factors (Male)

Individual dispositional characteristics predicting harassment perpetration, including deficient empathy, endorsement of rigid traditional gender roles, hostile misogynistic attitudes, and adversarial views regarding sex.

Permissive Sexual Harassment Climate

An organizational environment marked by weak sanctions and tolerance of misconduct, which enables individuals—particularly those with lower empathy—to commit sexual harassment more readily than in environments with strict enforcement.

Job Gender Context

The demographic gender distribution of a workplace, organization, or supervisory hierarchy; male-dominated occupational environments or reporting to male supervisors significantly elevate the likelihood of sexual harassment occurring.

Masculinity Contest Culture (Berdahl et al., 2018)

A workplace environment that valorizes dominance, physical toughness, risk-taking, and aggression while denigrating femininity and weakness, compelling employees to constantly prove their manhood while sanctioning vulnerability and fueling harassment.

Male Sexual Harassment Dynamics

Patterns observed when men are harassed: harassment is predominantly perpetrated by other men (often policing effeminacy) or by female supervisors in higher power positions, compounded by male victims' fears of disbelief, emasculation, and victim-blaming.

Organizational & Individual Harassment Consequences (Willness et al., 2007)

Negative impacts identified in meta-analytic research, comprising individual health deterioration (PTSD, depression, headaches, insomnia), job withdrawal (absenteeism, tardiness), and workgroup damage (interpersonal conflict, diminished cohesion, lowered productivity).

Comprehensive Anti-Harassment Policy

An organizational policy framework that provides explicit behavioural definitions, step-by-step reporting instructions, clear procedural responses, multiple reporting channels, and guaranteed protection against retaliation.

Harassment Prevention and Response Procedures

A standard protocol requiring comprehensive training and accessibility for all staff, mandatory investigation of every formal complaint, preservation of strict confidentiality, swift disciplinary action or termination for offenders, and comprehensive support for victims.