within the legal definition for sexual harassment that is the law of the land under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other laws, if it is part of an overall atmosphere of hostility to women, and if "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." 29 CFR 1604.11(a)."
Thanks Denise, I thought so too, but Justin is the legal expert, so then I was confused. At any rate, going to a dinner party with your colleagues and hearing that kind of statement made publicly with not one person objecting or feeling that anything odd had happened is, to my mind, an ingredient of sexual harrassment. After all that would define the context within which a woman would be supported for tenure/or not, given raises/or not, given yearl reviews that reflected her actual performance/or not....
But I reiterate that in 20 years working in a hi tech corporate environment (other than being underpaid for a while) I never exeperienced any sexual harrassment compared to academia....where it was not at all uncommon. Perhaps other types of corporations are worse. There are always those that are sturcturally sexist, like Wal-Mart.
Joanna