The point that challenged conduct does not have to be an invitation to sexual activity to be harassment is correct, however. But even if there is a lot of that, it doesn't rise to harassment unless it severe, pervasive, and makes it difficult for you to work; in the 7th Cir., the harassment has to be sort of thing that would make a enduring it "hellish," mere boorishness, rudeness, incivility, insensitivity, or bigotry won't suffice.
As I said, harassment in the hostile work environments ense does not require a further showing of adverse employment action. But if you filed a case before my former very liberal and savagely anti-harassment woman district court judge, alleging only that remark, you would be thrown out on your ear. Sorry. If you could show that you were treated different from other similarly situated persons in pay or promotion or retention, the remark would be excellent direct evidence of discrimination, if it was made by a decisionmaker. But that is not a harsssment theory.
jks
--- joanna bujes <jbujes at covad.net> wrote:
> Denise wrote:
> "Actually that kind of assertion--"you don't belong
> here"--falls squarely
>
> 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
>
>
>
> ___________________________________
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