Harassment is any unwelcome behavior or comments made by one person to another. Sexual harassment is a term usually used to describe unwanted sexual contact or behavior that happens more than once at work, home, or in school. It includes any unwelcome sexual advances or requests for sexual favors that affect a person’s job, schoolwork, or housing. Street harassment is behavior or comments that can be sexual but are not always and may target your sex, gender, age, religion, nationality, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.
What is sexual harassment?
Sexual harassment happens when someone in your workplace, home, or school makes unwelcome sexual advances to you or requests sexual favors. It also includes inappropriate and unwelcome verbal or physical behaviors. These acts are sexual harassment when they are without your consent, or are unwanted, and interfere with your work or school performance or create a hostile environment. Sexual harassment violates most work, housing, or school policies and may be illegal. Sometimes sexual harassment is also sexual coercion. Sexual harassers can be anyone — men or women — and can be managers, co-workers, landlords, teachers, or other students. Coercion is when you are forced in a nonphysical way into sexual activity. Sexual harassment does not mean you are in a sexual relationship with the person doing it.
Forms of sexual harassment
There are many different types of sexual harassment that happen at work, home, or school
Verbal or written sexual harassment
- Making comments about your clothing, body, behavior, or romantic relationships
- Making sexual jokes or comments
- Repeatedly asking you out on a date after you have said no
- Asking you to engage in sexual acts, such as kissing, touching, watching a sexual act, or having sex
- Requesting sexual photos or videos of you
- Threatening you for saying no to a sexual request
- Spreading rumors about your personal or sexual life
- Whistling or catcalling
- Sending online links or photos with explicit or graphic sexual content
Physical sexual harassment
- Being uncomfortably close to you
- Blocking you from moving or walking away
- Inappropriate touching
- Coercing you into sexual activity by threatening to hurt your career, grades, home, or reputation (this is a type of sexual assault) if you do not engage in sexual activity
- Physically forcing into sexual activity without your consent (rape and sexual assault)
Visual sexual harassment
- Displaying or sharing sexual pictures, texts (sexting), computer wallpaper, or emails
- Showing you his or her private body parts (called “flashing”)
- Masturbating in front of you
Sometimes you may experience other types of harassment that may be difficult to document or prove but that can still be threatening. These can include someone staring at your body in a sexual way or making offensive sexual gestures or facial expressions.
What can I do to stop sexual harassment?
As with all other types of abuse, if you are being sexually harassed, it is not your fault. You can take steps to alert others to the harassment and protect yourself from the person harassing you. Many types of sexual harassment are against the law. If you are being sexually harassed, try one or all of these actions:
- Say “no” without saying anything else. If a harasser asks you for dates or sexual acts, just say “no.” You do not need to offer excuses like “I have a boyfriend,” or “I don’t date people I work with.” If you give a reason or an excuse, it gives the harasser a way to continue the conversation or to argue with you. Physically leave the situation if you can. If the person continues to ask you for unwanted dates or sexual behavior, report them to someone in authority whose job it is to help you stop the harassment, such as a human resources manager.
- Tell the person to stop the harassment, if you feel safe enough to do that. If someone is harassing you by making sexual comments or showing sexual images, tell them that the comment or image is not OK with you. Saying “Stop it” and walking away is a good way to respond also.
- Keep a record. When you experience harassment, write down the dates, places, times, and any witnesses to what happened. Store the record in a secure place, such as your phone. If the harassment happened online, save screenshots or emails of the interactions.
- Report it. It can be difficult to talk about personal topics with someone at work or school, but you should tell your manager, human resources department, local legal aid group, rental company, or school about the harassment. Describe the harassing experiences and explain that they are unwelcome and you want them to stop. If you can, it’s best to make your report in writing so you can save a record of it. Keep copies of everything you send and receive from your employer, landlord, or school about the harassment.
- Research your company’s or school’s complaint procedures. some employers and schools should have a specific procedure on how to respond to sexual harassment complaints. If at work, get a copy of your company’s employee handbook so you can use these procedures to stop the harassment.