Incest 0000i-xiv FM 1 - William L. White

114
t h e i n c e st u o u s wo r k p lac e
7.14 A Redefinition of Sexual Harassment
I have had a number of people ask me during training workshops
whether sexual harassment occurs during the sexual closure stage in the
organizational family. The question is an interesting one and can be addressed
by comparing the following two situations.
Mary was an administrative assistant to a supervisor of a large
agency. She had worked for the agency for five years and had been quite
happy with the position. Her contentment changed with the arrival of a
new supervisor. About three months after the new supervisor arrived,
Mary became uncomfortable with the supervisor’s increasing comments
on her physical appearance, questions about her personal life, and what
came to be an almost incessant banter of sexual innuendo. Mary’s attempts
to communicate her discomfort with this situation had little impact.
In the months that followed, the supervisor became very “touchy,”
increased his disclosure of problems with his wife (which generally centered
on her sexual coldness), and began scheduling “working” lunches
that Mary was required to attend. During the sixth month after his arrival,
the supervisor’s sexual advances became blatantly invasive.
Mary’s verbal attempts to rebuff the advances only resulted in the supervisor’s
implied rewards of money and promotion in return for sexual
favors. When formal complaints produced no resolution of the problem,
Mary resigned from her job rather than go through what she anticipated
would be a long and emotionally humiliating process of administrative
and legal redress.
The evidence that Mary had been subjected to sexual harassment is
overwhelming. The sexual advances were unwanted. The advances
continued in spite of Mary’s request that such behavior cease. There
were promises and threats used in an effort to coerce Mary’s sexual
compliance. Such blatant sexual harassment could occur in open and
closed organizations, but there is another more subtle form of sexual
harassment often seen in closed systems. Let’s compare Mary’s circumstances
with those of another woman with the same role in a different
organization.
Faye took a position as secretary in a community mental health center
against the advice of her husband, who couldn’t figure out why she
would want to work around “crazy” people. Within three years, Faye’s
intelligence and organizational skills had got her promoted to administrative
assistant to the agency director. During those three years, she’d
found a whole new world of experience compared with her very sheltered
upbringing and married life. Her work also changed her social life,