Chronicle Editor
Andile Tshuma
The workplace should be a happy place for all team members to thrive and contribute to their maximum capacity.
The average person spends eight hours a day at work, which translates to about 40 hours a week, therefore the workplace environment must be a peaceful, happy and conducive one for a healthy state of mind.
Above all, the workplace, or school environment for those still in school, must be a safe space, where people trust everyone in their surroundings and do not feel that they are at risk of any harm.
Unfortunately, workplaces are often hazardous environments and sometimes harbour monsters, making them really unpleasant spaces.
Some co-workers can be abusive, some people work with bullies, tough, hard to please bosses, while in the worst of circumstances some people have experienced harassment of a sexual nature at work or at school.
As such, many people are living in fear and cannot thrive at work or school, as a result of sexual harassment, a cancer weaving through many organisations and needs action.
Whether you are a student, domestic worker, career woman or career man, sexual harassment can happen so quietly that you hardly even realise it, or it can be so obvious that you are too stunned to speak out.
The issue of sexual harassment at the workplace is so rampant yet it is least talked about. In the absence of gender policy in most organisations, many have found themselves in sixes and sevens when it comes to handling cases of sexual harassment at the workplace.
The workplace is a place where many activities take place.
These activities may be harmful to both men and women depending on behaviour that is portrayed by different individuals and how it is viewed by the recipient. Sexual harassment is conduct that may affect especially women in the workplace.
Sexual harassment comprises a range of behaviour from verbal teasing to conduct that is criminal, for example indecent assault. It is generally associated with requests for sexual favours, sexual advances or other sexual conduct when giving in is either directly or indirectly a condition affecting decisions; the behaviour is of a degree that creates an intimidating or uncomfortable environment for the victim; or the harasser continues with such behaviour despite objection from the victim against whom it is directed. Sexual harassment may occur in many social settings.
Experts say sexual harassment has three causes, firstly workplace power relations, where a man may use sexual innuendos or inappropriate touching to show a woman that he is in charge.
If the woman is the one in a more senior position, a man could harass her to show that he still has that masculine power.
The reverse is true as men can be victims of sexual harassment too, although more women than men have reported sexual harassment.
Male hostility towards women in the workplace is closely connected to male attitudes about the “proper” role of a man in society. Some men perceive the ‘feminist drive for economic equality’ as a threat to their traditional role. Thus sexual harassment is a form of violence perceived as self-protection.
Another trigger for sexual harassment has to do with control, where the victim’s vulnerability gives power to the harasser. Sexual harassment creates a climate of intimidation for the victims and that makes it easier to control them.
A woman who is the target of sexual harassment often goes through the same process of victimisation as one who has suffered rape, battering or other gender-related crimes, frequently blaming herself and doubting her own self-worth.
Discrimination against women includes gender based violence, that is, violence directed against women because they are women or that affects women more than men. Sexual harassment affects women more than men because while sex is a major determinant in sexual harassment, the socially ascribed roles of women also play a significant part to compound the effects of harassment.
Sexual harassment may be humiliating and may constitute a safety problem if a woman does not feel safe in her workplace. It is discriminatory when a woman has reasonable ground to believe that her objection to sexual favours, conduct or advances would disadvantage her in any social setting, for example, through potential loss of employment or more severe physical abuse.
A broad and dynamic, purposive human rights approach takes sexual harassment as an instance of oppression in which people may experience exploitation, marginalisation, powerlessness and violence. Consequently, the right to equality and non-discrimination against women does not only encompass factual unequal treatment on the basis of sex and other prohibited grounds but also protection against sexual harassment and violence.
The State has an obligation under international law to respect and protect the right to equality and non-discrimination between men and women. This includes putting in place legislative measures to protect citizens against the incidence of all kinds of violence, including sexual harassment, in everyday life.
What is important to understand about sexual harassment is that it is uninvited and unwanted. While such conduct can be harassment of women by men, many laws around the world which prohibit sexual harassment recognise that both men and women may be harassers or victims of sexual harassment. However, most claims of sexual harassment are made by women.
A relationship between two consenting adults working together is not considered harassment. It is only considered harassment when one of the parties has more power and privilege than the other, and abuses this, in the workplace to intimidate the other person.
Sexual harassment or sexual abuse is not about sexual pleasure. Sexual harassment is a display of unequal power relations and it is about asserting power. Women at times succumb to sexual harassment and are unlikely to report it because while they have captured an ever-increasing share of the labour market, improvements in the quality of their jobs have not kept pace.
This is usually reflected in the smaller representation of women in management positions particularly in the private sector and their virtual absence from the most senior jobs. Even when women hold managerial jobs, they are often in less strategic lower paying areas of company operations. As such the zeal to rise may force some women to remain quiet even when they are sexually harassed.
There are now larger numbers of reported cases of sexual harassment in schools and tertiary institutions in Zimbabwe. However research has failed to quantify the degree of sexual violence and harassment in educational settings.
There were numerous stories in the print media of teachers, tutors or lecturers who demand sexual favours in exchange for higher grades.
What is surprising is that they are the same people who are entrusted by parents, the community and the nation at large to monitor and mould the same pupils into responsible citizens.
There is need for interplay between the home and the school in terms of the upbringing of children. Research estimates that approximately half of all women will be subjected to sexual harassment at some point during their work or academic life.
According to a recent article carried in this publication, a survey conducted by researchers of 30 company codes of conduct in Zimbabwe revealed that the majority of the codes recognise sexual harassment as misconduct but definitions were imprecise and the reporting procedures do not recognise it as a unique offence. It is treated as any other offence such as theft. At times the women barely have sight of the code of conduct.
A lot of us might be engaging in acts of sexual harassment unintentionally or intentionally. It is important to be careful of what we say or do to the next person whether in a workplace setting or at school. The best in such circumstances is to keep all relations professional and avoid overstepping boundaries.
It is everyone’s responsibility to make the workplace a safe space. A sexual harassment free world is possible; it begins with you and me.
Online Reporter