Sadie Hawkins – Guilty of Sex Harassment?
It's leap year - the time when women were historically "permitted" to ask men to marry them, according to certain traditions.
It's a custom that supposedly traces back to fifth century Ireland, when St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick that local women were in danger of becoming old maids while waiting for indecisive males to pop the question. St. Patrick's solution was to allow women to propose marriage on leap day - February 29 - which rolls around every four years ("Since," 2008).
The practice became more formalized in 1288, when Scotland enacted a law that allowed women to propose marriage in leap years. Woe to the man who refused. He had to pay a fine. The penalty could be as simple as a kiss, or it could be more expensive - like the price of a silk gown ("Since," 2008). Other European countries eventually passed similar laws that allowed women to propose marriage on leap days (de Jong, 2008).
The idea became truly popular and comical when Al Capp, who drew the cartoon strip "Li'l Abner," invented Sadie Hawkins in November 1937. The "ugliest gal" in Dogpatch, USA, she proposed a holiday named after her: Sadie Hawkins Day. The highlight of the holiday was a race "wherein all unmarried women would chase, jump and tackle Dogpatch bachelors, laying claim to the ones they could trap" (de Jong, 2008).
Pretty funny. But take Sadie out of Dogpatch and put her in a managerial position and you end up with an HR nightmare. Just imagine Sadie's pursuit of handsome bachelors on the job, day in and day out. It's a recipe for claims of sexual harassment as well as a harsh lesson that men, too, can feel victimized by unwanted advances.
Data indicates that more men are, in fact, lodging complaints about sexual harassment on the job. Consider figures from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2007): Men accounted for 11.6% of the 15,889 sexual harassment complaints filed with the agency in 1997. By 2006, which is the latest year for which data is available, complaints by men had increased to 15.4% of the 12,025 sexual harassment charges.
The actual number of claims by men is virtually the same: 1,844 in 1997 and 1,852 in 2006. But the total number of such complaints actually declined, meaning fewer women were filing charges. Complaints by men did not see a similar drop.
A 2006 telephone poll of 782 U.S. workers conducted by Louis Harris and Associates showed that 7% of the male workers reported being harassed at work (Sexual Harassment Support [SHS], 2006). "There's no question this is a growing category of claims, but also a large societal problem of which we are just starting to see the tip of the iceberg," said Riki Wilchins, executive director of the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition, a nonprofit group that promotes an understanding of the connection among discrimination based on gender stereotypes and sex, sexual orientation, age, race, and class (DiGiacomo, 2008).
"This kind of harassment has always taken place in the workplace," Wilchins said. "But the kind of abrasive, sexualized horseplay that might have been acceptable 10 years ago is actionable today. More males realize they don't have to take it" (DiGiacomo, 2008).
The issue is not exclusive to the U.S. The Swiss government released a study in January 2008 showing that 4% of male respondents said they had been sexually harassed at work in the preceding 12 months. Ten percent of male respondents said they had been sexually harassed at some point during their working life (O'Dea, 2008). In the UK, a 2006 government study found that sexual harassment of men was rampant, with two out of five (40%) saying they had experienced on-the-job harassment (Hinsliff, 2006; SHS, 2006). And a 2007 survey of 423 workers by the Civic Party and Equal Opportunities Commission found that "more than one-third of sexual harassment victims in Hong Kong offices are men" ("One Third," 2007).
But viewing all this as some overly aggressive Sadie Hawkins ritual is a mistake. In fact, Sherry F. Colb, a professor at Rutgers Law School, asserts that, while many of those who harass men are women, a majority are other men.
This isn't necessarily related to homosexuality, however. "Men are likely singling out for mistreatment those of their fellow male employees who fail to conform to masculinity norms," Colb (2007) said. She posits that perhaps there has been no increase in the frequency of incidents, merely an increase in the number of incidents reported. Maybe, Colb says, men are overcoming the "victim shame" and are standing up for their rights.
HR has a responsibility for preventing sexual harassment, of course. Good leadership that models tolerance helps (Gender Public Advocacy Coalition [GPAC], 2008). And part of the solution is probably in place with codes of conduct and training. Those might need to be expanded, however, to make sure everyone understands that men can be victims and that transgressors - male or female - will be punished.
Something more might be needed as well, according to the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition, which suggests adding the terms "gender harassment" and "gender stereotyping" to the conduct code (2008). Those terms are more inclusive than "sex harassment" or "sexual orientation." The coalition argues that those two terms fail to protect men and women who do not meet the traditional concepts of male and female - for example, men who look or act "too girly" or women who look or act "too butch" (GPAC, 2008).
The penalties for ignoring harassment issues can be high indeed, making it incumbent on managers to pay attention to them, both during leap day and any other day of the year.
For more information:
For more information on this and similar issues, please see i4cp's Sex Discrimination and Harassment Knowledge Center.
Documents referenced in this TrendWatcher include the following:
Colb, S.F. (2007, March 1). The EEOC Receives More Male Complaints of Sexual Harassment: Bad News? FindLaw.
de Jong, M. (2008, February 26). Leap Day Is for (Unconventional) Lovers. The Daily Green.
DiGiacomo, R. (2008). More Men Report Sexual Harassment at Work. Yahoo! HotJobs.
Gender Public Advocacy Coalition. (2008). Frequently Asked Questions.
Hinsliff, G. (2006, June 25). Sexual Harassment of Men Revealed. The Observer.
O'Dea, C. (2008, January 15). Sexual Harassment Widespread in Switzerland. swissinfo.ch.
One Third of Sexual Harassment Victims in Hong Kong Offices Are Men. (2007, February 5). BizAsia.
Sexual Harassment Support. (2006). Sexual Harassment in the Workplace.
Since You Asked: Can't a Guy Get a Break? (2008, February 14). Mail Tribune.
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2007, January 31). Sexual Harassment Charges EEOC & FEPAs Combined: FY 1997 - FY 2006.
It's a custom that supposedly traces back to fifth century Ireland, when St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick that local women were in danger of becoming old maids while waiting for indecisive males to pop the question. St. Patrick's solution was to allow women to propose marriage on leap day - February 29 - which rolls around every four years ("Since," 2008).
The practice became more formalized in 1288, when Scotland enacted a law that allowed women to propose marriage in leap years. Woe to the man who refused. He had to pay a fine. The penalty could be as simple as a kiss, or it could be more expensive - like the price of a silk gown ("Since," 2008). Other European countries eventually passed similar laws that allowed women to propose marriage on leap days (de Jong, 2008).
The idea became truly popular and comical when Al Capp, who drew the cartoon strip "Li'l Abner," invented Sadie Hawkins in November 1937. The "ugliest gal" in Dogpatch, USA, she proposed a holiday named after her: Sadie Hawkins Day. The highlight of the holiday was a race "wherein all unmarried women would chase, jump and tackle Dogpatch bachelors, laying claim to the ones they could trap" (de Jong, 2008).
Pretty funny. But take Sadie out of Dogpatch and put her in a managerial position and you end up with an HR nightmare. Just imagine Sadie's pursuit of handsome bachelors on the job, day in and day out. It's a recipe for claims of sexual harassment as well as a harsh lesson that men, too, can feel victimized by unwanted advances.
Data indicates that more men are, in fact, lodging complaints about sexual harassment on the job. Consider figures from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2007): Men accounted for 11.6% of the 15,889 sexual harassment complaints filed with the agency in 1997. By 2006, which is the latest year for which data is available, complaints by men had increased to 15.4% of the 12,025 sexual harassment charges.
The actual number of claims by men is virtually the same: 1,844 in 1997 and 1,852 in 2006. But the total number of such complaints actually declined, meaning fewer women were filing charges. Complaints by men did not see a similar drop.
A 2006 telephone poll of 782 U.S. workers conducted by Louis Harris and Associates showed that 7% of the male workers reported being harassed at work (Sexual Harassment Support [SHS], 2006). "There's no question this is a growing category of claims, but also a large societal problem of which we are just starting to see the tip of the iceberg," said Riki Wilchins, executive director of the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition, a nonprofit group that promotes an understanding of the connection among discrimination based on gender stereotypes and sex, sexual orientation, age, race, and class (DiGiacomo, 2008).
"This kind of harassment has always taken place in the workplace," Wilchins said. "But the kind of abrasive, sexualized horseplay that might have been acceptable 10 years ago is actionable today. More males realize they don't have to take it" (DiGiacomo, 2008).
The issue is not exclusive to the U.S. The Swiss government released a study in January 2008 showing that 4% of male respondents said they had been sexually harassed at work in the preceding 12 months. Ten percent of male respondents said they had been sexually harassed at some point during their working life (O'Dea, 2008). In the UK, a 2006 government study found that sexual harassment of men was rampant, with two out of five (40%) saying they had experienced on-the-job harassment (Hinsliff, 2006; SHS, 2006). And a 2007 survey of 423 workers by the Civic Party and Equal Opportunities Commission found that "more than one-third of sexual harassment victims in Hong Kong offices are men" ("One Third," 2007).
But viewing all this as some overly aggressive Sadie Hawkins ritual is a mistake. In fact, Sherry F. Colb, a professor at Rutgers Law School, asserts that, while many of those who harass men are women, a majority are other men.
This isn't necessarily related to homosexuality, however. "Men are likely singling out for mistreatment those of their fellow male employees who fail to conform to masculinity norms," Colb (2007) said. She posits that perhaps there has been no increase in the frequency of incidents, merely an increase in the number of incidents reported. Maybe, Colb says, men are overcoming the "victim shame" and are standing up for their rights.
HR has a responsibility for preventing sexual harassment, of course. Good leadership that models tolerance helps (Gender Public Advocacy Coalition [GPAC], 2008). And part of the solution is probably in place with codes of conduct and training. Those might need to be expanded, however, to make sure everyone understands that men can be victims and that transgressors - male or female - will be punished.
Something more might be needed as well, according to the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition, which suggests adding the terms "gender harassment" and "gender stereotyping" to the conduct code (2008). Those terms are more inclusive than "sex harassment" or "sexual orientation." The coalition argues that those two terms fail to protect men and women who do not meet the traditional concepts of male and female - for example, men who look or act "too girly" or women who look or act "too butch" (GPAC, 2008).
The penalties for ignoring harassment issues can be high indeed, making it incumbent on managers to pay attention to them, both during leap day and any other day of the year.
For more information:
For more information on this and similar issues, please see i4cp's Sex Discrimination and Harassment Knowledge Center.
Documents referenced in this TrendWatcher include the following:
Colb, S.F. (2007, March 1). The EEOC Receives More Male Complaints of Sexual Harassment: Bad News? FindLaw.
de Jong, M. (2008, February 26). Leap Day Is for (Unconventional) Lovers. The Daily Green.
DiGiacomo, R. (2008). More Men Report Sexual Harassment at Work. Yahoo! HotJobs.
Gender Public Advocacy Coalition. (2008). Frequently Asked Questions.
Hinsliff, G. (2006, June 25). Sexual Harassment of Men Revealed. The Observer.
O'Dea, C. (2008, January 15). Sexual Harassment Widespread in Switzerland. swissinfo.ch.
One Third of Sexual Harassment Victims in Hong Kong Offices Are Men. (2007, February 5). BizAsia.
Sexual Harassment Support. (2006). Sexual Harassment in the Workplace.
Since You Asked: Can't a Guy Get a Break? (2008, February 14). Mail Tribune.
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2007, January 31). Sexual Harassment Charges EEOC & FEPAs Combined: FY 1997 - FY 2006.