Consciousness in Context: Employees' Views of Sexual Harassment Grievance Procedures

This chapter shows that employers are a central source of employees' information about their rights. That information consists not simply of legal rules and written policies. It draws on a study of women's experiences with unwanted sexual attention in a single workplace and focuses on women's experiences because women remain the predominant targets of sexual harassment at work. The chapter discusses in-depth interviews and open-ended responses to a survey questionnaire. It suggests that employment policies and grievance procedures may not be fulfilling their promise to protect women from sexual harassment. The chapter reviews the transcripts for several themes that emerged from the theoretical effort to contextualize legal consciousness. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the courts have identified several basic types of sexual harassment as forms of sex discrimination. Like most internal dispute resolution mechanisms, the University's Written Policy promised protection to complaining employees and accused harassers while also preserving a supervisor's flexibility in investigating and resolving sexual harassment complaints.