Sexual Harassment: Confrontations and Decisions

This important new collection not only presents some of the major debates in the current research on sexual harassment, but also attempts to demonstrate the need for further study of the problem. Increasing attention has been paid to sexual harassment but its meaning, nature, and remedy have eluded researchers and public officials. Since the late 1970s there have been many scientific studies that have investigated the frequency, causes, and effects of sexual harassment. One of the problems that plague these studies is the attempts to get a clear-cut definition and description of the problem. For example, sociologists have yet to reach a consensus on whether or not activities such as cursing, sexual jokes, or compliments in the workplace constitute sexual harassment.

The manifestations of the problem are often obvious. The solutions are not. Highlighting the work of social theorists, feminists, psychologists, and legal scholars, Sexual Harassment separates fact from fiction, focuses on opposing views, and outlines the legal and moral complexity of establishing an acceptable social standard to combat this problem.

Updated and revised, this new, second edition includes contributions by Alba Conte, Catherine A. MacKinnon, Camille Paglia, Susan Deller Ross, the editors of The New Republic, and many other distinguished commentators, as well as selections from important court cases.

Allegations against Supreme Court nominee Judge Clarence Thomas brought vivid accounts of unwanted sexual advances into every living room in America. Highlighting the work of social theorists, feminists, psychologists, and legal scholars, this collection separates fact from emotion, focuses on opposing views, and outlines the legal and moral complexity of a debate that is only now taking shape in the public mind.

Nineteen reprinted selections (1979-96) and a response by Wall (philosophy, East Carolina U., Greenville) offer diverse definitions of this hostile environment issue, policies for academia and the workplace, explanatory models, and legal responses to sexual harassment. Lacks an index. Paglia and MacKinnon are among the contributors. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

School Library Journal

YA-- Students of government, sociology, psychology, and debate will find this a valuable and useful overview of the topic. The book is comprised of various essays; in addition, there is a thorough discussion of the Civil Rights Act, complete with legal as well as individual views on harassment as discrimination. Finally, four essays center on standards of behavior. The introduction and subsequent material are organized in a readable fashion, making this a good source for study. In addition, the well-written, detailed reference notes aid students in continued research. A book that is sure to promote further discussion of this controversial topic.

Edmund Wall (Greenville, NC) is an assistant professor of philosophy at East Carolina University. For the first edition of Sexual Harassment he won the Gustavus Myers Award for Oustanding Book on Human Rights in the United States.