SEXUAL HARRASMENT IN THE

WORKPLACE : AN ABUSE OF
POWER AND IN THE
WORKPLACE

Shreejita Ghosh
BBA LLB SEC C 20171098
What exactly is power? Power is the ability that one has to influence the behavior of another and get them
to act according to their wishes. This power takes various forms in an organization. However, a blatant
use of this can be seen in the sexual harassment that occurs in organizations day in and day out as an
abuse of this very power. With the help of 24 working women that filled out this questionnaire, my
research paper aims to prove that: “Gender differences in perceptions of sexual harassment and power
differentials in the workplace which permit men to legitimize and institutionalize their perspective are
implicated which therefore creates an imbalance of power (S. Gayle Baugh,1997).”

The idea of men wielding power is one that dates back centuries. Ladies' energy and status are not as
much as that of men in a similar gathering, essentially because of less female presence in the outside
world. Women joining the organizational workforce is something that happened relatively recently. Up
until then women were only present in the private sphere of life. All the economical and hence
psychological power was in the hands of the men. This created a sense of entitlement and also a sense of
dependency. A very prominent feature of power in organization is dependency. The greater the
dependence, the greater the amount of power one can wield. This power translates into an organizational
setting and thus affects it immensely. This study focuses mainly on the harassment of women due to the
ideals of power present in an organization. Research shows that the amount of sexual harassment in an
organization usually ranges from 42% to 90% with women being the main victims. “Potential
explanations for the persistence of gender differences in perceptions of sexual harassment include power
differentials, self-serving bias, and different perceptual sets. Because women usually wield less
hierarchical power in organizations, and men have more, sexual harassment serves as one method of the
powerful asserting control over the powerless (S. Gayle Baugh,1997).”

The questionnaire garnered responses from 24 working women and this is the in-depth analysis of the
same. The questionnaire consisted of 7 questions and each question aimed to establish a different point.
The first question recorded what the women describe as sexual harassment. Each woman described it in
her own way but most of the answers were around the understanding that it’s an inappropriate remark or
behavior. Contrasts in impression of lewd behavior amongst men and women are additionally embroiled
in the ingenuity of provocation in the working environment. “It is not too surprising to find that women
tend to be more sensitive to sexual harassment concerns, given that women are primarily the targets of
harassment, and men are primarily the perpetrators (S. Gayle Baugh,1997).”
The second question asked whether women felt intimidated by their male co-workers and 45% of the
women said yes and on the third question when asked if they were more surrounded my male than female
workers 58% said yes. This is where the problem of power usually starts. Due to the greater presence of
men in numbers they start to feel more powerful be it in a superior position or not and this strength in
numbers thus intimidates the women. Apart from that the 7th question asked if the women have ever
received any comments regarding their looks to which 58% said yes. “Women in positions of power can
also be harassed by males who occupy less powerful positions. The employee devalues the women in
power by highlighting traditional gender stereotypes which reflect negatively on her (Robbins, Judge and
Vohra,2017).” When asked if a male superior has ever abused their power in the presence of the women a
staggering 39% said yes. This further re-iterates the point that power truly rears its ugly head once the
superior gains that positioning in an organization so as to believe that he is untouchable. Power corrupts
and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Add to that the already socially established power differential
between a woman and a man, there is an inherent and acquired abuse of power.
Prior to 1997 there weren’t any strict rules to control this abuse in power. However, in 1997, a social
worker named Bhanvari Devi was brutally gang-raped for stopping a child marriage. Following this a PIL
was filed against the state of Rajasthan and the Union of India by Vishakha and other women groups to
enforce the fundamental rights of working women under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of
India. “Following this the Vishakha Guidelines were introduced which were a set of procedural guidelines
for use in India in cases of sexual harassment in the workplace followed by the introduction of the Sexual
Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act in 2013(Press
Information Bureau, 2013).”
Since 1997 most organizations have guidelines regarding sexual Harassment in the workplace because of
which in the questionnaire when asked if the environment was open enough to register complaints, 62%
of the women said yes.

A very important aspect of this abuse of power is the equation of the power differential that is present in
most cases of sexual harassment in the workplace. “There exists an unequal power relationship where
formal power gives the supervisor the capacity to reward and coerce (Robbins, Judge and Vohra,2017).”
A very strong example of this would be the recent case that was brought up against Larry Nassar, who
was the physiotherapist for the American women’s gymnast team. Larry Nassar, sexually abused more
265 women over the past 2 decades and the only thing which made this possible was the power
differential system which was at play. (BBC News,2018) These women were professional athletes and, in
their workplace, they were abused by a man in greater power who won over their trust and once they
realized what was happening, he then coerced them to remain quite about it if they didn’t want it to affect
their professional lives. Out of fear of not wanting to miss out on an Olympic opportunity and out of fear
of what would happen these women stayed quite for 20 years. This highlights a very important aspect of
sexual harassment wherein since workers need great audits, compensation increments, and so forth,
administrators control assets most representatives think are critical and rare and because of this dread of
passing up a great opportunity for these assets the casualty remains quiet. Another very important aspect
of power in an organization comes into play here wherein once these men gain a higher position their
sense of power increases and they begin to abuse it. Nassar was a highly regarded doctor with great
accolades and even if the women came up no one believed them because here was a man in great power
and so well reputed no one ever thought to check twice.
What’s more is that it came to light that several members of the Gymnastics Board were aware of this but
took no action because they chose to believe Larry Nassar’s word over the women. This kind of behavior
has been noticed in so many cases of workplace harassment where women are afraid to come out and talk
about it and even if they do often they are not believed.

However, steps are being taken to ensure that sexual harassment at the workplace is not such a recurring
phenomenon anymore. Aside from the organizational imbalance that it causes it also results in a lot of
psychological damage to the women which affects their work and their mental health. “Female targets
also experience tension, anger, and anxiety, while a more limited number experience depression or guilt.
It also causes decreased job satisfaction, decreased organizational commitment, and increased levels of
stress (S. Gayle Baugh,1997).” In India, as stated before, The Sexual Harassment of Women at
Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 makes it illegal to sexually harass women
in the workplace. It talks about the different ways in which someone can be sexually harassed and how
they can complain against this kind of behavior. Following this the percentage of sexual harassment in
offices has reduced a significant amount.

No one ever implies that power is a bad thing. The power that one has in a senior position can we used
for good. It can be used to bring about equal employment of both men and women, equal pay for both and
equal treatment of both genders. Power placed in the right hands can do miracle for an organization. It can
reduce the percentages of the study drastically to ensure women have a safe workspace and are not
constantly in fear of what might happen. What the stud is trying to show is that more often than not the
superiors in power tend to be men and these men then begin to abuse this power, initially in small way but
finally it leads to a lot of problems. Spiderman once said that “With great power comes great
responsibility”. It is the hands of these superiors to not misuse this power and instead use it for good.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1. S. Gayle Baugh,1997, On the Persistence of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace, Journal of

Business Ethics, Vol. 16, No. 9, Women in Corporate Management, pp. 899-908 Retrieved from:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25072957
2. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42894833
3. Robbins, Judge and Vohra, 2017, Organizational Behavior, (16th Ed.)
4. http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=95069
5.