Sexual Harassment In Academia: Economic And Legal Implications

Abstract

Field of academia has faced allegations made by students, workers and educators with problem of
 sexual harassment. Most of the time the higher education institution have either ignored the problem or
 coping with it quietly (privately) or by quieting student victims of such harassment. Definition and
 attitudes towards sexual harassment is among the problem. Most of the definitions include the act of
 power over the victims, the unwanted behavior according to the victims, negative harms such as
 distress or interference with activities and many other different types of specific behavior. Some of the
 theoretical foundations related to sexual harassment include power relations, gender, environmental,
 organizational and individual influences. Conflict and role theory also closely related to understanding
 sexual harassment behavior. The types of sexual harassment commonly identified are; (a) sexist
 remarks or behavior: (b) inappropriate and offensive, but sanction-free sexual advances: (c) solicitation
 of sexual activity by promise of rewards: (d) coercion of sexual activity by threat of punishment; and (e)
 sexual crimes. Sexual harassment may contribute to an undetermined extent to many aspects of
 women's employment experience, including absenteeism, turnover, productivity rates and work
 motivation, job dissatisfaction, and unemployment. This paper intends to identify the legal definition, the
 forms and types of sexual harassment that took place in the academia, some of the coping strategies
 adopted by the victims, the study and work relate as well as the economic and legal implications that
 arise out of this victimization practiced by the perpetrators. On this basis, higher education institutions
 should clearly state their policies on the prohibition of sexual harassment, avenues of complaint, and
 sanctions for incidents, and suggests comprehensive sexual harassment law to be enacted to deal with
 sexual harassment that encroach in every sphere of life so that some kind of legal protection can be
 offered at any time.