"Ladies first?

" Well,

Treat Them with Respect!!

Research Techniques
American University in Kosova- AUK
Sexual harassment is one of the most damaging barriers that really influence persons and their performance on achieving career success. This paper presents the issue of sexual harassment. The main highlight of this paper is the answer to how women are sexually harassed and why this issue does really happen. It is the lack of respect for women and the lack of legal protection that makes the sexual harassment flow in the way that it does for so many years now. Being a serious problem, and affecting peoples professional life, it was always important for many researchers. The arguments that this paper argues are taken from various sources. They are taken from interviews with people knowledgeable on Women Issues and also by secondary sources from different online databases. Other additional information were taken from www.womensnetwork.org, IOM and Birn Association in Kosova.

Vlera Gusinja

Prishtina, 2009

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 3 (a) (b) Being a woman.......................................................................................................................... 3 How women are sexually harassed in their workplaces? .......................................................... 4

Section 1.02 (a) (b) (c) (d)

Measuring Sexual Harassment .................................................................................. 5

Quid Quo Pro and Hostile Environment Harassment ............................................................... 5 Lack of Respect by the Society ................................................................................................. 7 Lack of Legal System ............................................................................................................... 8 The prevention role ................................................................................................................... 9

Section 1.03 (a) (b) (c) (d)

Impact and Cases of Sexual Harassment ................................................................ 10

Cases Considered Sexual Harassment .................................................................................... 11 The Meaning of Communicative Language in the Workplace ............................................... 11 Table 1 .................................................................................................................................... 13 Circumstances of Workplace Sexual Harassment ................................................................... 13

Section 1.04 (a)

Effects of Sexual Harassment................................................................................... 14

Table 2 .................................................................................................................................... 15

Conclusion- Does it end?? .................................................................................................................. 17

Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................... 19

Appendix ................................................................................................................................................ 21

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja Introduction
(a) Being a woman People come in this world, and by the day that they breathe for the first time, they should be protected and respected. One of the primary rights of a human is to be treated fairly. Women are not an exception in this case. In the past, life conditions were hard accepted for everyone but since that was the reality people started to get used with it. During last decades, conditions of life changed dramatically especially for women. Contrasting with the past, nowadays women have many possibilities of work. They are being interacted in the society, and they became also a part of labor force. Therefore they started to have a great influent on life expectancies. But, despite this improvement, women still are dismissed and discriminated by the society. Most of the women in the world today are faced with choices that their mothers never had. A womens role in society was and still is that of raising children and managi ng household. In most of the cases they tend to be one step below men either on status or importance ranking, playing a secondary role. Especially in Kosova, the reality for women comparing for the rest of the Europe, is that women here are dismissed from labor force. Their life and choices are based on the reality of social traditional attitudes by not giving them any opportunity and making extremely dependent by their husbands and family, and on the traditional housework (Cutting the Lifeline, p. 22-23). That means, by basing their lives on a family and looking at the society traditions, females have little choice deciding for themselves.

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

(b) How women are sexually harassed in their workplaces? Many people ask this question; they could stand for hours talking about sexual harassment but never knowing to define how really happens. Many humans ask a question of are women protected by law and do they have the same rights as man? In real the answer is unpleasant regarding women. Females have the same rights as males, but, tradition and society made them have a lower social status. Women, especially in small places such as Kosova suffer from lack of proper protection from legal system since they do not give to much priority to females protection from sexual harassment. Even though world had changed and we are looking forward to live in a democratic environment, the world and society itself still discriminates people in different forms. Females still do not posses civil rights. Therefore females were and are being discriminated in different forms such as sexual harassment and restricting them to elementary jobs.

As sexual harassment has been developed with the time, cases against women won a bigger importance than before. In addition, females became the victims of sexual harassment in most of the cases. By its definition, Sexual Harassment is a human right issue as it is a form of violence against women and it has a special impact on females (Report on the Mekong SubRegional Workshop, par.3). Women were and still in many corners around the world, are in an inferior position than a harasser. According to Sever, from time to time females suffer from unsolicited sexual behavior such as sexual harassment in their employments or any other environment (p.2-4). The result from being exposed in this kind of situation is tremendous harmful. According to Luci, sexual harassment means any unwanted sexual behavior that affects individuals employment, its performance and creates an offensive environment. People feel less
4

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

comfort, almost when accomplishing their particular job in an environment surrounded by sexual harassment.

Section 1.02 Measuring Sexual Harassment

Work is a big part of a daily life, and it is related with all the surroundings that develop there, all the people who work there and entirely with the work environment. Sex and work are two areas that are mostly related, have a serious impact for both the workers and the company (Keyton and Menzie, par.1). People spend the biggest part of their life working; hence they have to experience and deal with many unwanted occasions around them. Based on many research done for sexual harassment, sexual harassment is a conduct based on sexual tactics that creates discomfort against recipients and, thus, in most of the cases is also understood as male behavior forced on women (Deborah, p.3-4). This is considered as a hard violation of human rights, and people for many centuries now are giving their best to prevent it. Therefore sexual harassment is a type of gender discrimination in form of sex (Prevention of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace and Educational Settings, p.1). Its impact on women and in society it is so negative that quite often leads to unwanted decisions. Suggestive comments, pornographic images, jokes with sexual material toward women, destroy women profile in many ways. (a) Quid Quo Pro and Hostile Environment Harassment

In its way, sexual harassment had been developed in two behavior forms in which is known in the world; quid quo pro and hostile environment harassment. The first one, quid quo pro harassment, includes cases when a supervisor has an authority to fire an employer, whenever

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

the worker which is woman in this case, fails to cooperate with the supervisor and his sexual conducts (Dansky, p.439), whereas hostile environment harassment involves behaviors, such as sexual comments, jokes that affect a person to do his/her job and by creating a hostile environment (Welsh, p.2). These two types of sexual behavior, exposed to the employees in work environment, somehow force the victim to cooperate with them. That is, quid pro quo harassment forces the victim of sexual harassment to cooperate with sexual harassment or otherwise, it will lose job benefits, and, hostile environment harassment makes people feel unpleasantly by creating an undesirable work environment (Combating Sexual Harassment at Work: Conditions of Work Digest, par, 9-10). In these two types, the women victim must give to the author of the crime some authorities regarding her. Dansky states that even though the supervisor has an authority to hire and fire provided by the employer who is harassed, the female victim does never give to the supervisor the authority to expose her to sexual conducts. Therefore, the supervisor is not acting within the boundaries of the company and manners of accomplishing work (p. 450). In such cases, sexual conducts might be considered as a crime. In addition, it passes the boundaries of the contracts done within the victim and the harasser and furthermore it is not acting in the proper way in the margins of the legal prospect. Within their boundaries, the quid quo pro and hostile environment harassment, might take different forms. According to Dansky, quid quo pro harassment can be both, direct and indirect. It is direct when a supervisor directly implies sexual conduct at women, and it is indirect when a supervisor indirectly manipulates the worker that her job will suffer if she does not cooperate with him (p.439); whereas hostile environment includes not proper discussions for gender roles, statements about women, sexual language when referring to each other in the workplace and

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

pornographic photos or images in offices (on work computers, printed images around the work environment or even in the offices) ( Berger Parker, p. 947). Quid quo pro and hostile environment sexual behaviors have their own form of being developed in workplaces, affecting females work life. Even though they might look somehow the same, when considered both as type of sexual behavior forms, they differ though. These two forms of sexual harassment, differ from each other in that in the quid quo pro harassment, the employer is directly manipulated by the conditions implied by the supervisor, while in the hostile environment harassment, the harasser or supervisor indirectly changes the employers conditions by engaging in different harassing moments (Dansky, p.439). That is, the victim must collaborate with the harasser in both cases, but the only difference is that in quid quo pro the harasser chooses a direct way, whether on the hostile environment, the harasser chooses the indirect one. (b) Lack of Respect by the Society

As stated above, sexual harassment can be understood in terms of legal and psychological aspects (Chelsea et al, par.9). Firstly, lack of respect for females in society, especially in the workplace, in some cases leads to sexual harassment. Traditional social attitudes toward women in Kosova resulted in discrimination and sexual harassment. Luci states that females in Kosova have little ability to make their own decisions. Main highlights when doubting about why the sexual harassment occurs are the dominance of male in society based on patriarchal system of living; the reality of the society point of view is that people are not used to seeing females in positions of power especially outside the home.

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

Women, who work in jobs that traditionally are leaded by men, have more possibilities of being sexually harassed than other working women (Schultz, p.2). People are subjective against women having a strong position in a workplace and tend to believe in positive female role models in workplace. Often, females are more to be restricted to low-paid and unsecure employments (Workplace Discrimination, p.1). It is not all about sex rather than it is sexism in the employment. Usually, sexual desires do not lead to sexual harassment rather than often, all of it is about protecting own work based on male authority over females in society in general (Schultz, p.1). That means, the most common cases why the sexual behaviors occur are because the higher authority that men have from the society. Because of lack of legal and society impediments, relatively few women could maintain upper-level positions. Most of employers feel that women are not capable of being strong and aggressive leaders. This phenomenon makes it hard for a woman to do her work efficiently and it is a violation of a human right since she is restricted by the society overall. Welsh remarks that sexual harassment often lets women feel less welcome in workplaces and less respected by the work group (p. 170). It becomes even harder when analyzing what is considered as sexual harassment. Thus women tend to participate in the workplace as they should because of the harassment on them. This and other factors result on restricting women to primary jobs and not believing in their capacity of accomplishing high level jobs.
(c) Lack of Legal System

The legal system and many public institutions do not make the proper protection of females in workplace and, thus, resulting, in some cases, in sexual harassment. Women have the

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

same legal rights as men but traditionally they have a lower social status, which affects their treatment within the legal system. In Kosova, a specific law for sexual harassment doesnt exist. Even though, the law against discrimination, which functions here, it is considered to protect and fight also against sexual harassment. Kosova law against discrimination states that its aim is to fight the discrimination, increase the level of sex equality and to treat equally all the citizens of Kosova before law (Kosova Republic, Parliament 2004). Being aware for this, society must take actions and play a strong role in the direction of protecting female rights in workplaces. It is more than essential for a society to know the importance of human dignity, the respect of their rights and understanding the sensitivity for issues such as sexual harassment. (d) The prevention role

Women have the right to fight against discrimination and carve a place for themselves in our society as being a part of it. Females, most of the times do not raise their voice against discrimination cases and sexual harassment. According to Welsh, most of the women do not report the harassment case; they just avoid it, or maybe negotiate with the harasser (p 182). When avoiding such cases, a person who is harassed might have slightly different troubles related to its performance in the workplace. As Schultz states, in general sexual harassments popular view falls into the boarders of to narrow and too broad. It is to narrow because when focusing on prevention of sexual harassment, people overlook forms of gender discrimination; and it is too broad because many companies ban all cases that have to deal with sexual interaction even though those that do not discriminate women (p.2). Effects that sexual harassment gives on person are tremendously damageable for both the victim and the workplace.

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

Therefore, in a personal harm the effects of sexual harassment result in a negative work behavior, lower morale, in high rates of turnover, lower motivation and lower job performance (Barak, par. 4-5). These negative effects of sexual harassment have a big impact on a victim work performance that results in damaging the workplace too.

Section 1.03 Impact and Cases of Sexual Harassment

As being a serious issue that affects peoples moral, performance and other, sexual harassment can occur in a variety of situations. These situations include various types of cases and each of them has its own meaning and its own purpose for why is being undertaken. Sexual harassment is more considered an offense rather than e crime. Luci remarks that it might fall in place where it is counted as a crime whenever the place where it happens has a specific law or regulation that might end up the harasser in a court. By being such a complicated issue and needing a lot of attention even though people tend to put on it, it includes many factors that cause it. When determining sexual harassment, various factors may be taken into consideration: whether the sexual behavior was unwelcome or offensive to the specific victim; whether it was repeated even after considered as a sexual behavior; whether the conduct included ones power over another; the type of conduct: verbal, physical, hostile, disruptive, continuous, pervasive, or provoking; whether sexual behaviors were based in the preferential handling over someone and caused an unwanted work environment; and whether a sexual conduct had a negative effect in a person (Prevention of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace, p.1). The importance of considering these types of factors helps one to enter within the boundaries to determine sexual harassment and know what to take into a consideration.

10

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

(a) Cases Considered Sexual Harassment Cases of unwelcome sexual behaviors, sexual conducts and other are considered to be sexual harassment, first, when such conducts are a condition of an individuals work; second, when rejection to such conducts is used for workplace decisions that might affect the victim; third when such conducts have as its aim to interfere an individuals performance and create a non desirable environment (Prevention of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace, par.5). Because of its impact on a person work life, these cases might be studied for knowing what the limits of sexual harassment scope are. Conducts such as unwanted touches, sexual assaults, sexual pornographic pictures and such, often are not so well understood by people and even defined as a sexual conduct against a person (Johnson and Sacco, p.290). Knowing this little about its impact, the high cost that sexual harassment plays on both the workers and employers, leaded in the implementation of policies and some regulations within the company.

(b) The Meaning of Communicative Language in the Workplace Keyton and Menzie remarks that, when defining cases of sexual harassment, we must know that sexual harassment as an occurrence, bases its stems on words and language and whenever this language might be understood as act, it will be because it is a sexual harassment (p. 88). That is, even though sexual harassment is based on words and sexual language, the result of it are acts that take a victim in a hostile environment. As some scholars stated, sexual harassment it is developed through the same process that people at work use it-verbal and nonverbal communication. Since people at work communicate with each other to achieve the goals of work, the conversation used at work is the form through which relations between employers are maintained and the language by which the sexual harassment is expressed (Keyton
11

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

and Menzie, p.88). The casual language within the company is used for everyday communication with the colleges, and that helps the development of sexual harassment.

According to Luci, some of the examples that might be considered as sexual harassment includes but is not limited to the following:

* Offensive words on clothing, and unwelcome comments and repartee. This type of harassments creates an environment that a victim might not support and not feel relaxed in his/her employment. * Touching and any other bodily contact such as scratching or patting a coworker's back, grabbing an employee around the waist, or interfering with an employee's ability to move. * Repeated requests for dates that are turned down or unwanted flirting. * Transmitting or posting emails or pictures of a sexual or other harassment-related nature. * Displaying sexually suggestive objects, pictures, or posters. * Playing sexually suggestive music and Sexually explicit language that creates hostile working environment for the victim, in this case women. The use of sexually explicit language often has as a purpose to maintain women out from work or any other environment since most of the women find it irritating to work in such environment with sexually material exposed to them (Combating Sexual Harassment at Work: Conditions for Work Digest, par.6). In such environment, victims often tend to realize and perform as they should in normal conditions and often many of them resulting in turnover. In cases when a male is a harasser and women is a victim, which is the most common type of the sexual harassment, aim of the harassment is to create conditions where a victim cannot support the atmosphere and it will result on leaving the job or going in a lower position. Therefore male will profit from this case. The percentage of women living these types of 12

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

sexual conducts differs from place to place and work to work. In Canada the percentage of females experiencing different forms of sexual violence is shown in the table below (Johnson and Sacco, p.294):

(c) Table 1

(d) Circumstances of Workplace Sexual Harassment

Sex discrimination at work still is a global problem differing and resulting in new forms and cases. Beginning of these cases are usually progressed by hope, therefore, many research says that these cases should be more aware and increase concern about it. Many of forms of discrimination have evolved during the time, but some still exist and thus, being a serious problem presenting new forms such as sexual harassment (Workplace Discrimination, p. 1). Since it happens very often and in every place

13

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

considered as work, it includes many types of forms. Luci states that the most common circumstances, in which ones the sexual harassment occurs are: * The victim as well as the harasser may be a woman or a man. The victim does not have to be of the opposite sex. * The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, an agent of the employer, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or a non-employee. * The victim does not have to be the person harassed but could be anyone affected by the offensive conduct. * Unlawful sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to or discharge of the victim. * The harasser's conduct must be unwelcome. These are the most often circumstances in which this issue extreme falls. They are not restricted or limited only to these situations.

Section 1.04 Effects of Sexual Harassment

As stated above, sexual harassment is unwanted sexual behavior against a person that in most of the cases results in tremendous effects. Although the study of sexual harassment has become increasingly sophisticated, conceptualizations of womens experiences continue to lack the complexity of the experiences themselves (Magley, p. 930). Even though sexual harassment it is not anymore an unknown issue, notwithstanding problems in this field still exist. These common problems mostly are related with no reporting experiences of sexual harassment. According to Luci, sexual assaults in Kosova are very common, but women here tend to report the assaults for they are afraid of the society judgment toward them. In contrary in other places of the world such as America, Great Britain, Canada, the number of reporting such cases is
14

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

somehow bigger, since the case of experiencing it is more common. According to a research done in Canada, is found that 51% of women have experienced at least one case of sexual harassment as it is demonstrated in the table below (Johnson and Sacco, p.293-294).

(a) Table 2

As a social problem, sexual harassment has a strong negative impact and plays a strong role on influencing victims in different ways. Its pressure on a person, leads to negative reaction by the side of the victim. These reactions, as defined above, show that sexual harassment in workplace, might have consequences such as lowered morale, lower job satisfaction, less motivation, absenteeism, and bad work-relationships (Welsh, p.183). The sexual behavior in the work daily life, affect a person in the negative way by influencing these problems to the working company too.

15

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

First of all, inside the employment should exist types of policies or regulations that protect a person from the sexual behaviors. Dansky remarks that the law itself should encourage a type of policy for sharing information within the company between employer and employee. These type of policies might help the victim of the case to be somehow protected by the sexual harassment. By having this policy, when facing sexual harassment, the victim will report the case by a specific manner that the company puts, and then the employer might revise and take actions for the specific situation (p. 457). When having these policies within company, if respected, many cases might go to the court and then into examination by the existing laws. Despite many country regulations and laws against it, many types of protection and fights, and dollars spent on the prevention of it, sexual harassment still effects psychologically and physically people in workplace (Keyton and Menzie, p. 87). The impact of sexual conducts against females, affect them psychologically and physically that blocks their work conditions. According to Sever, sexual harassment blocks a woman by feeling relaxed in work environment, hostile her personality, and dropping her only to sex objects (p. 9). Therefore, sexual harassment in the workplace creates an environment that has a negative impact on persons performance, its motivations for accomplishing something and its effectiveness. By not being in a desirable environment and relaxed work conditions, a person who is sexually discriminated, affects not only its own personality, rather than the company and the people surrounding him/her. When observing cases of sexual harassment, in one research done, scientists wanted to get information of how a person deals when is sexually harassed. Therefore they asked the victims what of these actions do they take: ignore the sexual behavior against them; avoid the harasser; ask from the harasser to stop that type of conduct; or report the

16

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

behavior to those persons responsible for. The case of avoidance, ignorance and ask for stop were more passive responses, whereas, the case or reporting seemed to be more active (Magley, p.930). Although, still differs its form inside countries around the world, as they primarily differ in traditions, culture, legal systems and such.

Conclusion- Does it end??

In conclusion, sexual harassment has been a relatively recent phenomenon. As an issue being discussed a long time ago, in its conclusions it is found that does not have the proper fight against it; neither by law nor by the society overall. Sexual harassment, which is considered also as sex discrimination on a person, fells its extreme in two types of harassment such as Quid Quo Pro harassment and Hostile environment harassment, where the first behavior is somehow considered direct and the second one indirect. Even though many types of discrimination have already vanished, sexual harassment still is a global problem that affects people universally. As a result from lack of respect by society, women are not respected by society and people tend to believe them as strong leaders which often leads to sexual harassment.

By not having a proper protection against sexual harassment, women are always in a lower status than men. Therefore, females are the ones who most experience the sexual harassment. In addition, women experience a negative impact that sexual harassment has for both, the victim and the company or employment place. According to Chelsea et al, sexual harassment damages womens career success (p. 1). Most of the effects are that people are less effective in their workplace environment, feel less respected, low job satisfaction, and also less communicative with colleagues when being harassed. Sexual harassment also increases the level
17

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

of turnover by its impact on persons (Chelsea et al, p. 12). The turnover becomes higher from the experience of the cases of depression, nervousness, anger that are results of sexual conducts over a person. However, even though in most of the cases is considered as grey area without no protection, no fight, no conclusion, sometimes it is useful a part of it. Experiencing this cruel reality, it might lead to undertake training programs for its prevention. Therefore the issue itself will gain more attention and it will be more sensitive for all. So, do not, under any circumstances make them feel ashamed of what they are; support them in all spheres of life, because women are worthy!!

18

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

Bibliography Barak, Azy. "A cognitive-behavioral educational workshop to combat sexual harassment in the workplace." Journal of Counseling & Development 72, no. 6 (July 1994): 595. Academic Search Elite, EBSCOhost (accessed May 7, 2009). Berger Parker, Kristin H. "Ambient Harassment under Title VII: Reconsidering The Workplace Environment." Northwestern University Law Review, (2008 Special Issue 2008), 945986, Academic Search Elite, EBSCOhost (accessed May 14, 2009). Chelsea R Willness, Piers Steel, Kibeom Lee. "A Meta-Analysis of the Antecedents and Consequences of Workplace Sexual Harassment." Personnel Psychology 60, no. 1 (April 1, 2007): 127-162 (accessed May 7, 2009). "Combating sexual harassment at work: Conditions of work digest." Women's International Network News 19, no. 1: 7. Academic Search Elite. (Accessed April 6, 2009). Cutting the Lifeline. Rep. Berlin- Istanbul: www.eisweb.org, 2006. < http://www.esiweb.org/pdf/esi_document_id_80.pdf> (Accesed, May 4, 2009) Dansky, Stacey. "Eliminating strict employer liability in quid pro quo sexual harassment cases." Texas Law Review 76, no. 2 (December 1997): 435. Academic Search Elite, EBSCOhost (accessed May 13, 2009). "ILO: Workplace Discrimination." Women's International Network News 29, no. 4 (October 2003): 11-11. Academic Search Elite, EBSCOhost (accessed May 7, 2009). Johnson, Holly, and Vincent F. Sacco. "Researching violence against women: Statistics Canada's national survey." Canadian Journal of Criminology 37, no. 3 (July 1995): 281. Academic Search Elite, EBSCOhost (accessed May 20, 2009). Keyton, Joann, and Kathy Menzie. "Sexually Harassing Messages: Decoding Workplace Conversation." Communication Studies 58, no. 1 (March 2007): 87-103. Academic Search Elite, EBSCOhost (accessed May 8, 2009). Lee, Deborah. 1998. "Sexual harrasment in PhD supervision." Gender & Education 10, no. 3: 299. Academic Search Elite. (accessed March 30, 2009). Luci, Nita. Personal Interview. April 16, 2009. Magley, Vicki J. "Coping With Sexual Harassment: Reconceptualizing Women's Resistance." Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 83, no. 4 (October 2002): 930-946. Academic Search Elite, EBSCOhost (accessed May 7, 2009). "Prevention of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace and Educational Settings." Pediatrics 106, no. 6: 1498. Academic Search Elite, (accessed April 4, 2009). "Report on The Mekong Sub-Regional Workshop at Bangkok, Thailand: 'Strategies to Combat Sexual Harassment at Work'." Women's International Network News 29, no. 1: 68. Academic Search Elite, (accessed April 6, 2009). Republic of Kosova. Parliament of Kosova. Law Against Discrimination. PSSP: Republic of Kosova, 2004. <http://www.assembly-kosova.org/?cid=1,191,112> Schultz, Vicki. "Sex is the least of it." Nation 266, no. 19 (May 25, 1998): 11-15. Academic Search Elite, EBSCOhost (accessed May 1, 2009). Sev'er, Aysan. "Sexual Harassment: Where We Were, Where We Are and Prospects for the New Millennium." Canadian Review of Sociology & Anthropology 36, no. 4 (November 1999): 469-497. Academic Search Elite, EBSCOhost (accessed May 7, 2009).
19

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

Welsh, Sandy. "Gender and Sexual Harassment." Annual Review of Sociology 25, no. 1 (August 1999): 169. Academic Search Elite, EBSCOhost (accessed May 7, 2009).

20

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

Appendix Researching Violence Against Women: Statistics Canadas Survey

21

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

22

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

23

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

Interview with Nita Luci

1. What is considered as sexual harassment nowadays? What is the reality of it?
Nita Luci: Definitions of sexual harassment today are much more sophisticated then they were a couple of years ago. There are also a number of definitions and it depends on the institutional policy one refers to, e.g. universities, businesses, government institutions, etc. You can reference some different documents to compare. See the Kosova Law Against Discrimination. The info below can be found online: According to a current issues update from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), sexual harassment occurs, "when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment." Examples of Sexual Harassment Sexual harassment can occur in a variety of situations. These are examples of sexual harassment, not intended to be all inclusive. * offensive words on clothing, and unwelcome comments and repartee. * Touching and any other bodily contact such as scratching or patting a coworker's back, grabbing an employee around the waist, or interfering with an employee's ability to move. * Repeated requests for dates that are turned down or unwanted flirting. * Transmitting or posting emails or pictures of a sexual or other harassment-related nature. * Displaying sexually suggestive objects, pictures, or posters. * Playing sexually suggestive music. Sexual harassment can occur in a variety of circumstances, including but not limited to the following: * The victim as well as the harasser may be a woman or a man. The victim does not have to be of the opposite sex. * The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, an agent of the employer, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or a non-employee. * The victim does not have to be the person harassed but could be anyone affected by the offensive conduct. * Unlawful sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to or discharge of the victim. * The harasser's conduct must be unwelcome.

2. At what point does sexual harassment is considered as a crime?

24

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

Nita Luci: It is considered a crime if and when the particular context where it occurs (at work, at school, etc.) also has a law or regulation about sexual violence. Sexual harassment is usually not considered a crime (legally) rather an offense.

3. When a person that is harassed should report the incident?

Nita Luci: At any time they believe that someone has harassed them as defined in dispositions provided for in law, regulation, or policy.

4. What is the law against sexual harassment?

Nita Luci: Usually there are codes of conduct and regulations (for example in universities), or paragraphs within laws against discrimination that regulate this. See http://www.assembly-kosova.org/?cid=1,191,112 (Kosovo law on discrimination) and also http://www.assembly-kosova.org/?cid=1,191,103 (Law on gender equality) to see how it is regulated in Kosova.

5. What policies should exist in employments for protecting persons from sexual harassment?
Nita Luci: Specific regulations and codes of conduct (which should also be punishable by law) should exist. Above I have offered some definitions.

6. Are there any contracts made with the employees for protection from sexual harassment? If so, what type?
Nita Luci: Such contracts do not exist explicitly; rather each employer (each institutions, organization) should posses a code of conduct and/or regulation which also includes sexual harassment. Even when those are missing, when laws against discrimination exist victims of harassment can sue. The relevance of sexual harassment regulations is that they also include a number of things (such as the jokes, etc. mentioned above) that the law does not include. So, the law against discrimination can protect you from certain things but not from everything that is also included in specific regulations. This is why regulations and 25

Ladies First? Well, Treat Them with Respect!! Vlera Gusinja

codes are important. Laws are usually general and the special administrative requests and regulations are issued to offer additional needed dispositions.

7. What actions are taken if a victim does not want for several reasons to sue that person?
Nita Luci: Usually not much. I would have to see if some places (employees, institutions, etc.) allow coworkers to sue in the name of the person being harassed. For example right now a law against domestic violence is being written in Kosova and this law will allow people apart from the victim of violence (e.g. neighbors, family members, friends, etc.) to bring charges. I am not sure that this is yet possible with sexual harassment.

8. Are you aware of any cases of sexual harassment here in Kosova? If so, please mention some.
Nita Luci: I have been confided to but certain people who have been harassed. Professors for example who use inappropriate language or abuse their power, also bosses at work who misuse their authority. There have also been some cases that went to court.

26