akes the working conditions hostile and unpleasant by putting indirect pressure on her to leave the job. Sometimes the employee is so traumatized by the harassment that she suffers serious emotional and physical consequences.Prior to the 1980s there were no federal or state laws prohibiting sexual harassment on the job. Sexual discrimination in employment became illegal in the United States when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was adopted. That Act established the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC), which later issued important regulations and guidelines on sexual harassment. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in employment based on race, color, religion or national origin. Discrimination on the basis of sex was not included. It was attached to the bill at the last moment by southerners who introduced an amendment prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex.After convincing the EEOC to begin enforcing the law against sex discrimination, women faced the problem of stopping sexual harassment in the workplace. The term sexual harassment wasnt mentioned anywhere in the Civil Rights Act and many women argued that sexual harassment was a form of sex discrimination. They felt that laws prohibiting discrimination should outlaw harassment as well. Most courts considering the issue early on refused to pin down whether the Civil Rights Act prohibited sexual harassment. They characterized harassment cases as some sort of personal dispute between the woman employee and her harasser that was not covered by the law. Womens groups kept pressing the issue urging the EEOC to rule that sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination and that harassment makes it impossible for women to work in certain types of situations. Finally in 1980, the EEOC issued regulations defining sexual harassment and stating that it was a form of sex discrimination prohibited by the Civil Rights Act. It wasnt until 1986 that the...
