hose menwho had also been victims of harassment because there would not be anygrounds for a lawsuit. Under these circumstances, the district court onlyrecognizes sexual harassment when an employer avoids such charges due to thefact that employees are against this kind of harassment. Thus, these casesprove that the courts have a narrow interpretation of "sex discrimination"and views inappropriate sexual conduct in the workplace as an issue to bedecided under criminal law. The court believes that sexual harassment is notsex discrimination because it proves that discrimination was based on thewillingness or non-willingness to engage in sexual activity rather thangender. Another famous case, which had a strong impact on today's society, was Hillvs. Thomas. In 1992, Anita Hill sued Clarence Thomas, a well-respectedpolitician, for sexual harassment. The court ruled in favor of Thomasbecause they believed that her argument wasn't strong enough. As a result ofthis, Anita Hill began a feminist movement ranging from college campuses tothe U.S. Navy. She also encouraged women to run for political office,inspiring academic scholarships and debate. She has a awaken many people tothe injury of sexual harassment conflicts. (Caggiano, 111-114)6The rate of sexual harassment increased dramatically in recent years. Mostrespondents think that sexual harassment is a major problem in this country. Not surprisingly, 82% of women and 43% of men recognize this problem in oursociety. Only 42% categorize it as a minor problem. During 1987, a spokesmanwho works in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Company realizedthat the agency's limited statistics on the number of claims filed were notpublished. At this time, the agency began to collect and record this data. The number of claims filed since that year has been unbelievable. There were5,499 reported cases in 1988. In 1989 there were 5,623 cases and the caseshave been increasing annually. By 1993, 64% of ...
