Moreover in 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court broadened the reach of this law by making it easier to prove injury. As a result, sexual harassment in the work place presents a clear and present danger to businesses. Companies must act now; otherwise they face increasing risk of liability (Mcafee2).
Ever since sexual harassment received attention, there is often very little understanding and confusion among employers and employees of what constitutes sexual harassment in the work setting. People sometimes commit acts, which may be construed as sexual harassment without even being aware of it and employers faced with such instances of sexual harassment often are not prepared to deal with such situations. The term sexual harassment was coined in American in the early 1970s to describe unwanted sexual attention. According to Sue Read, this was simply formal recognition of a factor so all pervading in social life that it has been taken entirely for granted since time immemorial (9). Specifically defined, sexual harassment at work means sexual attentions that are unwanted, repeated and affect an individual's job, either his or her performance or an individual's expectations (Read 11). Read states that American experience stems from cases brought by women against their employers under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which defines it more discursively as "requests for sexual favors and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature (which become) sexual harassment when submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's employment, or submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual has the purpose of effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment- (Read 12).
To clear the confusion on this topic, the courts have developed a distinction between two forms of sexual harassment, which sometimes overlap.
