Deck 15: Sexual Harassment

Question 1

Surveys of government, university, and private sector employees indicate that

A) fifty percent of working women have been subjected to some form of harassment in the work place.
B) almost all women have been subjected to some form of harassment in the work place.
C) women are never harassed in the work place.
D) none of the above.

Answer 1

fifty percent of working women have been subjected to some form of harassment in the work place.

Question 2

The legislation that became the basis for sexual harassment suits was

A) Roe vs. wade
B) The 1964 civil rights act
C) Brown vs. Board of Education
D) Muller vs. Oregon e.

Answer 2

The 1964 civil rights act

Question 3

Title VII allows women to sue employers for sexual harassment because

A) sexual harassment is a form of discrimination based on gender
B) If it wasn't legal, radical, liberal, feminist leaders would cause a social upheaval
C) Both A and B
D) Neither A nor B

Answer 3

sexual harassment is a form of discrimination based on gender

Question 4

In the amicus brief submitted by the APA about harassing behavior, the APA argued _______ that should be considered elements of a hostile environment

A) Psychological injury
B) Sexual stereotyping
C) Both A and B
D) Neither A or B

Question 5

When looking at research on how gender affects perception of sexual harassment, studies have found

A) No differences in the way men and women view sexual harassment.
B) Large differences in the way men and women view sexual harassment.
C) Small differences in the way men and women view sexual harassment.
D) Moderate differences in the way men and women view sexual harassment.

Question 6

Problems with the "reasonable woman standard" may be

A) Enshrining gender as the basis for judgment, therefore, leading to more negative stereotypes of women
B) that it gives courts little guidance about what standards should be used when women harass men
C) Both A and B
D) Neither A nor B

Question 7

Researchers have attempted assess the prevalence of sexual harassment of men using the same scale they used for women. This may not be valid because

A) Men may not perceive a certain behavior as harassing, whereas women may.
B) Men may experience behaviors that are offensive and upsetting, but they may not be on the scale.
C) Women oriented scales assume an opposite sex harasser, whereas many men may be harassed by other men
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 8

In the Oncale opinion, the Supreme Court

A) Recognized that the civil rights act doesn't list homosexuals as protected group, so same sex harassment cases could not be tried under title VII
B) Recognized that context and gender differences may affect the responses and perceptions of both men and women, therefore, in appropriate contexts, same sex harassment cases can be tried under title VII
C) Decided to do away with title VII altogether because it produced constant confusion and arguing
D) Had nothing to do with title VII

Question 9

_______ are issues that may arise when implementing sexual harassment policies in schools

A) The difficulty that special ed. teachers may face about not being able to touch students who may be mentally retarded and need that kind of stimulation in order to learn
B) The difficulty mentors may face of not being able to administer genuine affection and of being accused of sexual harassment
C) Both A and B
D) Neither A nor B

Question 10

According to the Supreme Court, when an educator at a school is charged with sexual harassment

A) The school is automatically financially liable
B) The school is not financially liable unless administrators knew what was going on and did not try to intervene
C) The accused educator can keep his position at the school if he faces a review board and writes a thorough apology to the victim and his or her family
D) A and C only.

Question 11

How is sexual harassment defined?

Question 12

What is the significance of Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins? How did psychological research contribute to the case?

Question 13

What do your authors suggest may be an unintended consequence of using a reasonable woman standard in hostile environment litigation? How do you assess the strength of this argument?

Question 14

What drawbacks have there been to using standards for women in cases of male and same-sex harassment?

Question 15

How do standards for schools in sexual harassment cases differ from standards for other workplaces?

Question 16

The problem of sexual harassment may have grown because of the

A) increased presence of women in the work place
B) equal opportunity employment legislation enabling women to enter occupations where few women had been employed before
C) resistance of male workers to encroachment on their domains by women workers
D) all of the above

Question 17

Civil rights legislation banning discrimination in employment

A) has been interpreted to include harassing behaviors based on gender
B) was never intended to include gender discrimination in employment because such discrimination was traditional
C) was passed only because there were clear norms in the workplace governing the behavior of men and women toward each other
D) was unconstitutional because there were no objective standards for gender discrimination

Question 18

The law and policies prohibiting sexual harassment has a "therapeutic" purpose of

A) helping harassers to gain insight into their behavior
B) to give a legal tool to socially and occupationally less powerful woman in the workplace so that problems of harassment could be controlled
C) inoculating victims of sexual harassment against its worst psychological effects
D) requiring sexual harassers to go into psychotherapy

Question 19

Surveys of sexual harassment reveal that the most likely worksite for sexual harassment is

A) an all male work environment
B) an all female work environment
C) a traditionally male work environment in which women enter
D) a traditionally female work environment in which males enter

Question 20

Surveys of sexual harassment reveal that

A) only a very few episodes of sexual harassment take place in most workplaces
B) there is an epidemic of legally actionable sexually harassing behaviors in workplaces, but no one pays attention to the behaviors
C) the procedures for enforcement are so "user friendly" that just about everyone who has a legally actionable complaint files a claim
D) unwanted sexual attention, or hostile behaviors related to gender make the workplace stressful for many people

Question 21

Sexual harassment in the workplace

A) can cause psychological distress and low morale on the job among other effects
B) is a minor problem because most victims just laugh it off
C) may make it uncomfortable for some, but it doesn't impact on worker productivity
D) may have been a problem before the sexual revolution, but more recent studies found workplace problems were much reduced when judged by the reasonable woman standard

Question 22

When civil rights legislation was passed calling for greater gender equality in hiring, firing, pay, promotion and educational opportunities was first passed by Congress

A) it was intended to cover sexual harassment as well
B) the idea that sexual harassment could be considered a form of sex discrimination was articulated later and help raise consciousness about the problem
C) sexual harassment was a problem only for highly paid women in private employment
D) was primarily a problem affecting low paid illegal immigrants who couldn't complain

Question 23

Quid pro quo harassment in the workplace

A) refers to ongoing sex-related verbal or physical contact that is welcome and is ordinary flirting
B) refers to the crimes of rape or attempted rape in the workplace
C) attempts to buy or extort sexual favors by threats, or promises of job related consequences (e.g promotions, pay increases etc.)
D) makes the company liable for damages if the harasser is a co-worker but not if he or she is a supervisor

Question 24

Hostile environment sexual harassment

A) refers to attempts to buy or extort sexual favors by threats, or promises of job related consequences (e.g promotions, pay increases etc.)
B) is simple, direct and precisely defined in the law
C) refers to the liability of a company for sexual discrimination in hiring, promotion, pay, transfers and firing
D) refers to ongoing sex-related verbal or physical contact that is unwelcome and offensive

Question 25

The U.S. Supreme Court in considering a case on gender discrimination in promotion

A) accepted sex stereotyping, a social science concept, as a potentially discriminating factor in a sex discrimination case
B) failed to recognize that women in employment situations may be in a double bind, expected to be aggressive and faulted for being aggressive
C) said the research on sex stereotyping presented in testimony to lower courts by a social psychologist, was not on point and shouldn't be considered
D) said that evidence of success in business relationships overcame any complaint of sex discrimination

Question 26

In a hostile environment sex discrimination suit, the U.S. Supreme Court said that

A) the standard for determining the existence of a hostile environment is highly ambiguous and can't be the basis for a legal suit
B) while there has to be some evidence the victim found the environment hostile or abusive, there need not be psychological damage as evidenced by entering treatment for psychological complaints
C) victims need not be concerned about entering treatment because this information would be privileged and cannot be admitted in evidence in a sexual harassment case
D) the victim's history of past sexual abuse may be introduced into evidence in a trial because it shows without a doubt that the woman acted seductively and thus provoked her victimization

Question 27

The research on sexual harassment and prior experiences of sexual abuse shows that

A) women who had a history of prior sexual abuse were much more sensitive to stimulus material depicting sexual harassment than were women who had no history of prior sexual abuse
B) women who had a history of prior sexual abuse had more psychological symptoms in the present than women who had no such histories
C) women who had a history of sexual abuse had no more psychological symptoms than women without such histories so present psychological distress was more likely to be related to sexual harassment than to her past history
D) a victim need not be concerned that her past sexual history will be revealed because she is protected both at trial and in the discovery phase from inquiry about her past sexual history

Question 28

To evaluate the social meaning of a behavior such as a hostile sexual environment, the legal system uses

A) an objective standard that means how a hypothetical reasonable person would evaluate the situation
B) a subjective standard that means how the particular person in the situation viewed it
C) a) but not b) if the claim is sexual harassment
D) a) and b) if the claim is sexual harassment

Question 29

Research on gender differences in perceptions of sexual harassment has shown that

A) there are no gender differences; males and females look at sexual harassment in the same way
B) in actual sexual harassment cases, use of the reasonable woman standard increased the percent of favorable verdicts for plaintiffs compared to the reasonable person standard
C) some advocates favor the use of the reasonable woman standard because it depicts women as reasonable, strong and not in need of protection
D) some advocates favor the reasonable woman standard because it attacks stereotypes that civil rights legislation was intended to correct

Question 30

In one study, looking at cases involving hostile environment claims heard by federal judges

A) the probability of a decision for the plaintiff was much higher if the judge had been appointed by a Democratic president than by a Republican president
B) the judge's gender, and race had a strong correlation with whether the plaintiff won
C) the judge's age made no difference in the percent of cases won by plaintiffs
D) the judges' decisions were influenced solely by the law and the facts of the case

Question 31

Hostile environment claims in sexual discrimination suits

A) have been praised by almost all advocates as establishing woman's equality in the workplace
B) has been criticized by almost all advocates because the suits portray women as strong predators eager to "cash in" on the law
C) has been criticized by some advocates because women are portrayed as victims unable to cope with an unwanted come-on or with vulgar language
D) according to some critics, protect women's equality at work rather than protect their virtue and sensibilities

Question 32

Hostile environment and quid pro quo claims

A) are essentially the same because in both cases some aspect of sexuality is involved
B) are essentially different because the employer's liability is different in the two types of cases
C) differ because quid pro quo claims are difficult to differentiate from ordinary socializing in the work place
D) are essentially the same because companies can limit their total liability by putting into place written policies and complaint procedures

Question 33

One problem with having a policy and a complaint process for sexual harassment in place is that

A) it will be overused and increase the number of court cases
B) it will be underused if it is too "user friendly"
C) employees may fear retaliation from supervisors or alienation from coworkers if they file a complaint
D) it will fail to educate employees about what constitutes sexual harassment

Question 34

Research on sexual harassment of men has shown that

A) the prevalence of sexual harassment experiences between men and women as judged by the filing of formal complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and state agencies is about the same
B) men are more likely to perceive behaviors such as flirting threatening than do women
C) the same research scales can be used with men and women because men and women attribute the same meaning to the items
D) many of the behaviors on a Scale of Sexual Harassment of Men were perceived by men as only "slightly upsetting"

Question 35

Hostile environment sexual discrimination complaints filed by men

A) were allowed by the Supreme Court because the issue is harassing conduct and it need not be motivated by sexual desire
B) were routinely denied because the legislation was interpreted to protect only women from men, and not men from women
C) will fail because the courts are highly prejudiced against homosexuals and will not perceive male complaints against other males as in the public interest
D) has led to a US Supreme Court decision that the severity of the harassment should be judged by a reasonable woman subjective standard

Question 36

The considerations governing findings of sexual harassment in the workplace

A) readily translated into rules for elementary pupils but not for colleges and university settings
B) are different in schools because behavior such as teachers touching children in the course of their work, or touching or teasing between boys and girls in play are normative
C) were inappropriate in colleges and universities because it is widely recognized that "mating behavior" even if not consensual is appropriate in college
D) were directly applicable because teachers do not have the responsibility to socialize pupils, but employers have a responsibility to socialize employees

Question 37

A local school district can be held liable for sexual harassment for a teacher who has sex with a pupil

A) only if the pupil is under the age of consent
B) but not if the two are in love
C) only if school officials knew about the relationship and deliberately ignored it
D) only if a Jay Leno joke brings the case to public attention

Question 38

A local school district can be held liable for behaviors of pupils that constitute sexual harassment

A) even if the behavior only consists of simple acts of teasing and name calling that occur occasionally
B) only if the boy involved is first convicted of sexual battery in juvenile court
C) only if they have a sexual harassment policy in place
D) if school officials knew of the behavior and acted with deliberate indifference or failed to stop the behavior when complaints were brought to their attention

Question 39

Bullying is a common problem in schools

A) but probably would probably not be actionable under the Civil Rights Act unless it had a sexual or racial component
B) but probably can readily be resolved by legal action public in school settings because it is an age-old problem
C) and needs to be addressed by immediate referral of all instances to the juvenile court for quick resolution
D) and can be resolved by having a complaint process in place that will be used readily by all pupils

Question 40

Anti harassment policies in schools that involve gay youth

A) are unimportant because openly gay youth are tolerated and accepted by their peers in most schools
B) are important because gay youth who are harassed may be more vulnerable to suicide attempts
C) are not helpful because gay youth would probably overuse the complaint process
D) are unimportant because school administrators as a matter of their duties are invariably tolerant and supportive of gay youth