Makueni County Sexual Harassment at the Workplace Policy 2022

Abstract

Sexual harassment is a form of discrimination that occurs when unwelcome sexual advances or a wide range of verbal or physical sexual conduct unreasonably interferes with a person’s job or creates an intimidating or offensive work atmosphere. Men and women are likely to experience and perceive sexually harassing behaviors differently because of gender inequality and culturally prescribed expressions of sexuality. Both women and men suffer sexual violence and harassment but current statistics show that women are more disadvantaged than men and with more consequences respectively. In many instances, women are significantly less tolerant of harassment and are thus more likely to see these behaviors as coercive and harmful. They are more likely to perceive the harasser negatively. To men, their masculinity encourages them to perceive of themselves as predators or protectors rather than targets (victims) of such harassment behavior and in most cases will not report the incident. The harassment syndrome in general is found in all age and sex groups but never the less, young women remain the most frequent targets. Sexual violence and harassment in the work place has become critical and threatens to tear apart the organizational fabric in many countries today. Too often sexual harassment has been viewed as 'just a woman's issue’ however, men also fall victims of sexual harassment and violence.