Home > Great American Court Cases > Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is one form of sexual discrimination prohibited under federal law. Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects employees from sexual harassment in the workplace and established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC's 1980 regulations defined sexual harassment and pronounced it as one aspect of sexual discrimination protected under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. EEOC guidelines define sexual harassment:

Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when (1) submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's employment, (2) submission to or rejection of such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working...