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GenderPAC Decries 'Locker-Room Culture' in Workplace

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Washington, D.C. — The Gender Public Advocacy Coalition (GenderPAC) said today new Equal Employment Opportunity Commission statistics show that the reporting of male-on-male sexual harassment in the workplace is on the rise. New statistics released today show that sexual harassment claims filed by men accounted for 15% of all claims in 2003, up from 9% in 1992 – a 62% increase. According to the EEOC, an overwhelming majority of the almost 2,000 new claims made by men were male-on-male harassment. 

Male-on-male sexual harassment includes bullying that utilizes sexual taunts, simulated sex acts, feminine pronouns, and threats of sexual aggression. Like locker-room bullying, it is usually directed at a less aggressive co-worker or subordinate employee. Its purpose is to humiliate and undermine respect for the victim by putting them in a feminine role that publicly challenges their masculinity.

“The locker-room culture has no place in the workplace today. More and more corporations are recognizing that and are expanding their nondiscrimination polices and providing their employees with effective training. We are at the beginning of changing long-held attitudes and behaviors that are harmful to men and women,” said Riki Wilchins, Executive Director of GenderPAC.

Major employers have recently found themselves facing expensive lawsuits involving male-on-male sexual harassment. For instance, Babies R Us paid out a $205,000 settlement to a male employee who said he was mocked and made the target of derogatory comments by other men. In another case in Washington state, a former waiter said he was called by feminine pronouns, mocked by his manager for the way he walked, and taunted with sexual epithets because he refused to have sex with a female coworker. Such claims barely existed until the Supreme Court ruled in 1989 in Oncale v. Sundowner that victims of male-on-male sexual harassment could sue under federal law. 

It is still difficult to determine exactly how many of the claims filed as male sexual harassment are actually male-on-male, since the EEOC only tracks the sex of the victim. Said Wilchins, “We call on the EEOC to start tracking both the sex of the victim and the alleged harasser to make these figures more meaningful and useful to employers.”

The Gender Public Advocacy Coalition works with major corporations to adopt non-discrimination policies that prevent male-on-male harassment, and provides on-site and at-a-distance training. In the past, GenderPAC has worked with diversity leaders like Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, and IBM. 

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