Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T12:18:39.716Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Unraveling the Ivory Fabric: Institutional Obstacles to the Handling of Sexual Harassment Complaints

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Jennie Kihnley
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 make universities liable for sexual harassment that occurs within both the employment and academic contexts. This article examines how universities implement and enforce the mandates of both Title VII and Title IX through exploratory research about sexual harassment complaint procedures at a public university system on the West Coast. In-depth interviews with personnel at each campus shed light on problems with inserting a complaint resolution process into an institution that simultaneously strives to eliminate sexual harassment, while wanting to protect itself from liability. This inherent conflict of goals is reflected in the differing roles of the Title IX office and the Women's Resource Center, in creation of a user friendly policy, and in the two branches of dispute resolution.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , Winter 2000 , pp. 69 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2000 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, Katherine S. 1987. Employer Liability under Title VII for Sexual Harassment after Mentor Savings Bank v. Vinson . Columbia Law Review 87:1258–79.Google Scholar
Baxter, Ralph H. 1985. Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: A Guide to Law. New York: Executive Enterprises Publications.Google Scholar
Blanchard, Lisa A. 1988. Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Employer Liability for a Sexually Hostile Environment. Washington University Law Quarterly 66:91–109.Google Scholar
Brandenburg, Judith Berman. 1982. Sexual Harassment in the University: Guidelines for Establishing a Grievance Procedure. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 8:320–36.Google Scholar
Bumiller, Kristin. 1987. Victims in the Shadow of the Law: A Critique of the Model of Legal Protection. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 12:421–39.Google Scholar
Bumiller, Kristin 1988. The Civil Rights Society: The Social Construction of Victim. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Delgado, Richard, Dunn, Chris, Brown, Pamela, Lee, Helena, and Hubbert, David. 1985. Fairness and Formality: Minimizing the Risk of Prejudice in Alternative Dispute Resolution. Wisconsin Law Review 1985:1359–1404.Google Scholar
Dziech, Billie Wright, and Weiner, Linda. 1984. The Lecherous Professor. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Edelman, Lauren B., Howard Erlanger, S., and Lande, John. 1991. Employers' Handling of Discrimination Complaints: The Transformation of Rights in the Workplace. Institute for Legal Studies discussion paper, University of Wisconsin-Madison.Google Scholar
Edelman, Lauren B., Howard Erlanger, S., and Lande, John 1993. Internal Dispute Resolution: The Transformation of Civil Rights in the Workplace. Law and Society Review 27:497–534.Google Scholar
Edwards, Richard. 1993. Rights at Work: Employment Relations in the Post-Union Era. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 1990. Policy Guidance on Current Issues of Sexual Harassment (March 19). 29 C.F.R. 1604.11.Google Scholar
Fiss, Owen M. 1984. Against Settlement. Yale Law Journal 93:1073–87.Google Scholar
Goldberg, Stephen B., Green, E. D., and Sander, F. E. A. 1986. ADR Problems and Prospects: Looking to the Future. Judicature 69:291–99.Google Scholar
Gutek, Barbara A. 1985. Sex and the Workplace. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Gutek, Barbara A. 1992. Disputes and Dispute-Processing in Organizations. Studies in Law, Politics, and Society 12:31–52.Google Scholar
Hasenfeld, Yesheskel, Jane Rafferty, A., and Mayer Zald, N. 1987. The Welfare State, Citizenship, and Bureaucratic Encounters. Annual Review of Sociology 13:387–415.Google Scholar
Hill, Eve. 1990. Alternative Dispute Resolution in a Feminist Voice. Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution 5:337–79.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Frances L. 1986. Sexual Harassment in Academia: Feminist Theory and Institutional Practice. Harvard Educational Review 56:105–21.Google Scholar
Hunter, Rosemary, and Leonard, Alice. 1997. Sex Discrimination and Alternative Dispute Resolution: British Proposals in the Light of International Experience. Public Law 1997 (Summer): 298–314.Google Scholar
Leatherman, Courtney. 1991. Colleges Seek New Ways to Deal with Sexual Harassment as Victims on Campuses are Reluctant to File Complaints. Chronicle of Higher Education, 4 December, Al, A26–A27.Google Scholar
Marcus, Leonard J., Barry Dom, C., Phyllis Kritek, B., Velvet Miller, G., and Janice Wyatt, B. 1995. Renegotiating Health Care: Resolving Conflict to Build Collaboration. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
McDermott, E. Patrick, and Eliot Berkeley, Arthur. 1996. Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Workplace: Concepts and Techniques for Human Resource Executives and Their Counsel. Westport, Conn.: Quorom Books.Google Scholar
Meek, Phyllis M., and Ann Lynch, Q. 1983. Establishing an Informal Grievance Procedure for Cases of Sexual Harassment of Students. Journal of the National Association for Women Deans, Administrators, and Counselors 46:30–33.Google Scholar
Menkel-Meadow, Carrie. 1985. For and against Settlement: Uses and Abuses of the Mandatory Settlement Conference. UCLA Law Review 33:485–514.Google Scholar
Mills, Miriam K., ed. 1990. Conflict Resolution and Public Policy. New York: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Felicia. 1997. Keeping It All in the Family: Sexual Harassment Policies and Informal Resolution in Small Colleges. NWSA Journal [Publication of the National Women's Studies Association] 118–25.Google Scholar
Rifkin, Janet. 1984. Mediation from a Feminist Perspective: Promise and Problems. Law and Inequality 2:21–31.Google Scholar
Riger, Stephanie. 1991. Gender Dilemmas in Sexual Harassment Policies and Procedures. American Psychologist 46:497–505.Google Scholar
Riggs, Robert, Patricia Murrell, H., and JoAnn Cutting, C. 1993. Sexual Harassment in Higher Education: From Conflict to Community. Washington, D.C.: George Washington University.Google Scholar
Roberts, Karen, and Sandra Gleason, E. 1991. What Employees Want from Workers' Comp. HR Magazine on Human Resource Management, December, 49–54.Google Scholar
Rowe, Mary. 1997. Dispute Resolution in the Non-union Environment: An Evolution toward Integrated Systems for Conflict Management? In Workplace Dispute Resolution: Directions fur the Twenty-First Century, ed. Gleason, S. E. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.Google Scholar
Singer, Linda R. 1990. Settling Disputes: Conflict Resolution in Business, Families, and the Legal System. San Francisco: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Stallworth, Lamont E., and Martin Malin, H. 1994. Workforce Diversity: A Continuing Challenge for ADR. Dispute Resolution Journal 49:27–39.Google Scholar
Ury, William L., Brett, Jeanne M., and Stephen Goldberg, B. 1988. Getting Disputes Resolved: Designing Systems to Cut the Costs of Conflict. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
White, Lucie E. 1990. Subordination, Rhetorical Survival Skills, and Sunday Shoes: Notes on the Hearing of Mrs. G. Buffalo Law Review 38:1–58.Google Scholar
Williams, Patricia J. 1991. The Alchemy of Race and Rights: Diary of a Law Professor. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar