Right to insult

"Differences in rights are what determine the possibility of encroachment on a woman," Dr. Wilson said. Usually the victim is in a subordinate position with the abuser, as was the case with Jennifer Leydi. Although the boss did not threaten to fire her, already, the fact that he was the owner of the firm, made Jennifer feel in danger. In women working for hire, the boss, as a rule, is a man. According to one study, 75 percent of women are employed in jobs that put a man and woman in an unequal position; A man is usually the boss, which creates a fertile ground for sexual harassment.
But it's not just that men usually stand higher on the career ladder. What happens to secretaries can happen to a neurosurgeon. Even if a man is not a boss, in our society it is customary to consider it, simply by virtue of gender, as having greater rights than a woman. "With job assignments, men are looked at as more competent, responsible and productive workers," write the study of the problem. Donna M. Stringer, Ph.D., Ellen Remic, Ph.D., Jane Salisbury and Angela B. Ginorio, PhD, on the pages of "Public Personnel Management ». A woman, even if she has reached a guideline in the organization, will be less trusted than a man, she will be treated as less able, because she was harassed and she could not put an end to harassment. "
Since a man who has achieved certain successes in his career can consider himself to have more rights than any woman, none of the women is safe. In 1991, a woman neurosurgeon from the Stanford University School of Medicine refused to be a professor, as for a number of years her colleagues called her "darling" in the operating room and grabbed her by the knees under the operating table.
"One of the deans of this faculty has been harassed by a responsible employee who can influence the retention of the office," says Dr. Wilson. Once she took on the duties of the hostess at a reception arranged on the occasion of the visit of a group of persons on whom the confirmation in office depended. After everyone left, he refused to leave her hotel room. She was in a state of shock: "I did not think that something like that could happen to me. At the university, I had very great power, and then I realized that if I did not sleep with him, he would not confirm us. " So it happens at any level. "
Women who occupy traditionally male positions, such as women in construction, female police officers and firefighters, are particularly at risk. Jacqueline L. Morris worked at the bottling plant in Peveli, Missouri. In 1987, she became the head of the unit, in which 12 men worked. The evaluation of her work was invariably the highest. However, she had to leave this job, because her bosses and colleagues made her life completely unbearable. Some allowed themselves to make rude remarks about her figure, and one morning, when she came to work, she found on her locker with tools a photograph of a penis in a state of erection. She filed a lawsuit in court and won $ 16,000 on account of lost wages with interest.