Sexual harassment is truly an unacceptable thing in society, but still, it happens, and that’s shameful. Suppose you think inappropriate touching is what sexual harassment is all about. In that case, you are wrong, some other ways and behaviors fall under this category, and these are invasion of privacy, sexual jokes, lewd or indecent comments and gestures, annoying sexual emails, text messages, or phone calls, sexual bribery, exposing body parts, bullying, and explicit requests for sex, sexual discrimination, being offered a benefit for a sexual indulgence, being deprived of a promotion or pay raise when you do not cooperate with their lusty requests.
Many a time, women working in corporate sectors or other industries face sexual assault i.e. their bosses are forcing them or a man in a position of power like “Robert Frucher” the owner of “Leisure Time Tours”, to perform oral sex, physical intimacy, and other indecent requests. But most of the time, women do not come forward or delay in coming forward. Here it doesn’t mean that only women face sexual harassment; in fact, there are cases where men get sexually harassed and assaulted, but in this post, we will discuss why men and women do not come forward against such harassment. The reasons are as follows –
They feel ashamed –
The most common reason women and men do not report sexual harassment or assault is a shame. When they get violated sexually, they feel that it is shameful, but they are wrong.
The victims start blaming themselves for the sexual misbehavior by their perpetrators. Women, in particular, get accused of causing their victimization with comments like her dress was inappropriate. She should not have had so much to drink and likewise. Such incidents make them feel isolated, and they want to hide from society to avoid further blame games!
They deny –
The higher version of shame Often, women refuse to believe that they were sexually harassed or assaulted, and they convince themselves that it was not a big deal! And that is what drags them back from reporting the crime that happened against them! But they find it hard to move on and sometimes become the victim of depression.
Such a state of hopelessness and incident is truly awful.
They fear the consequences –
The fear of losing their job, fear of losing their credibility, fear of retaliation, fear of not getting another job, fear of their physical safety, fear of not getting a promotion or getting blackballed in their industry become a huge obstacle for the women who face sexual harassment and assault to come forward and fight against the injustice happened to them.
They lack information about legal rights –
The lack of information regarding the laws against sexual abuse and harassment is one of why women or men do not come forward and fight for justice. Under federal, state, and even local law, you can claim against your employer or coworker if you have been subject to sexual harassment in the workplace.
Minnesota law considers sexual harassment as a form of sex discrimination, which makes it illegal.
And this can be understood well by consulting with a reliable and expert Minnesota sexual harassment lawyer.
What can you do to file a case against sexual harassment is record your experiences in detail, including the date, time, location of the incident, file an internal complaint to the management. If they do not take any action, then they will have to face legal consequences once you take your case to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), collect all the pieces of evidence against the harasser such as the emails, text message or written notes, try to gather as much support as you can and lastly file a report with the EEOC or Minnesota Department of Human Rights.
The best way to tackle such incidences is to hire an experienced sexual harassment lawyer who can aggressively defend your case and help you collect the compensation for the harassment you suffered.
