Air University Review, November-December 1982

Sexual Harassment Isn’t Just a Passing Concern

Sexual harassment is a topic of interest and concern throughout the Air Force. Organizational and unit policies have been published, and commanders have briefed the troops. Yet sexual harassment remains difficult concept. Managers are often frustrated in their attempts to deal effectively with this issue for a number of reasons:

• We don’t really recognize sexual harassment when it occurs or know how to define it.

• There is a nagging suspicion that many cases are simply not reported;

• Supervisor-subordinate relationships are already strained because of undermanning and other problems. Supervisors are reluctant to be held accountable for yet another set of rules.

However, when one examines the research concerning sexual harassment in the work organization, the facts are more in the following vein:

• Sexual harassment is difficult to define. It can range from pressures for sexual favors or actual and attempted sexual assault to unwelcomed leering, jokes, or language of a sexual nature.

• According to a recent national survey of government employees, 46 percent of the females in the Air Force say they have been victims of sexual harassment. Yet only three percent of those who had been sexually harassed actually reported the incident.¹ Men are most likely to view the issue as exaggerated. Women hesitate to report sexual harassment because they think that they will not be believed; they will be ostracized by male and female coworkers; they will be accused of inviting sexual advances; or that perhaps they did subconsciously invite the unwelcomed incident and harbor guilt feelings about it.

• Most incidents of sexual harassment occur where managers and supervisors are not held accountable for enforcing Air Force and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rules.

All of these issues were highlighted recently when a group of Air Force supervisors (officer and enlisted) were discussing problems of leadership and management. We had been analyzing the results of a survey on perceptions and attitudes of personnel toward their jobs in the aircraft maintenance career fields. Specifically, we were discussing reasons for differences in attitudes reported by men and women who worked in the same unit as well as differences encountered between work groups. When the specter of sexual harassment was suggested as a possible cause for some of the differences, no one would accept it. After all, one person voiced, there have been few cases of sexual harassment reported at this base in the past year. Others added related comments: "Men and women have worked together in the Air Force for many years." "All of the current hullabaloo is the result of activist groups influencing government poilcy-makers ." "Sexual harassment probably occurs somewhere, but certainly not in this organization."

Then, we received the following letter, and we began to rethink the issue at hand.

Dear Colonel Rosenbach

I hope you receive this letter. The survey can tell you how I feel, but not why. And the latter I think is much more important.

I was one of the first women in my field, and the first woman in this PME Lab. I was alone in this lab for over three and a half years. I mean Alone. The only two things I had in common with my fellow workers were that we’d been to the same school, and that we were all alive. That was quite clear.

They didn’t want me here, a woman, doing the same job. The sexual cuts, jokes, lack of professional regard, and many slights of a more subtle nature finally hit home, and having never been exposed to this kind of treatment before, I didn’t know what to do. You can’t talk about it with your supervisor. He’s one of them. There are no other women working with you to talk to. What do you do? Grin and bear it, and try to keep excusing them. But even that wears thin eventually.

I have worked in the field I’ve been trained in (electronics) about three months total out of the five years I’ve been in this lab. The rest of the time, I worked testing tire gages, micrometers, and other dimensional PME. I can no longer repair the simplest electronic meter. I was not allowed to work and gain experience in the field in which I was trained in school. I have worked on a base yearbook, made charts for the commander, worked in social actions, and filed technical orders. I am filing them now, as a full time job. I don’t even work in the lab anymore.

I have come to hate the men I work for. I distrust their motives, decisions, and management. I only hope I can get my head together when I get out this summer, so this horrible period of my life will not adversely affect the rest of my adult life.

Sincerely,

P.S. It may not show in my letter, but I love the Air Force, the jets, the community spirit, and the challenge. I wish I could be part of it.

With the exception of the signature, we have reprinted the letter verbatim. It is a poignant revelation, and it really caused us to examine the state of sexual harassment in the Air Force.

Because the airman signed her name, we were able to find but that she had been a good worker, provided absolutely no disciplinary problems, and received average to above average performance ratings.

What happened? How many others have quietly endured the same agony and just left? How often has this happened in your unit? If we allow this to continue, how will our mission be affected? The Air Force needs skilled and committed people; we cannot afford to permit sexual harassment to chase them out— especially those who "love the Air Force, the jets, the community spirit, and the challenge."

If the statistics are correct, there are many more people who cannot leave or who are hoping the situation will change at their next assignment. Pressures of sexual harassment must surely influence them on the job, and productivity must suffer. We need all personnel working at full potential—it is best for them and the Air Force.

The implications are clear. We cannot assume that because we don’t hear any rumblings that sexual harassment doesn’t exist. Air Force supervisors must:

• Recognize sexual harassment. This doesn’t mean instituting a hunt. Rather, be aware.² Look at sexual harassment from the point of view of how human beings expect to be treated— how you want to be treated, with respect and dignity.

• Make it clear from the top that sexual harassment will not be tolerated. Further, those who are involved will be helped to understand why what they are doing is sexual harassment. Most important, those who believe they are targets of sexual harassment must be protected from retaliation and their complaints treated with tact and understanding.

• Help subordinates understand how people perceive sexual harassment. Have the offender and offended confront each other first before alternative remedies are explored.

• Regard sexual harassment as an important issue in your job as a supervisor—it cannot be ignored or left to someone else. Accept the responsibility to build a productive work team.

USAF Academy, Colorado
and
University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point

1. Don Mace, "46% of Female Workers Cite Harassment," Air Force Times, May 11, 1981, P. 1.

2. For a good background on the nature and extent of sexual harassment in today’s workplace, see Eliza G. C. Collins and Timothy B. Bladgett, "Sexual Harassment . . . some see it . . . some won’t," Harvard Business Review, March-April 1981, pp. 76-94.

Colonel William E. Rosenbach (B.S., B.A., Texas A&M University; D.B.A., University of Colorado) is Professor and Acting Head of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the USAF Academy. His previous assignments include duty as missile systems instructor, C-l30 navigator in Tactical Air Command and Southeast Asia, and management analyst at the Air Staff. Colonel Rosenbach has published in a variety of journals and is a previous contributor to the Review.

Robert L. Taylor (A.B., Allegheny College; M.B.A., Ohio State University; D.B.A., Indiana University) is Head, Business and Economics Department, University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point. He recently retired from the Air Force after 20 years of service. His Air Force assignments included tours in Strategic Air Command, in Security Police, as Minuteman Launch Control Officer, and Professor and Head of the Department of Management at the USAF Academy. Dr. Taylor has published numerous articles in Business Horizons, Academy of Management Journal, Personnel, etc.

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.

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