ABSTRACT

The first legal challenges of sexual harassment appeared in the mid-1970s, right at the peak of the modern feminist movement in the USA. Prominent groups of the movement, such as the National Organization for Women and the National Women's Political Caucus, supported the work of two activist groups opposed to sexual harassment and worked to increase its recognition as a social problem. Through the combined influence of feminist groups, lawsuits, media attention and government action, sexual harassment was clearly defined as a social problem with a legal solution within the Civil Rights Act by the mid-1980s. Austrian sexual harassment law was adopted within an international context. The issue of sexual harassment was first addressed by the EU in the context of the Equal Treatment Directive. While essentially a domestic issue in the USA, sexual harassment law in Austria was adopted within an international political and legal context.