ABSTRACT
This chapter is organized around a critique of current sexual harassment research. Its ultimate goal is to encourage researchers to develop a broader research definition of sexual harassment that can address both individual and organizational forms of sexual harassment. Many social science researchers have found the legal definition of sexual harassment vague and difficult to operationalize in part because it focuses on the subjective experience of hostility and offensiveness, and not objective behaviors. Instead, those who do not disclose any information about their sexual orientation are typically assumed to be heterosexual. Jane Gallop decries this research and policy focus as heterosexist, because it conflates sexual behavior with heterosexual behavior, and because it assumes that all male-female interactions are potentially sexual. Sexual harassment is not only perpetrated by individuals, but it is also institutionalized in organizations and in workplace culture. Co-workers are not the only source of sexual harassment; clients and customers can and often do sexually harass employees.
