Werkrelaties tussen vrouwen en mannen. Een onderzoek naar ongewenste intimiteiten in arbeidssituaties

This study examines the issue of sexual harassment within the context of (changing) power-relationships between men and women in the workplace. From the sixties on trends in the workforce allowed us to witness a growing number of female workers outside the home. The composition of the female workforce has undergone important changes in the areas of age, marital status and educational background. Although the sexual division of work and the inequality between the labour positions of men and women can by no means be said to have disappeared, these quantitative and qualitative changes in the workforce may have had some impact on the relationships between men and women at work. In some workplaces the (increasing) presence of female workers may have affected the dominant social and cultural norms in the day-to-day relationships between the sexes. However, the issue of sexual harassment is not brought up in all kinds of workplaces. Especially in male-dominated workplaces women find much difficulty in challenging unwelcome sexual advances by men. Also, the same behavior of men can be interpretated in different ways by different women, for example some women will think of sexual advances at work as more acceptable than other women do. ... Zie: Summary