Female workers historically have been subjected to many forms of sex discrimination, resulting in limited job opportunities, segregation in the workplace, lower wages, and less job security than men. Sexual harassment of women in the workplace is a particularly insidious aspect of sex discrimination which has severe economic and psychological repercussions. Until very recently, society has failed to recognize sexual abuse at work. “Tacitly, it has been both acceptable and taboo; acceptable for men to do, taboo for women to confront, even to themselves.“ The origins of sexual abuse in the workplace and the reasons for its tacit acceptance must be viewed in light of women’s subordinate position in the labor force and the traditional relationship of women to men in American society. The detrimental impact of such sexual harassment, whose parameters are defined by the social context of employer-employee relations, can be seen as a derivative of the historical and structural position of inferiority occupied by female workers.

Legal recognition of sexual harassment is in its infancy. Just as employers, fathers, husbands, and even the victims themselves have often dismissed sexual abuse in the workplace as “trivial, isolated, and ‘personal,’” judges have seen it as “an unhappy and recurrent feature of our social experience,”‘ or “nothing more than a personal proclivity… satisfying a personal urge.” Recent judicial pronouncements, however, indicate that a more enlightened attitude is on the horizon.

This Article discusses the nature, extent, and effect of sexual harassment on working women, and the legal remedies available to them under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Sexual harassment by an employer or his agent is now actionable sex discrimination under Title VII. The Article argues that a sexually charged and psychologically enervating work environment violates Title VII, whether that debilitating environment is caused by the employer, co-workers, or customers. Finally, the Article asserts that employers are violating Title VII when they require female workers to wear provocative and revealing clothing which encourages sexual harassment.