Slut-Shaming in the Workplace: Sexual Rumors & Hostile Environment Claims
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
January 2016
Disciplines
Labor and Employment Law | Law | Law and Gender
Abstract
"Slut-shaming" is the act of criticizing a women for her real or perceived sexual promiscuity. Until now, much scholarship and journalism has focused on the slut-shaming of school-aged girls and young women. This article broadens the discussion about this harassing behavior by illuminating an overlooked area: slut-shaming in the American workplace. This article focuses on how courts have dealt with hostile work environment cases based in whole or in part on rumors about adult women's alleged sexual promiscuity. In particular, courts have struggled with how to interpret Title VII's seemingly simple requirement that conduct occur "because of" sex. Courts have often failed to recognize the gendered aspect of sexual rumors about women. Due to the continued existence of the sexual double standard, rumors about women who engage in sex acts with men penalize women for violating gender norms.
Publication Title
40 NYU Review of Law & Social Change 581
Recommended Citation
Wendy N. Hess, Slut-Shaming in the Workplace: Sexual Rumors & Hostile Environment Claims, 40 NYU Review of Law & Social Change 581 (2016)