직장 내 성희롱 실태 및 법적 규제에 대한 조사 연구

The State and the Legal Regulation of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

This study seeks to explore the actual state of sexual harassment in the workplace as well as workers' perceptions and attitudes toward its legal regulation. It concludes in a discussion of the effective means to ensure the prevention and elimination of sexual harassment in the workplace. Based on the results of a survey conducted among 425 males and females employed in 70 companies with between 300 to 1,000 employees in Seoul, predominantly public sector with a number of private sector companies, this study shows that the incidence of sexual harassment is higher in the public, rather than private sector. The study also revealed that the most frequent types of sexual harassment experienced include obscene jokes, unwelcome sexual comments about a person's appearance, staring at certain parts of the body, and the display of pornographic materials. Women workers also report that they are often forced to attend to the food and beverage needs of male coworkers or supervisors against their will during social gatherings after work. These types of sexual harassment usually occur in ordinary daily situations rendering it difficult to recognize the harasser's intention of sexual harassment. The practical acceptance of the prohibition of sexual harassment behaviors by employees is significantly lower, than the high level of understanding of the kinds of behavior that are legally recognized as constituting sexual harassment. The recognition of certain behaviors as sexual harassment among male workers is lower than that among their female counterparts, indicating that perceptions of sexual harassment among men and women differ markedly. The results of the study also indicate that the greater men's knowledge of the sexual harassment behaviors prohibited by the law and their acknowledgement of the legal prohibition of such harassment, the less likely they are to sexually harass their co-workers.