Prohibiting Workplace Sexual Harassment

This book provides a cross-cultural analysis of how legislatures, judiciaries, NGOs, and corporations worldwide address workplace sexual harassment. Informed by the ongoing cultural relativism v. universalism debate, Cher Weixia Chen draws upon four theoretical models of gender and policy: the sameness model, the difference model, the dominance model, and the critical feminist model, injecting new vitality into the existing literature on sexual harassment.

Chen systematically investigates and characterizes strategies for prohibiting workplace sexual harassment across the globe, moving beyond the Euro-American focus to offer a comprehensive global survey on an emerging universal human rights norm. She evaluates a vast range of data, including national workplace sexual harassment laws across 193 countries, 37 judicial decisions from the highest courts of 10 common law countries, and policies from 30 NGOs in six countries and the 50 largest global corporations. By raising awareness of the cultural variations in sexual harassment laws and policies, this book ultimately aims to contribute to improving the wellbeing of workers and building working environments free from harassment worldwide.



Prohibiting Workplace Sexual Harassment is an essential resource for students and academics in gender and law, employment law, human rights, and law and society. Its diverse methodologies and engaging perspectives will also greatly benefit practising lawyers, policymakers and NGOs.