Recent Thinking about Sexual Harassment: A Review Essay

Twenty-five years ago, Catharine MacKinnon made her pathbreaking argument that sexual harassment constitutes sex discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Her work entrenched a paradigm of sexual harassment as sexual conduct that men impose on women because they are women. Since then, a variety of plaintiffs whose complaints do not fit this paradigm have sought relief under antidiscrimination law. These include women who have been harassed in nonsexual ways; gays, lesbians, and transsexuals who have been harassed on account of their sexual orientation and identities; and heterosexual men who have been bullied by other men. This proliferation of claims has challenged MacKinnon’s original model and given rise to new theories of sexual harassment. This review essay considers recent approaches to understanding sexual harassment, taking Catharine MacKinnon and Reva Siegel’s Directions in Sexual Harassment Law as a primary guide. This work comprises nearly forty concise contributions from leading legal academics and lawyers active in sexual harassment litigation. It offers a trenchant and insightful survey of the most important recent developments Recent Thinking about Sexual Harassment: A Review Essay ELIZABETH ANDERSON