It’s About Power, Not Sex : Even women bosses can step across the line

Much is being been made of the case of Sabino Gutierrez. He is believed to be the first man to win a verdict in a sexual harassment suit against a woman. But the case is less about unwanted attention from the opposite sex and more about abuse of authority in the workplace.

A workplace should be an environment where employees, male or female, are free of sexual innuendoes, overtures and harassment. Women typically are the victims of on-the-job sexual harassment because in the prevailing social structure of the workplace men hold more positions of authority than women.

Working women, having entered the work force in unprecedented numbers over the last 20 years, typically find themselves working for males.

Some bosses abuse their authority by making unwanted sexual advances to workers, who fear losing their jobs if they respond negatively. This is illegal and, needless to say, wholly unprofessional.

When Gutierrez, 33, worked for a spa manufacturing company in Pomona, he claimed, he was sexually harassed “on a daily basis” by Maria Martinez, 39, who worked her way up from a bookkeeper to chief financial officer. He said he had one sexual encounter with Martinez, who denies it, because he feared his job depended on acquiescing, a situation all too familiar to many women.

When he later married, Gutierrez alleged, he returned from his wedding to find that he had been demoted from his manager position and that his desk and personal belongings were gone. The company plans to appeal the jury award to Gutierrez of more than $1 million.

Abuse of authority is not a matter of gender. It is one of power: who has it, how it is used and for what purposes. It is unconscionable when a person of authority, male or female, holds a job implicitly or directly hostage to exact sexual or other favors. The social contract in the workplace needlessly suffers. As with all sexual harassment, the real issue is not abuse of sex but abuse of power.