One Is a Claim, Two Is a Defense: Bringing an End to the Equal Opportunity Harasser Defense

Consider the following three workplace scenarios. Alice, a female employee at ABC corporation, has been subjected to almost continuous harassment by her immediate supervisor, Bob, for the past two months. Several times each week, Bob makes crude and sexually suggestive comments and, on numerous occasions, Bob has touched Alice inappropriately in the workplace. Assuming Alice attempts to remedy this situation in a reasonable time period and her employer has unreasonably failed “to prevent and correct promptly any sexually harassing behavior,” Alice will most likely be able to bring a hostile workplace sex discrimination claim against her employer for Bob’s sexual harassment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.\u