Articles Posted in Gender Discrimination

Sexual harassment at the workplace touches a nerve because it’s emotionally and viscerally offensive. But to get the behavior to stop, victims often need to be objective and systematic. This can be quite challenging. Consider the fine line between flirting and harassing someone. How can you tell the difference, and how can you prove it in court?

It’s easy to find extreme examples that clearly fall on one side of the line or the other. For instance: two coworkers share a mutual hug after closing a big account — that’s probably fine. However, when a supervisor sends his secretary lewd emails about his sexual fantasies, that’s likely harassment.

But not every situation is cut and dry.

The New York Post is reporting on an astonishing New York sexual harassment case involving ex-Playboy Playmate, Stephanie Adams. Joseph & Kirschenbaum proudly represents the plaintiff, 32-year-old yoga instructor and massage therapist, Dilek Edwards, who alleges that Adams illegally fired her in October. Why? Out of an unfounded fear that Ms. Edwards had been flirting with her husband.

Ms. Edwards had been working for the Wall Street Chiropractic Clinic owned by Adams and her husband, Charles Nicolai. When Nicolai started training with Edwards back in June, he warned the yoga teacher that his wife “might become jealous” and insisted that his yoga therapy [which he needed to recover from an accident] “had to be a secret” because he worried that his wife might get upset and jealous.

Even with that ominous warning, nothing could have prepared Edwards for a text message she received at 1:30 a.m. on October 30th from Adams that read “you are NOT welcome any longer at Wall Street Chiropractic, DO NOT ever step foot in there again, and stay the F-K away from my husband and family!!!!!!!” Edwards says that Adams’ insinuations are “absurd” and insists her relationship with Nicolai had been “purely professional.”

On April 15th, nude dancer Jodi Noelle Durfee filed a suit against a Portland strip club owner, Patrick Benjamin Schwartzkopf, accusing her ex-manager of sexually harassing her and then retaliating when she complained about his behavior.

The ex-dancer and bartender said Mr. Schwartzkopf groped her while inebriated and under the influence of cocaine, while she worked at the Skinn Nightclub in Northeast Portland, Oregon.

Durfee began working at the club in December 2012. According to court documents, she said that Schwarzkopf slapped and grabbed her – often inappropriately touching her in front of customers. She also said he talked to the bar’s customers about her sex life.

If your New York City employer sexually harassed you — or failed to promote you for illegal and/or despicable reasons — take heart that you work in a country where legal system affords victims of workplace mistreatment robust rights.

Consider, by contrast, the following crazy story out of Japan.

A former Prada executive, Rina Bovrisse, sued her old employer for multiple grievances. Her CEO allegedly demoted and/or transferred 15 women coworkers, calling them “old, fat, ugly, [and] disgusting.”

When 42-year-old Ellen Pao leveled sexual harassment allegations against the senior partners at venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, Silicon Valley insiders were stunned.

Pao says Kleiner prevented her and other women from advancing in the company. The gender discrimination accusations shocked local tavern owner, Jamis MacNiven, who runs a popular bar in Silicon Valley. He said Kleiner had an “impeccable reputation” and that his experience was that the people in the firm were “the most normal people in the world.”

Pao’s harassment case is notable for many reasons: