Scandal Time (1992): Issue in Harassment at the Workplace

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Ethical Snapshot
In an article or snapshot titled Tailhook: Scandal Time (1992), the issue discussed in harassment at the workplace. Specifically the snapshot focuses on the issue of sexual harassment. In this article, navy Lt. Paula Coughlin was 30 years old when she experienced harassment at work (Newsweek Staff). Coughlin was heading down a hallway when Marine pilots who were hanging out in the third-floor started terrorizing her. They started groping, poking, grabbing her breasts, and trying to remove her panties. Coughlin indicated that the incident was the most frightening this that she has ever endured. She thought that they would gang-rape her but she was lucky to escape their clutched before the worst happened. The incident left her shaken because sexual harassment at work was the last thing she was expecting to experience (Newsweek Staff).
From the snapshot, the author’s primary stance is that sexual harassment was not taken seriously by the navy administrators. Even though many women, at least 26, 14 of them being officers, had been assaulted in the navy, the issue of Coughlin was only treated as a fraternity party that had gotten out of control. The author felt that the navy administration did not consider sexual harassment as a serious issue that was affecting many women who were trying to make it in a men-dominated world. Senior officers in the navy became reluctant in addressing the issue of Coughlin citing it as a small incident that had occurred. Evidently, the author seems appealed that the navy did not take a stern stand against the perpetrators of the sexual harassment towards Coughlin despite the overwhelming evidence provided.
One relevant ethical feature that the author focuses on is violation of human dignity. This is evident in the way the author is appalled by the way the men touch and grope on Coughlin without her permission. They violated her rights as a human being who should be respect by people around her or her working conditions. The other ethical feature that the author focuses on is discrimination based on sex. Ideally, the men realized that Coughlin is a woman had did not have the strength to defend herself against the men (Newsweek Staff). Further, the author feels that Coughlin was violated because she was a woman and this could not have happened to a man. The male-dominated navy world made the women weaker and this made them easy prey for discrimination (Maltby 39).
One m...