We believe that in evaluating the severity and pervasiveness of s*xual harassment, we should focus on the perspective of the victim. Courts "should consider the victim's perspective and not stereotyped notions of acceptable W.P. (C) Nos. 367 & 12708 of 2009 Page 43 of 59 behavior." If we only examined whether a reasonable person would engage in allegedly harassing conduct, we would run the risk of reinforcing the prevailing level of discrimination. Harassers could continue to harass merely because a particular discriminatory practice was common, and victims of harassment would have no remedy.
We therefore prefer to analyze harassment from the victim's perspective. A complete understanding of the victim's view requires, among other things, an analysis of the different perspectives of men and women. Conduct that many men consider unobjectionable may offend many women. A male supervisor might believe, for example, that it is legitimate for him to tell a female subordinate that she has a `great figure' or `nice legs.' The female subordinate, however, may find such comments offensive. Men tend to view some forms of s*xual harassment as "harmless social interactions to which only overly-sensitive women would object". The characteristically male view depicts s*xual harassment as comparatively harmless amusement. We realize that there is a broad range of viewpoints among women as a group, but we believe that many women share common concerns which men do not necessarily share. For example, because women are disproportionately victims of rape and s*xual assault, women have a stronger incentive to be concerned with s*xual behavior. Women who are victims of mild forms of s*xual harassment may understandably worry whether a harasser's conduct is merely a prelude to violent s*xual assault. Men, who are rarely victims of s*xual assault, may view s*xual conduct in a vacuum without a full appreciation of the social setting or the underlying threat of violence that a woman may perceive.
In order to shield employers from having to accommodate the idiosyncratic concerns of the rare hyper-sensitive employee, we hold that a female plaintiff states a prima facie case of hostile environment s*xual harassment when she alleges conduct which a reasonable woman would consider sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of employment and create an abusive working environment.‖ (emphasis supplied
https://www.lawweb.in/2012/08/committee-constituted-for-redressal-of.html
