The Politics of Sexual Harassment: A Comparative Study of the
United States, the European Union, and Germany. By Kathrin S. Zippel.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 274p. $80.00 cloth, $34.99
paper.
Why was Germany so much slower than the United States to outlaw sexual
harassment? What role have feminist organizations, academics, women in
political parties, and femocrats (governmental equality officers) played
in generating this policy change? How did the European Union act to
require member states to legislate given that most member states were
opposed? Does it matter that German policymakers have framed the problem
largely as a gender-neutral violation of dignity, rather than as an
individual right not to be discriminated against on the basis of sex? Is
it better to rely on individual litigants to enforce the law or work
through collective bargaining agreements and labor councils? And what are
the implications of the findings of sexual harassment policy for the
future of this issue, feminist policy change, and the policy process more
generally? Kathrin Zippel answers these questions and more in her
well-researched, comprehensive, and clearly written book.