A recent article reported on a Russian judge (the courtroom kind, not an Olympic one) who dismissed a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a female Russian advertising executive. The judge's rationale: not a lack of evidence, but the alleged need for harassment to foster procreation. As the judge so eloquently stated, "If we had no sexual harassment we would have no children." All I can say is: don't try this defense at home. And especially not in the Ninth Circuit.
In all seriousness, though, the article cites some disturbing statistical and anecdotal information about the commonplace nature of workplace harassment in that country, and provides a sobering perspective on the issue. In our employment defense practice, these days we rarely see the kind of quid pro quo harassment described in the article, and characterized as a regular part of the Russian workplace. Most of our cases arise from allegations of a hostile work environment, but this story should at least serve as a reminder that there are certainly still risks that someone with the wrong attitude about women's roles in the workplace can, in the blink of an eye, get a company into serious trouble. At least in the good old U.S.A.