Ethics and the Physician-Patient Relationship

Book Reviews in This Article:
Getting Rid of Patients: Contradictions in the Socialization of Physicians . By Terry Mizrahi
Physicians and Social Change . By John Colombotos and Corinne Kirchner
Changing Values in Medicine . Edited by Eric J. Cassell and Mark Siegler
Professional Ethics and Primary Care Medicine: Beyond Dilemmas and Decorum . By Harmon L. Smith and Larry R. Churchill
Physician—Patient Decision-Making: A Study in Medical Ethics . By Douglas N. Walton
With Dignity: The Search for Medicare and Medicaid . By Sheri I. David
The Dismissal of Students with Mental Disorders. Legal Issues, Policy Considerations, and Alternative Responses .
Courtroom Toxicology . By Marshall Houts, Randall C. Baselt, and Robert H. Cravey     

Idle Rights: Employees' Rights Consciousness and the Construction of Sexual Harassment Policies

This article analyzes women's legal consciousness in responding to unwanted sexual attention in the workplace. By focusing on a particular social problem, this study is situated in the particular legal domain of sexual harassment laws and in a specific organizational context. Taking the perspective of the intended beneficiaries of sexual harassment policies and procedures—women with complaints about sexual conduct in the workplace—I show that the implementation of grievance procedures creates powerful obstacles to women's efforts to assert those rights. Moreover, the practices implementing the policies can alter the very definition of sexual harassment in that setting. Thus, in enacting grievance procedures, women and supervisors construct a legality in particular workplaces that offers only limited protection for women's rights.