On November 2, 1992, the French Parliament unanimously approved legislation criminalising sexual harassment for the first time. This law – which applies to the workplace, public spaces and even online – is constantly evolving to better identify situations and protect victims.
For several days now, French female streamers have been expressing frustration at the online sexual harassment they have endured for years in the form of obscene photos, threats and insults. Videographer Maghla, who is known for her video game lives on Twitch, posted a long series of tweets in which she described, using photos and screenshots, the pornographic photomontages that have been made of her.
Sexual harassment in France, whether it takes place online, in public spaces or at work, is a criminal offense that is punishable by up to three years in prison and a €45,000 fine. The exact definition of sexual harassment has been enshrined in French law since November 2, 1992 but it has been constantly evolving over the last 30 years to remove legal uncertainties.
Hierarchical relationships
"The activists of the European Association against Violence against Women at Work (AVFT) put sexual harassment on the political agenda in the 1980s and 1990s. They helped victims lodge their first complaints," says Françoise Picq, a feminist historian and vice president of the National Association of Feminist Studies (Anef).
The notion of sexual harassment first introduced into French criminal law on July 22, 1992 was defined as: "the fact of harassing another person using orders, threats or constraints with the aim of obtaining favours of a sexual nature".
Picq emphasises that the law only concerned harassment committed by superiors at work. "At that time, French feminists did not want to follow the US model: Over there, the norm was not to allow female students to be alone in a professor's office," says the historian. "But in France, the aim was above all to penalise people who committed sexual harassment within the context of a hierarchical relationship at work."
Redefining the terms
In 1998, the words "serious pressure" were added to the text. Then, in 2002, the definition was refined and characterised by the sole fact of "harassing another person with the aim of obtaining favours of a sexual nature". Now sexual harassment of any kind, whether committed by colleagues at work, strangers in the street or people online, is considered an offence.
The objective was to harmonise the definition of sexual harassment with that of moral harassment, which was introduced into French law in 2002. Unlike sexual harassment, moral harassment presupposes an employment relationship.
A legal vacuum
The events of May 2012 shocked the nation when the Constitutional Council repealed the Penal Code’s article on sexual harassment, as it felt its definition was too evasive and therefore unconstitutional. For a few months, victims of sexual harassment were left in a legal vacuum.
"We had a big problem with criminal law at that time, none of the procedures underway succeeded," says Nathalie Leroy, a lawyer specialised in labour law and an investigator at H.E.R., an agency which specialises in cases of moral and sexual harassment at the workplace. She continues: "Some people who were charged with sexual harassment, the definition of which was deemed too vague, were acquitted. The victims were appalled by this."
On August 6, 2012, the new law on sexual harassment was promulgated after it was voted on during an emergency session. The text gave a new definition for sexual harassment, established aggravating circumstances and strengthened the associated penalties.
The criminal definition evolved in 2018, with the latest version defining sexual harassment as "the fact of repeatedly imposing on a person comments or behaviour with a sexual or sexist connotation".
At work
Although sexual harassment in the workplace can be difficult to identify, "one must take into account the nature of the acts committed, their frequency, their effects on the victim and/or the perpetrator's objective", says Leroy. "Today, it is sufficient that the behaviour has a sexual connotation, which does not require it to be explicitly and directly sexual in nature."
The French Labour Code now aligns with the French Criminal Code. Since March 31, 2022, "you are in a situation of sexual harassment at work if the first person makes a sexist remark, such as 'There are people on the balcony' [a French expression meaning buxom] and another person follows up with a comment such as 'Well, given the way you dress….' Before this text was adopted, the same person would have had to repeat the sexist remark. This is no longer the case."
Between 2017 and 2019, a study conducted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on 4.5 million French employees revealed that 52 percent of women had been victims of sexual harassment at work. For men, the figure was 27 percent. Only 4 percent of these women had filed a complaint and 1 percent of men.
According to the lawyer, "prevention is the key". The Labour Code states that the employer must take all necessary steps to prevent, stop and punish sexual harassment. If they have not complied with this obligation, "they may be sued before the industrial tribunal for damages".
In public places
But how can sexual harassment outside of work be prevented?
The online platform Twitch, which has been making headlines following a wave of sexual allegations by its female streamers, tightened its policy in January 2021. Sexual harassment, which until then had been prohibited on the platform but not given a definition, is now defined as making repeated, obscene or explicit comments regarding physical appearance or sexuality, sending unwanted nude images or videos, etc. Prevention is clearly not enough to protect videographers.
And in public spaces? According to feminist historian Picq, the #MeToo movement in 2017 "radically changed the level of tolerance demonstrated towards behaviour that falls under the heading of sexual harassment" in public spaces. But victims often don’t file a complaint due to a lack of evidence or fear of the consequences. "My generation didn’t always want to appeal to the authority of the state, and we couldn't. Today, many legal tools are available to help us."
Lastly, the "Schiappa" law, named after France's former minister of gender equality, Marlene Schiappa, was introduced in 2018, making verbal sexist contempt an offence in an effort to reduce so-called "street harassment", according to Picq. Four years after it was introduced, the law is showing its limits. From 2020-2021, the security services recorded 3,700 incidences of sexist contempt in France. In reality, this figure is much higher as 81 percent of women in France have been victims of sexual harassment in a public place, according to an Ipsos survey published in July 2020.
This article was translated from the original in French.
