Sexually Coercive Offers

James Rocha asks what is wrong with the following coercive offer.

“Hal is Vera’s supervisor at food services company which is expanding into the global market. The company decides to staff its international offices with workers from the US. Hal must send one of his employees to the new Paris or Bucharest office. Vera, while happy to accept a new foreign assignment with much higher pay, would much prefer Paris. Unfortunately the company has randomly assigned her to Bucharest. Hal, knowing the contents and strength of Vera’s preferences, offers to change her to Paris in exchange for sex. If Vera refuses, she will simply be assigned to Bucharest, which has the benefit not only of higher pay, but gets her away from Hal” (2011, The Sexual Harassment Coercive Offer, Journal of Applied Philosophy, 28(2)).

Rocha connects the wrongness of Hal’s action to his disrespect for Vera’s autonomy. He states it is possible to respect an agent’s autonomy whilst changing her actions to a more preferable autonomous action, page 206. I have argued in this blog that autonomy is not simply about choices. Autonomy concerns what the agent cares about or values. I have also argued respecting autonomy means simply respecting the choices autonomous agents make about provided these choices do not harm others. Rocha argues Hal disrespects Vera’s autonomy by inserting influence over her sexuality standards, page 210. Caring about something means you identify yourself with that thing and that this identification must have persistence. It seems to me provided Vera cares about her sexual standards Hal’s offer is unlikely to influence these standards. It follows provided Hal accepts any decision Vera makes he does not disrupt her autonomous decision making.

Nevertheless there seems to be something morally wrong about Hal’s offer. Before continuing to consider disrespecting autonomy I will briefly point out two of these. Firstly Hal seems to have no natural sympathy or empathy for Vera. Slote defines a morally wrong action as one that reflects or exhibits or expresses an absence (or lack) of a fully developed empathic concern for (caring about) others on behalf of the agent. If Hal felt empathic concern for Vera he might offer her the Paris posting unconditionally. Secondly a virtue ethicist might point out Hal’s proposed offer is simply not one a virtuous man would make.

Rocha argues what is disrespectful in connection with autonomy in Hal’s offer is that it seeks to alter Vera’s ends. I would agree with Rocha that Hal’s offer is disrespectful to Vera’s autonomy but would argue this disrespect is not primarily connected with Hal seeking to alter Vera’s ends; it is connected to Hal failing see Vera as an end in herself. Hal sees Vera primarily as a means to his own sexual gratification. We respect autonomy because it has value. Autonomy has both instrumental and intrinsic value. According to Dworkin,

“there is a value connected with being self-determining that is not a mater of either of bringing about good results or the pleasure of the process itself. This is the intrinsic desirability of exercising the capacity for self-determination. We desire to be recognized as the kind of creature capable of determining our own destiny.” (1988, The Theory and Practice of Autonomy. Cambridge University Press page 112)

I have argued Hal’s offer is unlikely to disrupt Vera’s decision making. It follows in practice Hal’s offer is unlikely to disrupt the instrumental value of Vera’s autonomy. Perhaps then Hal’s offer does not disrespect the instrumental value of Vera’s autonomy. However Hal by making his offer fails to see Vera as the kind of creature who can fully determine her own future. Hal’s offer means he disrespects the intrinsic value of Vera’s autonomy and as a consequence fails to truly respect her as a person. I would suggest we value being truly respected as a person more than we desire good options to choose from. My suggestion is open to empirical investigation. However provided my suggestion is correct then the real harm Hal’s offer does to Vera’s autonomy is that he fails to respect its intrinsic value.