Sex Harassment Message Often Unheeded, Many Women Contend : Workplace: Passes, groping and offensive comments are still rampant but victims aren’t confronting such conduct.

A spate of high-profile downfalls of powerful men as a result of sexual harassment charges is sending a loud message across the country that such conduct is not only unacceptable but can be disastrous for a career.

That message, however, may not be getting through. Female workers and those familiar with their experiences say that unwelcome passes, groping and sexually offensive comments are still rampant in the workplace and--more often than not--that the victims are not confronting such behavior.

The forced resignation of Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.) last week, the resignation of the chief executive of W.R. Grace & Co., the resignation last year of a veteran partner at San Francisco-based Baker & McKenzie--which was found liable for $7 million because of his behavior toward a secretary--and a $1-million settlement last month by Del Laboratories in New York because of its CEO’s sexual misconduct stand as clear testaments to the sizable punishment that may await harassers.

“Those cases make it a little bit better for the rest of the women who are in the trenches,” said Maripat Blankenheim, spokeswoman for the 9 to 5 National Assn. of Working Women, which runs a nationwide hot line for women’s concerns in the workplace. “But the reality is that in most circumstances women being sexually harassed either keep their mouths shut and look for another job, try to stay away from the harasser or complain and get fired.”

One young professional woman tells of quitting her $40,000-a-year computer job at a Fortune 500 company in Atlanta after being stalked for two years at work by a boss angered by her refusal to have sex with him.

An engineer contends that her supervisor at the U.S. Labor Department refused to remove the postcards of scantily clad and naked women from his work space and ignored her complaints that another employee had offended her with jokes about a new vaginal lubricant named after her. Later she was forced to resign, she says, because of her complaints.

A 43-year-old warehouse worker says that her employer failed to address her complaints about a co-worker who repeatedly acted in vulgar ways toward her--including kneeling in front of her and mockingly performing oral sex, to the amusement of other workers.

To be sure, there have been changes in the American workplace since a rapt country listened to Anita F. Hill detail sexual harassment allegations against her former boss, Clarence Thomas, during the Supreme Court justice’s confirmation hearings in 1991.

Most companies now have policies for dealing with sexual harassment complaints, and women are bolder about speaking out. Between 1989 and 1994, the number of sexual harassment complaints received by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission grew threefold and the monetary benefits reaped by the accusers almost quadrupled.

Lawyers who represent management in such cases say that the nature of the misconduct also has changed dramatically over the years.

“There’s a lot less serious sexual harassment than there was several years ago,” said Frank Cronin, a Los Angeles attorney who has handled sexual harassment cases for companies over the last 14 years. Sexual harassment of the “oppressive and obvious sort” has been curtailed greatly, he argues, because the country is more sensitive to the issue.

But, at the same time, the Packwood case repeats a powerful warning first sent during the Thomas hearings. Women who make sexual harassment complaints can pay a high emotional price. And at least in the case of Packwood, it took 19 women to make a convincing case. During the three years the Senate Ethics Committee was pursuing its case, Packwood and his allies attacked his accusers, questioning their morals and character, just as Hill’s detractors had.

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, accusers won 23% of cases in 1994, down from 30% in 1990.

Some lawyers who represent companies and men accused of harassing women say that fewer cases are being won simply because many complaints are unwarranted and are often thinly veiled attempts simply to hold on to a job, improve a career or win a monetary award.

But, said Pamela Fayad, a lawyer who specializes in sexual harassment cases, “my experience is that women don’t come forward and make false claims. My experience also is that these men are in incredible denial. These men and many employers have just not learned the lesson that this conduct is a violation of the law and has to stop.”

Fayad has represented both sides, although primarily plaintiffs, in about 100 sexual harassment cases in California over the last several years. In none of her cases has a man been fired from his job. In almost all cases, however, the women quit, were fired or had to leave their positions under the terms of the settlement.

Blankenheim, of 9 to 5, said that the trend holds true across the country and that, as a result, most women with valid complaints still do not come forward.

A $15,000 pay cut was only part of the cost to the Atlanta computer professional who was hounded by a superior for two years and only filed suit with the EEOC after quitting her job. The woman, who asked that only her first name, Lisa, be used, said that her supervisor had grabbed her with his legs and held her against his crotch and repeatedly asked for sex.

“I quit and gave up my $40,000-a-year job because I couldn’t stand it anymore. I was physically ill,” Lisa, 32, said.

“I was getting ulcers and having daily asthma attacks. I very nearly had a nervous breakdown, and I still have nightmares that by some strange mistake I am still working there.”

Her former boss, she said, is still employed by the company.