What was work life like before harassment law and guidelines were introduced?

I am trying to find out information on harrasment laws and what work life was like before those laws were introduced. If anyone out there could point me in the right direction I would really appreciate your help.
Answers:
My mother was a personal secretary to the president of a large corporation in the 1950's-60's. According to her stories, when female employees were hired, it was common to have them "make the rounds." They would basically be paraded in front of the verious men they would be working with, and if they were not sufficiently physically attractive, then they would not get the job. Women in many positions were expected to be naturally subservient to their male coworkers.
Policy in this area was not governed by law, but by custom and social norms.
Remember, in the 1950's and 1960's, almost all married women were able to stay at home (and were expected to). The idea of women in the workforce was a completely novel idea. At the time, women had never been in the workforce in any significant numbers, except in times of war and national emergency, with the exception of a few jobs that were "women's jobs" (nurse, secretary, teacher, telephone operator, etc.) This mold was very difficult to break, and it women were only gradually accepted in new professional positions. Simply speaking, it was very new, and prejudice prevented women from quickly advancing, or advancing at all.
There was also a certain suspicion about a woman who decided to take a job. Remember, this was a time when almost all married women generally remained at home. Most families had more children than they do today, and it was considered the wife's job to take care of them. If a married woman got a job, there was a rather strong feeling that she was abandoning her "god given" responsibilities to her home, her husband, and her children. In addition, since so few women worked, there was always a faint suspicion that the family must be in deep financial trouble, if the woman had to get a job.
Men were frequently ridiculed by other men if it became known that their wife was working. It was intensely embarrassing for a husband to admit that his wife had a job, because it implied that he was not a good enough provider for her to remain home, and the family must therefore be in debt.
It was somewhat easier for a single woman to enter the workforce, but women were still expected by society to act "ladylike" at all times, and men could not wrap their minds around the idea of male workers taking orders from a female, making it very difficuly for a woman in any of the male-dominated professions.
Furthermore, while men were generally expected to act gentlemanly toward women, the fact that these women were breaking the social norms (not being ladylike) made men uncertain about whether they were still required to act gentlemanly toward them. Some men felt that since the women were going outside of their proper realm, it was a "free-for-all" and they could behave any way they wanted toward these new professional women. Unfortunately, the old ideas of condescending, "gentlemanly" conduct toward women and the new idea of men acting any way they pleased were both not to the woman's advantage in the workplace. New rules of sexual conduct needed to be created, and it was a little bumpy at first.
So, you had the following social factors all working against any woman who wanted to break out of the traditonal "woman's jobs":
(1) A real sense on the part of society that she was abandoning her children, her home, and her husband (if she had no children people asked "why not?" and if she was not married people asked "why not?"). This was a time before microwave dinners and frozen foods. A dinner took several hours to prepare. Again, this was the traditional responsibility of the woman to take care of.
(2) A deep sense of shame and embarassment on the part of the husband, since a woman working meant that he was not a good enough financial provider.
(3) The assumption that any woman who got a job would eventually get married and leave anyway to have children.
(4) Ideas of masculinity and femininity which made it difficult for people (men and women alike) to imagine women in positions of authority over male workers.
(5) Downright sexism stemming from hundreds of years of beliefs regarding what the roles of men and women were in society.
(6) The idea that since these women were themselves going outside of their proper social roles, it was a social "free-for-all" and men were free to behave any way they liked toward these new professional women.

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I'm afraid I have no specific sources. That said, I can remember clearly when women would earn 60 or 70 cents for every dollar a man would earn, on the argument that the man had to support a family on his paycheck. This argument would have worked better if all the men had families, and if there weren't widowed mothers among the women.
Women were regularly passed over for raises and promotions, even when they were better qualified. Especially in male-dominated jobs, they were often harrassed. Enough men felt threatened that they banded together to try to make the women feel excluded, and that included raucus sex talk, hanging innappropriate artwork, and even make passes at the women. If a woman complained, it was seen as proof that she "couldn't handle" the job.

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Vaughn is partially correct, but talk to folks in their 50's you know - there were some positive attributes to this time
It was an era where folks were way more honest and direct with each other. If you were crappy and needed improvement you got told straight out. If you needed to get yelled at you did. If you worked really hard you actually got rewarded
You could actually have a dialog about race or sex at work - yes it could get bawdy but you could talk about it - now we act like these differences don't really exist when they still do but we can't have an honest dialog about it
You could also get honest references from prior employers about employees.
There has been a downside to PC that is rarely discussed -not that I want to go back.