Translator: Parvathi Pappu Reviewer: Peter van de Ven
Sexual harassment is pervasive.
There is no industry or institution that is immune to it.
It happens in companies and universities, on factory floors and on movie sets,
in restaurant kitchens and congressional offices.
And it hurts so many people.
At its core, sexual harassment is about the unequal powered relations
between men and women at school, at work and in society.
In other words, gender inequality
is both the cause of sexual harassment and the consequence of it.
And what this means is that we will never have full equality,
women will never be fully equal to men,
as long as this behavior continues.
So, if equality is what we want,
then we need to decide right now, in this moment together, to change things.
Now, change begins with a very clear understanding of the problem to be solved.
And in this case, the problem to be solved is:
why does sexual harassment keep happening?
It's been illegal for decades,
it's a form of sex discrimination,
and the cost to companies and individuals is enormous.
So, why is it still so pervasive?
There are many studies on sexual harassment,
but not many of us know about them.
And this really concerns me.
Because in order to create the kind of change that we need,
we must understand this research, understand the root causes,
and understand why some companies and some industries
have more of a problem with it than others.
And this is the research I've come to share with you.
And what the research has found is that sexual harassment
is more likely to occur in organizations with these three characteristics:
male-dominated, super hierarchical, and forgiving of bad behavior.
Now, its more common in male-dominated organizations
because these environments often have so-called locker room cultures,
characterized by aggressive and competitive behaviors
where sexualized talk and crude jokes undermine women and exclude them.
In comparison to women, men can have a harder time recognizing
when women are being treated in sexist or unfair ways.
So all of this sets the stage for sexual harassment
because in these contexts, professionalism can give way to bro-like behaviors
or talk about what happened at the bar last night
can mean that women are treated as sexualized pawns
and not as valued work colleagues.
And if men are less likely to label what other men are doing is inappropriate,
this can make things worse.
This is also really about dominance.
In hyper-masculine settings,
when women are rising up the ranks, men can feel threatened.
In fact, the most common form of sexual harassment
is not the solicitation of sex.
It's what's called gender harassment.
And this is when victims are demeaned
by sexist comments, obscene gestures, offensive material, like pornography.
And what's happening here is not about sexual desire.
It's about communicating to women, in subtle and not so subtle ways,
that they don't belong.
Women who violate traditional feminine ideals
by holding what's considered to be a man's job
or women who behave in more masculine ways
by being assertive, aggressive, holding a supervisory role
are more likely to experience this kind of harassment.
It's in these instances when women are rising up in the world
that harassment becomes a way to knock them down a peg.
Harassment is also more likely in really hierarchical environments
where there are a large power differences between levels.
And abuse happens in these settings
because it turns out that power has a corrupting impact on people.
People in power tend to do as they please.
They don't take other people's feelings into consideration.
They don't take no for an answer.
And research has found that in the minds of men who are inclined to harass,
power and sex are closely connected.
So what happens then
is that many men in positions of power think they can do what they want.
So they do,
they behave in abusive ways.
And at the same time, their subordinates who are lower down in the hierarchy,
who are being mistreated, are often powerless to speak up.
A kind of situation with a high probability for harassment
is when powerful individuals can make or break an underling's career.
When a movie producer can cast an unknown actress into a starring role,
a venture capitalist can provide funding to a woman entrepreneur,
a professor can write a letter of recommendation for a student.
When the perpetrator holds the key to your future,
it can be impossible to come forward or fight back.
And over and over again, harassers are getting away with it
because their power is shielding them from both discovery and punishment.
The third factor, and the single biggest predictor of sexual harassment,
is how permissive an organization is of this behavior.
A permissive organization is one
where employees feel like it's risky to come forward:
they don't think their complaints will be taken seriously;
they don't think the perpetrator will face any consequences.
And the gist of this research
is that bad behavior leads to more bad behavior.
When codes of professional conduct are crossed and nothing happens,
this is a green light opening the door to further misconduct.
And this is exactly what happened at Uber and at Fox News.
At Uber, when Susan Fowler, an engineer there,
repeatedly told HR about the harassment she experienced,
she was told that no actions would be taken
because the perpetrator was a top performer.
At Fox News, Bill O'Reilly got another 25-million-dollar-a-year contract
despite having settled a harassment case
and despite 21st Century Fox knowing about the allegations.
And these were not isolated events at each of these companies.
They reflected larger problems.
After an investigation, Uber ended up firing 20 people
for things like bullying, harassment, and discrimination.
And in addition to Bill O'Reilly,
Fox News CEO Roger Ailes and Fox News host Eric Bolling
both left the organization amid allegations of sexual harassment.
Again, tolerance of bad behavior leads to more bad behavior.
So, what determines whether or not a company tolerates sexual harassment?
Its leadership.
When leaders take this issue seriously, when they promptly investigate complaints,
when they make sure that the perpetrator faces consequences
even when they are a top performer, a regular customer, an important client,
sexual harassment is less likely to happen.
The odds of it happening go up when leaders ignore misconduct,
when they discourage people from coming forward,
and when they themselves are harassers.
When the leader of a company or a country is a harasser-in-chief,
that's when we've reached a Code Red threat level.
(Applause)
Now, if holding power is a hallmark of who is a harasser,
then vulnerability is a hallmark of who gets targeted
and why victims keep silent.
The waitress earning minimum wage
who has to put up with sexist comments from customers.
The woman farm worker who is sexually assaulted in the fields
and then threatened into silence by her employer.
It is the most vulnerable women among us -
those with less education who hold low paid service jobs
and minorities of all kinds - who are more frequently targeted.
And few victims ever come forward because of legitimate concerns
that retribution will put them out of a job.
So now that we know more about all of this,
what do we do?
What can leaders do, and what can we as individuals do?
Now again, this is all about power.
So if large power imbalances are a root cause of sexual harassment,
then we need to focus our efforts on evening out the scales.
Since male-dominated structures uphold a system of sexual harassment,
then we need to change the structures.
We need more women in leadership.
(Applause)
Now, having more women in management won't eliminate the problem;
in fact, women can be perpetrators too.
But when you have more women at the highest levels,
this creates greater equity
in the power [that] men and women hold inside organizations -
and therefore in society, just more broadly.
And some studies indicate that when you have more women in leadership,
you have more gender equality inside companies
and more inclusive practices like better work-life policies.
Having more women and more diversity at every level of an organization
can do a lot to alter these hyper-masculine environments.
Leaders need to take this issue seriously.
When leaders take visible and firm stance that sexual harassment won't be tolerated,
it's less likely to happen.
People experience less harassment, and they're more likely to come forward.
How do you know when leaders are taking this seriously?
You know it when they clearly define what sexual harassment is
and what the disciplinary consequences are.
When they make sure that employees know how to come forward,
when they ensure that confidentiality will be maintained
and that retribution for speaking up will be prohibited.
So that's what leaders can do.
And what can we as individuals do?
The sad truth about all of this
is that gender inequality is so pervasive
that we often don't even see it.
In fact certain forms of sexual harassment,
like unwanted touching or sexist comments,
are so commonplace
that women and girls don't even call it sexual harassment.
Think about that.
Sexism and certain forms of sexual harassment are so normalized
it's hard to distinguish it
from another day at school or just another day at work.
This has to change.
So if you hear people excusing inappropriate touching at school
with "Oh boys will be boys," call that out.
When you hear sexist comments made at work, call that out.
And when you see someone being mistreated, talk to them, name what happened,
and make sure that they understand that what happened is wrong
because none of this is okay,
and no one should ever think that it's normal.
Social patterns are not accidents.
When surveys find
that between 40 and 60% of women experience harassment on the job,
this is not random.
This is a result of systemic issues of deep-seated cultural beliefs
that devalue women and objectify them.
And we all have a role to play in changing that.
If you're listening and thinking "I've never harassed anyone"
or "I've never been a victim,"
don't for a second think that you're not a part of this.
Social progress depends entirely on people noticing that something's wrong,
deciding it's a problem, and coming to believe
that they have a personal responsibility to change things for the better.
You cannot be a passive bystander in all of this,
because our silence is allowing it to continue.
And the change that we want will require all of us to take stands,
where we can and when we can.
When powerful people abuse others,
it's because they don't think the rules apply to them.
So we need to be the ones to take their power away
and hold them accountable.
Through our consumer power, through our voting power,
through the stories we tell about the things that happen to us.
By speaking truth to power, by believing each other,
by being the bystander who intervenes.
The power of us is powerful enough to create long-lasting change.
And this is how we give voice to people who often have none.
By coming together and using our collective power to say:
"Me too! Time's up, and this stops here!"
(Applause)