Bombshell allegations against Harvey Weinstein
Kevin Spacey
Roy Moore Al Franken
Reporter Glenn Thrush Congressman John Conyers
Charlie Rose Matt Lauer
Sexual harassment in the workplace is pervasive.
In 2017, every damn woman still has a story.
1 in 3 women and 15% of men experienced it.
And that’s a conservative estimate.
If the EEOC wanted to have nothing but a docket of sexual harassment cases, they could fill
their docket completely with sexual harassment claims.
In 1986, the Supreme Court declared sexual harassment in the workplace to be a violation
of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Anita Hill: I do Joe Biden: Thank you.
And then in 1991,
What happened next and telling the world about it
are the 2 most difficult things -- experiences of my life.
That’s Anita Hill testifying about now-Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas
He talked about pornographic materials, depicting individuals with large penises, or large breasts
involved in various sex acts.
Unfortunately, her testimony had repercussions she didn't anticipate.
It was suggested that I had fantasied,
that I was a spurned woman, and that I had a martyr complex.
And it’s not so different today.
In fact, it’s one of the biggest reasons why three out of four individuals
who experienced harassment never report it.
We don’t have a culture right now in the workplace that allows
for women or victims to come forward and not receive consequences.
And to be quite honest there’s not very many victims of harassment that want to even
go through with a charge because of all of the impediments.
Impediments like, how do you actually report a claim in the workplace?
Do you go to HR?
Only if you think it would be good to call the KGB to complain about Putin.
The human resources department is not actually a resource for humans
it’s a resource for the company and it’s there to protect the company from liability.
If a victim of harassment decides to take legal action, they may be forced into arbitration,
which is written into some employment agreements.
You’ve given up your 7th amendment right to go in front of an open jury process.
You will go to a secret proceeding called forced arbitration, and nobody will ever hear
about what happened to you.
Some victims of harassment would actually chose arbitration.
i think that aspect of it that is a concern is when it is forced in every situation.
Companies also often use non-disclosure agreements which ensure that neither side can ever go
public.
Secret confidential settlements is a way to shut us up.
Though, given the potential for backlash -- confidentiality might not be such a bad thing.
Sometimes the nondisclosure agreement is actually in the victim's best interest as well.
The problem is not the non-disclosure agreement, the problem is the company.
If the company uses the non-disclosure agreement as a shield for that employee then it's the
company's fault, it's not the victims fault.
Confidentiality leaves victims less vulnerable to retaliation -- but it’s not a perfect shield.
I have been slut shamed.
I have been harassed.
I have been maligned.
And you know what, I am just like you.
75% of employees who spoke out against harassment experienced retaliation.
We're not just talking about getting fired, any negative change after you've reported
harassment could be retaliation.
And if your report is public, it could even extend to your future employment opportunities.
Imagine you're a low wage worker or a worker with uncertain immigration status, that's
an impossible impediment.
It’s similarly impossible to weigh the staggering impact on society.
How many women have been forced out of the labor force based on sexual harassment or
assault or other types of discrimination that they've experienced in the workplace?
You just think of like all of the women who could have been.
We’re fooling our culture into thinking we’ve come so far.
Why?
Because we’re not hearing about it.
That is, by far the biggest problem.
Between retaliation, and the fact that most perpetrators walk away unscathed,
it's no wonder that so many victims decide not to report.
I’ve experienced sexual harassment myself.
I didn't want to file a complaint, I didn't want to necessarily let anybody in the company
know what was going on.
I just really wanted it to stop.
People are calling this moment:
A watershed moment
A watershed time A watershed moment
Reckoning Turning point
Turning point
Maybe it is.
But it's not enough for just a handful of men to face consequences.
We're in a kind of this epidemic of accountability and I just want to keep it going.
But you know, then we have to think and do the hard work.
What does accountability look like?
Sure.
This is a moment where powerful people are being held accountable in a way that they've
never been before.
But this problem is big.
And unless the structures that perpetuate it are dealt with,
this moment won't make a damn difference.