This article is the first in a two-part series that explores some of the issues surrounding sexual harassment.
The year was 1980. It was my first job in private industry and I was working in a division of a company that would later become part of what is now Verizon. To make a long story short, I was asked to develop a communications program in response to an issue of sexual harassment of a female employee in our southern Georgia division location. The president of the division said he never wanted what happened to her to happen again.
There was little information on this topic and no communication materials. The only research that existed was a 1976 study done by Redbook magazine. We were at square one. Over the course of the next few months we developed a short film, a policy, a reporting procedure, a brochure and a meeting leader’s guide. These materials were aimed at helping supervisors discuss this topic with their teams and provide employees with the knowledge that the company was focused on eliminating sexual harassment from the workplace.
In the process of working on this, I was promoted to a corporate role, moved to Connecticut and it became a U.S. company-wide program. Later in 1980, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued guidelines on sexual harassment.
Companies were trying to figure out how to respond to the new guidelines and how to talk about a subject that many felt uncomfortable with. I became even more aware of and sensitive to the issues of sexual harassment and its disturbing consequences. It knew no boundaries. It happened between and among people of different sexes and the same sex. It happened to people in factory jobs and in the Boardroom. People starting out in their careers and more experienced professionals.
We ended up marketing and selling this program, “Sexual Harassment…it’s not part of the job!” throughout the country. I spoke about it for several years, from the Harvard Business School to crowded auditoriums, predominantly male. I had one group sing to me, “Let Me Call You Sweetheart”. Fortunately, due to the enlightened management of the company I worked for, we were able to give voice to an issue that had no voice. It was groundbreaking, courageous and bold. We believed our efforts would make a difference.
Fast forward to 2017. Now in reflection of current events regarding sexual harassment I think about whether we have made much progress and, if so, what that has been. While the jokes may not be as rampant, and the percentage of women in more senior roles has improved, the media stories of late make it clear that the problem is persistent and unfortunately, pervasive.
Extent of the Problem and Progress
Studies are inconsistent regarding the percentage of women who have been sexually harassed at work. One study shows that 1 in 4 have witnessed someone else being harassed and 23 percent report they have experienced sexual harassment (2017). Another survey reports that 1 in 3 women have been harassed (2015). But it is not definitive. Regardless of the inconsistent data, the numbers are huge and it is beyond fathomable how big an issue this is. With 74.6 million women in the labor force, making up roughly 47 percent of all workers that represents more than 18.5 million women experiencing sexual harassment of some form if we accept the lower number of 1 in 4.
Clearly this is not primarily an issue limited to Hollywood celebrities, although some have given voice and brought significant media attention to the issue. Importantly, now it is in the forefront of the public. However, most women work as nurses, retail clerks, administrative assistants and teachers. According to Catalyst, in 2016, the median weekly earnings for women for full-time work was $749 (compared to $915 for men). Hardly celebrity salaries.
Have we made progress? The 2016 report issued by the EEOC’s Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace confirms not as much as we should. Even thirty years after the U.S. Supreme Court held (Meritor Savings Bank vs. Vinson, 1986) that workplace harassment was an actionable form of discrimination prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, it seems that while we have made progress “we sadly and too often still have far to go” (2016).
Senior editor of the Harvard Business Review Sarah Green Carmichael points out that despite that 98 percent of companies today have anti-sexual harassment polices and 70 percent provide some type of training on how to recognize and address it the results remain disappointing. She points that out that “what’s really changed is not our attitudes about harassment, but rather the brightness and staying power of that spotlight” (2017).
In fact, in a 2017 survey conducted 40 years after the original Redbook survey was conducted indicates we are making virtually no progress (2017). While the basis of the comparison of the two surveys is “uneven” due to some methodology differences, the results are very similar. “In terms of the overarching question of whether women see workplace sexual harassment as a problem, 92 percent of the 1976 recipients agreed, compared with 99 percent today” (2016). So, why has there been little, if any, change?
An Underlying Issue: Silence
What keeps someone silent when they are aware something is going on that is wrong, unethical or even illegal in the workplace such as sexual harassment? Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann in her book The Spiral of Silence: Public Opinion: Our Social Skin observed that silence can manifest itself in different ways: “people who hold majority opinions and those in the minority will often keep quiet on issues that are important to them, but they’ll do it for different reasons.” (2017).
What are those reasons? Elizabeth Suhay, a political scientist, explains those reasons stem from a misjudgment about the pervasiveness of their opinions. “The majority just assumes that everybody thinks like them,” she says, “and people in the minority think they’re the only ones” (2017).
Silence is associated with many virtues that we as a society hold in regard (Perlow, Leslie A., Williams, Stephanie, 2003). We look at silence as a form of modesty, humility, and respect for others…an ingrained sense of etiquette. People silence themselves to avoid embarrassment, confrontation and potential danger (2003). So, when someone is silent about the issue of sexual harassment do they believe there is danger in expressing the truth? Yes.
Most organizations send the message, either explicitly or implicitly, that conforming and going along with the status quo is a safe way for individuals to hold onto their jobs and their careers (2003). How often do people stay silent because they are afraid that breaking it would be a career ender? Often. People remaining silent rather than expressing a difference is pervasive regardless if the person is in a group or operating on their own (2003). They can fear a loss of their own stature in an organization or ultimately expulsion for raising an issue. Does that influence reporting occurrences of sexual harassment? Yes, says the EEOC.
EEOC Commissioners Feldblum and Lipnic state, “Workplace harassment too often goes unreported. They state that the “common workplace responses by those who experience sex-based harassment are to avoid the harasser, deny or downplay the gravity of the situation, or attempt to ignore, forget or endure the behavior. In fact, the least common response to harassment is to take some sort of action – either to report the harassment inside the organization or seek assistance through legal channels (2016). “Roughly three out of four individuals who experience harassment never even talked to a supervisor, manager or union representative about the harassing conduct. Employees who experience harassment fail to report the harassing behavior or to file a complaint because they fear disbelief of their claim, inaction on their claim, blame or social or professional retaliation” (2016).
Author Mary Gentile in her book, Giving Voice to Values: How to Speak your Mind When You Know What’s Right (2010) says that challenging the assumptions about ethical issues often isn’t about distinguishing what is right or wrong, but knowing how to act on your values despite opposing pressure.
James Detert and Amy Edmondson (2007) assert, based on their interviews with employees, that when considering speaking up about a wrongdoing or issue in the workplace, the perceived risk to employees of speaking up was very personal and immediate. Employees had to weigh the future value of reporting an ethical breach to the organization versus the risk to their own reputations and situations if they brought issues to life. Ultimately, they found “people often played it safe by keeping quiet. Their frequent conclusion seemed to be, “When in doubt, keep your mouth shut” (2007).
But in addition to these reasons, there are others. Similar to victims of sexual assault, victims of sexual harassment often feel embarrassed, ranging from feelings that they must have brought this on themselves, to somehow they provoked the harasser to scrutinizing their dress or everyday behavior. And they may feel stupid or have self-loathing. Thinking, for example, how could they have allowed themselves to get into a position where this could happen? Or doubting themselves and their interpretation of events; such as they misconstrued a touch, a comment or an action. Many victims are filled with self-doubt, thinking they should have been more savvy and blaming themselves for the compromised position they found themselves to be in.
Where do we go from here? The second and final installment of this series on sexual harassment will explore aspects of victim response and current efforts, responsibility of leaders and organizational members, significance of #metoo and what is needed to positively influence progress. The second installment will appear in next week’s edition.
About the Author
Jacqueline Strayer is a faculty member in graduate programs at NYU and Columbia. She served as the Chief Communication Officer for three global publicly traded companies and created the first communication program on sexual harassment in the United States, “Sexual Harassment…it’s not part of the job!”. She advises clients on a range of business, marketing and communication issues. You can reach her at jfs2002@nyu.edu.
References
Brooks, Chad (2016). “Top Performers Behaving Badly? Don’t Let it Slide”. Business News Daily.
Carmichael, Sarah Green (2007). “Have our Attitudes About Sexual Harassment Really Changed?” Harvard Business Review.
Detert, James R., Edmondson, Amy C. (2007) “Why Employees are afraid to speak”. Harvard Business Review.
Emerson, Joelle. (2017) “Don’t Give Up on Unconscious Bias Training – Make it Better”. Harvard Business Review.
Feldblum, Chai R., Lipnic, Victoria A. (2016) “Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace”. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Goodman, Diane .J. (2002) “Motivating people from privileged groups to support”. Social justice. https://www.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/149/Motivating-People-from-Privilege-to-Justice.pdf Retrieved from the Internet on November 20, 2017.
Grinapol, Corinne (2017). “40 Years Later, Redbook’s Survey results on Workplace Sexual Harassment are Basically the same: And they’re not good.” Adweek.
Johnson, Stefanie, Kirk, Jessica, Keplinger, Ksenia. (2016) “Why we fail to report Sexual Harassment?” Harvard Business Review.
Johnson, W. Brad, Smith, David G. (2017) “Too Many Men Are Bystanders to Sexual Harassment” Harvard Business Review.
Loehr, Anne. (2016) “Five Tips of Managing Unconscious Bias in the Workplace”. Rework.
Mateo, Ashley, Menza, Kaitlin. (2017)“The results of a 1976 Survey of Women about Sexual Harassment at Work Remain Virtually Unchanged in 2017”. Redbook
McLaughlin, Heather, Uggen, Christopher, Blackstone, Amy.
“The Cost of Sexual Harassment” Gender and Society, June 7, 2017 https://gendersociety.wordpress.com/2017/06/07/the-cost-of-sexual-harassment/. Retrieved on November 10, 2017
Mecking, Olga. (2017) “The Spiral of Silence Theory Explains Why People Don’t Speak Up on Things That Matter”. New York Magazine.
Moyers, B. (1987). “The Movement Action Plan: A Strategic Framework Describing The Eight Stages of Successful Social Movements.” http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/moyermap.html. Retrieved on November 26, 2017
O’Leary, Lizzie, Peter Balonon-Rosen, Peter. (2017) “How Women Pay an Economic Price for sexual harassment |https://www.marketplace.org/2017/11/03/business/how-women-pay-economic-price-after-sexual-harassment. Retrieved on November 10, 2017.
Perlow, Leslie A., Williams, Stephanie. (2003) “Is Silence Killing Your Company?” Harvard Business Review.
Persaud, Ray and Bruggen, Peter. (2017) “What is the link between sex and power in sexual harassment?” Psychology Today.
https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/statistics/enforcement/sexual_harassment_new.cfm Retrieved from the EEOC website on November 10, 2017.
https://www.bustle.com/p/how-common-is-sexual-harassment-at-work-almost-1-in-3-women-have-experienced-it-according-to-a-new-poll-54068 Retrieved on November 11, 2017
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/19/1-in-3-women-sexually-harassed-work-cosmopolitan_n_6713814.html Retrieved on November 11, 2017
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/8956-unethical-behavior-employees.html
Whitehouse, James (2016) “Leaders Can Shape Company Culture Through their Behaviors”. Harvard Business Review.
