Harassment is Not Sexy

At my local coffee shop the other day, I overheard two men discussing the morning’s news:

Man #1: Did you hear that stuff about Les Moonves?

Man #2: Yeah. Sexual harassment is so trendy right now.

Notwithstanding the obvious callback to Zoolander (that sexual harassment! So hot right now!), this conversation is deeply concerning. As an employment attorney and a woman with a job, I can assure you that sexual harassment is anything but trendy. It is a deeply pervasive issue that invades almost all workplaces. The causes of sexual harassment are varied and complex. Surely not enough and ineffective training compounds the problem. A dearth of women in power is also a factor. But sexual harassment is also a result of a nearly ingrained culture in which women are routinely viewed as lesser than.

This attitude displays itself in many ways. It can show up as something seemingly harmless. In a performance review, I was once told that while my work was excellent, people felt that I needed to smile more while walking the halls. When I pushed back, saying that they hadn’t hired a cheerleader but an attorney, the response was, we’re just trying to help and think smiling more would help you succeed at this office.

And this attitude displays itself in not so harmless ways. One time after a site visit with a partner, he asked if I wanted to have lunch. Of course, I said, thinking that this was a chance to get more work from this particular partner. Instead, at lunch, he ordered beer after beer, insisting that I drink with him, and then leaned in to ask, what would it take for me to cheat on my boyfriend?

In order to change this attitude, it would take an entire cultural shift, beginning from infancy, in the way women and girls are perceived and treated by others. And while I am optimistic about the future given the snowballing revelations about the most powerful men in our society, tackling this problem will take time. How then can an employer protect itself from liability while fostering a harassment-free environment?

1. Hire more women.

It would seem obvious, but hiring more women in positions of power reduces the frequency of sexual harassment. Studies have shown that women in male-dominated industries are routinely harassed more than other women and even if women are the majority in an office, if men run the show, the harassment continues at a very high rate.[i] But more than just reducing the frequency of harassment, hiring more women can make your company smarter, faster, and more effective. Studies from HBR and others have shown that groups made up of a majority of women solve problems quicker and with a higher rate of accuracy.[ii] Further, companies that employ more women have higher profits across the board.[iii]

To increase the amount of women in a particular workforce, the management must think critically about their current hiring structure and the company’s organization at the highest levels. Is there a way, for example, to have more women in management positions by restructuring departments in certain ways?

Further, recruitment of women must be central to the company’s culture. Incentivize your current female employees for recommendations on new hires. Reach out to universities, female professional groups, and civic organizations when recruiting new hires. Think about the way your job descriptions are written. Startups like Textio are helping company’s draft job descriptions in ways that appeal to women as studies have show that women are less likely to apply to job postings with “masculine” words like “dominate” and “ambitious”.[iv] And offer workplace policies that appeal to women, like parental leave and work-from-home flexibility. Studies show that women rank flexibility as the #1 most important benefit of a particular employment opportunity, higher than salary or benefits.[v]

2. Create effective workplace trainings.

Most employers have instituted a standard sexual harassment training programs as a way to reduce liability if they are ever sued. Provided regular training in a workplace can be used as a defense when sexual harassment claims are brought by an employee. These employers are wasting a valuable opportunity. Instead of simply providing training as a CYA, they could be reducing the instances of harassment in the first place.

Studies have shown that the number of women reporting sexual harassment in the office place has remained at roughly 25% over several decades and EEOC charges of sexual harassment have more than doubled since 1990. This is important as it shows that workplace trainings, which have been in effect in most offices (90% according to studies) since the 1970s, have done little to nothing to stop sexual harassment in its tracks.

Harassment trainings have to get personal. Lecturing to folks about legal liabilities, the differences between quid pro quo and a hostile work environment, and possible defenses sterilizes sexual harassment and the effect it has on a workplace. Trainings should get people engaged, should motivate them to do better, should encourage them to ask questions, and should demonstrate exactly why a diverse workplace with women in positions of power is mutually beneficial. Allow for participants to ask questions anonymously and answer those questions at the training. By making the training an opportunity to engage the employees, a company can help humanize the problem of sexual harassment and hopefully, see incidents of it be reduced.

3. Be proactive.

Many companies have set up reporting structures for harassment, because again this can be used as a defense in court. However, study after study have shown that women who report harassment are much more likely to be terminated, demoted, harassed, and leave their jobs.[vi] Obviously the official reporting structures are not working.

Employers should be proactive about their obligations regarding harassment and not simply wait for someone to “formally” report an incident. Open-door policies, anonymous reporting and informal reporting structures where a woman could speak to anyone in management or human resources about harassment can help curb retaliation against women being harassed. Encourage managers to interact with their employees and keep an eye out for anything weird or uncomfortable. Should a manager hear off-hand or objectionable comments, have her speak up then and there to demonstrate that sexist attitudes will not be tolerated. Leadership begins at the top, and managers should be striving toward a harassment-free environment.

Barring major cultural shifts in our society, sexual harassment will continue to plague American workforces. By attempting to create an environment where women are valued and encouraged to succeed, an organization can lessen its incidents of harassment and all the liability, costs, and negative publicity associated with it. Because when women succeed, companies succeed.

[i] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2003.tb00752.x/abstract

[ii] https://hbr.org/2011/06/defend-your-research-what-makes-a-team-smarter-more-women

[iii] http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/02/10/women-leaders-companies-s_n_9199298.html

[iv] https://textio.com/

[v] https://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/gender-equality/women-in-the-workplace-2017

[vi] https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/task_force/harassment/upload/report.pdf and https://www.mspb.gov/MSPBSEARCH/viewdocs.aspx?docnumber=253661&version=253948&application=ACROBAT