The story below is a preview from our March/April 2018 issue. For the full story Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
Sexual harassment has become a hot-button issue during the past year of expose after expose of the dalliances of powerful men in Washington and Hollywood. But it's far more than the powerful who are affected.
Dan Smith
Former RBX controller Patti Lucas of Roanoke spells it out simply: “I worked for a company where the HR guy (a VP level position) arranged to have a professional come in to educate us all on sexual harassment, what to do about it, etcetera.
“The pro had each of us come in for a private one-on-one interview where we could openly discuss our experiences and pass on information about men we had trouble with. Turns out the person that was complained about the most was the VP HR guy that set the whole thing up!
“He was one who would give shoulder massages, say things with a sort of sexual undertone that made us all uncomfortable. Amazing he could be so unaware, but I think there are lots of men like that.”
Sexual harassment is one of the hottest topics in America and has been for months, but its definition is not always clear to all. Americans read the reports of everybody from the president, to various entertainers, to politicians and other notables, as well as the guy down the street, being charged with it. Even the beloved Garrison Keillor of Prairie Home Companion has been fired after accusations.
Sexual harassment is what the kids would call “messing with you.” It’ll get you fired. Rape, on the other hand, will land you in prison for about 20 years.
Officially, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s definition of sexual harassment is, “Quid pro quo harassment: requests for sexual favors, or hostile environment harassment, which is creating a hostile workplace that interferes with performance.”
The U.S. Justice Department definition of rape—often conflated with harassment—is, “The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”
They’re quite different, but no less traumatic, in many cases.
Women generally know the difference because so many have experienced them, especially sexual harassment. An ABC News-Washington Post poll says more than half of American women have felt “unwanted and inappropriate sexual advances” at some point in their lives. About a quarter of those advances come from men with power over them. As common as the offense is, 95 percent say the men go unpunished.
Various polls have come up with similar conclusions: Time magazine says 30 percent of successful female doctors say they’ve been sexually harassed. George Washington University estimates 80 percent of physical therapists experience it. RN.org estimates 50 percent of nurses, physicians and students have experienced sexual harassment.
The Restaurant Opportunities Center says a majority of restaurant workers face sexual harassment weekly.
Women are most often the victims of sexual harassment, but 15 percent of men say they’ve been sexually harassed. Most won’t say anything public (and, in fact, we couldn’t find a man willing to be quoted in this story about his experience, although the writer has been harassed, but is not willing to quote himself).
Are American businesses taking the issue seriously? The U.S. Senate recently unanimously approved a bill that mandates sexual harassment training for all senators and their staffs. Says the Washington Post, “Companies have dramatically increased their insurance coverage against sexual harassment complaints in recent years following high-profile scandals, as corporate America reckons with the growing risks of workplace misconduct.” The law gives those companies a lot of responsibility in the issue.
The huge insurance company Nationwide registered a 15 percent increase in the sale of employment practices liability insurance policies, which cover sexual harassment, between late 2016 and September 2017.
Victims are generally women, but not always. YouGov reports women are the victims 80 percent of the time in one survey and 15 percent of men say they’ve been harassed.
• • •
It all began innocently enough, says Sally Roberts, a Roanoke property manager. “I was dating [her harasser’s] best friend. He got off late from work and I was having trouble sleeping. He was great as a masseur. My parents, pets, fiancé all loved him. I had fibromyalgia and he’d rub my back.
“One night I thought, ‘This looks weird.’ I was on the couch, my fiancé was asleep and he was rubbing my feet, calves. I live where I work and he always had a need to be around and to touch. One night, I felt his hands go into my shorts and he was masturbating, thinking I was asleep. I told my fiancé and [the man] later apologized.
“I can’t promise he didn’t rape me. I was taking [a drug that caused drowsiness], which knocks me out. I called the police and spoke to a female cop. The police were wonderful, but I was afraid if we sent him to jail, it would mean suicide, so I didn’t press charges.
“I sent him a letter telling him to go to sex abuse counseling and he got treatment. So did I. I came away with the feeling that if it doesn’t feel right, just say something. Don’t be scared you won’t be believed. I forgive him, but I won’t forget.
“My fiancé and I broke up soon after [the incident]. I didn’t want to be touched. I was confused and anxious.
“I think it’s a compulsive thing, like gambling. I don’t know if [harassers] understand or care about the consequences.”
• • •
Lauren Macy, the president emeritus of the Society of Human Resource Management of the Roanoke Valley, says larger companies almost always have sexual harassment policies in place today, but smaller companies without HR departments can be exposed.
“I’d say 98 percent of bigger organizations have policies,” she says. “The question is, ‘What do they do with the policy?’” More than 40 percent of companies with 3,000 workers have liability insurance against the lawsuits stemming from sexual harassment.
She says simply, “This gets stopped by education. What kind of training does your company offer? Does it offer any? Is the training appropriate?”
• • •
Nancy Agee, CEO and president of Carilion, which has 13,000 employees in Western Virginia, says the company has “a zero tolerance policy as a company and as a culture” for sexual harassment. “We talk about values, respect and diversity. [Sexual harassment] is about power. In old hierarchies, there was a captain and everybody else took orders, creating [a power] dynamic. That has tilted [at Carilion] to the team approach and everybody has power. It is a work in progress, but it is more healthy.”
• • •
Shannon Anderson, an associate professor of sociology at Roanoke College who has a keen interest in sexual harassment, recalls the time when, as a young student, she was propositioned by a professor. It was a grades for sex proposal “and I was shocked.” She knew the dynamic, but it hadn’t happened to her before.
She was a guest speaker recently and one of the officials for the sponsoring company said, “You look nice,” she recalls. “As soon as he said it, I felt uncomfortable.” She understands that “at this moment, men don’t know what the hell to do. It’s hard. I don’t want to live in a society where you can’t say, ‘You look nice.’”
• • •
King Tower and Patice Holland of Woods Rogers, PLC, a large Roanoke law firm, point to Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which established sexual discrimination as illegal. Then in 1986 the Supreme Court declared that sexual harassment is forbidden by that act. In 1994, the Violence Against Women Act further refined the law, rejecting evidence of the past sexual history of the plaintiff in sexual harassment cases. Suddenly, it was simply about the case at hand and employers got nervous.
Companies are strongly urged to have a handbook, says Holland, “and they should have a written policy defining harassment, including sexual harassment.” Tower says the company must “make sure the policy is seen as fair with the ideal goal of eradicating sexual harassment.”
The law, says Tower, stipulates that sexual harassment must be “severe and pervasive,” according to a judicial interpretation of Title VII in a 1986 case, “although employer policies usually cover any conduct that creates a hostile work environment.” Law firms and HR departments offer “a ton of training” in bigger companies that small companies can’t afford.
“Those companies who do not offer harassment training and who fail to have written policies relating to sexual harassment,” says Holland, “are likely to be the most vulnerable to legal action.”
Federal law, says Tower, “kicks in at 15 employees. Companies with 15 to 50 employees are big enough to cover, but frequently not big enough to have a handbook and attorneys.”
It is important, says Tower, to file grievances as quickly as possible because “there is a 300-day statute of limitations.” In addition, “the longer you wait, the harder it is to verify.”
Courts don’t warm to the cases, according to a story in the New York Times. “ … Courts routinely dismiss cases brought by workers who claim their supervisors propositioned them, kissed them or grabbed their breasts. The judges declare that the conduct does not constitute harassment in a legal sense, and refuse to let the cases go to trial.”
Sexual harassment is often a serial offense. “You can’t legislate human nature,” says Tower, but in light of recent developments, “employers’ investigations into sexual harassment claims often reveal that the harasser continued the conduct even after being caught the first time.”
False reporting of sexual harassment tends to subvert legitimate cases, though false reports are rare. According to Justice Department’s Office of Violence Against Women, “… the prevalence of false reporting is between two percent and 10 percent.”
The Times’ story suggests that “the legal system favors employers over employees via a host of procedural, evidentiary and substantive mechanisms. Sexual harassment lawsuits are one area where this systematic bias appears; racial discrimination lawsuits are another.”
Shannon Anderson of Roanoke College insists that “women are in a double bind. If you act feminine, you are seen as not interested in advancing your career. If you’re serious and act like men, you’re bitches or bossy. Sexual harassment is the embodiment of anger, the desire to hold power. … Men often feel vulnerable. They feel an assault on their jobs and their power.”
Technology and engineering professions, she says, “are brutal [for women] and I wonder why women in technology won’t acknowledge it.”
She says many men are “responding to a threat to their masculinity. You see it in male-dominated working class jobs, especially blue collar, where women are much more at risk.”
Sexual harassment, she says, “has a cumulative effect on healthy careers, productivity for a lot of women. They leave [jobs] because they don’t want to deal with it.”
“I was over 1,000 temp workers” as an executive with ADECCO “in my last job,” says Lauren Macy, “and there were a lot of accusations [of sexual harassment]. The minute the word was used, we followed protocol. It was costly and can be a culture buster.” Everybody, she insists, “deserves to work in a non-hostile environment.” Still, “We’re in the south. People hug each other here. People put their hands on shoulders. We have to understand that what is appropriate for you may not be appropriate for me.”
Macy sees a “feeding frenzy” working its way into the consciousness of many and suggests that those being harassed “need to have an outlet, but [complaints] don’t need always wind up in termination. I think these things are coming to a head.”
• • •
At its most basic, says Joyce Waugh, president of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce, “We need to make sure people are aware. The key is to manage and prevent this issue from occurring. I don’t think the women I know haven’t had a feeling of discomfort in a work situation at some time. … The more transparent [the work environment] the better. I don’t think [a policy] is always clear in every work place. … It is incumbent upon all managers to be vigilant.”
The chamber, Waugh says, promotes seminars. “We don’t have experts, but our members do.”
Despite the promise of the #MeToo movement, which encourages women to be forthright with their sexual harassment stories, there remains hesitation for many reasons. One Roanoker, who asked for anonymity, said, “Women learn to keep things to themselves and learn from them. It is wrong that we must do this but women almost always are further harmed by telling, and the outcome changes nothing. Not all my family and friends are privy to certain topics. I continue to deal with it and those who perpetrate the act often are not even aware of it.”
Says former executive Patti Lucas, “I was often the only woman in manager level meetings. I didn’t have big problems but there were certain guys (like the HR VP) who had a high ‘creep vibe.’ ... Men in that environment often think they are just being funny but they’ll sometimes cross a line and it’s hard to call them on it without seeming overly sensitive or not one of the guys.”
Lisa Banks, responding to a Roanoker’s Facebook post, recently wrote, “It’s a new time wherein, suddenly, female accusers are believed and have the power … As a society we need to draft new rules of conduct to avoid mistakes that destroy men’s lives. … Make no mistake, for decades many women’s lives were destroyed without recourse. In this brave new world, over-exuberance and misplaced revenge will create some victims. It’s an unfortunate side effect of necessary change.”
... for more from our March/April 2018 issue, Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!