“Why now? Why have women come forward with claims of sexual abuse and harassment when evidence shows that this is not a new phenomenon?”
Abstract.
The purpose of this study is to determine via factually based assessment and in-depth research, why women feel they can come forward and officially complain about sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace when historically it is known that this is not a new occurrence.
Introduction.
Over the past few years there has been a considerable increase in the amount of abuse cases, specifically against women, that have been have been well publicised and allocated a considerable amount of media attention. Throughout this project it is the aim to discuss and debate why such cases have come to the forefront of the media given that this is not necessarily a new subject matter. In addition to the main topic of discussion, issues such as the rise of feminism, women’s empowerment and how the media can influence such sensitive subject areas such as sexual harassment will be tackled to arrive at a logical and balanced view of the EPQ title chosen.
Sexual abuse is historically and typically, somewhat of a taboo subject and in the past would not have been a topic for open an honest discussion. There are many complex and personal reasons why, in the past women would feel unable to talk about such a violent and intrusive crime, let alone have the courage to actually report such an incident to the appropriate authorities. It is only in more recent times that this difficult and somewhat delicate subject matter has emerged and is being freely and without adverse repercussions been discussed. Such changes in views will also be investigated and debated during this dialogue in conjunction with the reasons why.
To fully comprehend the title, key terminology must be defined and explained.
For the purpose of this EPQ the accurate definition of abuse, sexual abuse and sexual harassment need to be clarified.
There are endless definitions of abuse available on the internet, dictionaries and thesauruses, however for the purpose of this piece of work I have chosen a simple, common-sense explanations from various sources:
- Abuse: (verb) “Treat with cruelty or violence, especially regularly or repeatedly”. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/abuse
- Sexual Abuse: Sexual abuse is any sort of non-consensual sexual contact. Sexual abuse can happen to men or women of any age. Sexual abuse by a partner/intimate can include derogatory name calling, refusal to use contraception, deliberately causing unwanted physical pain during sex, deliberately passing on sexual diseases or infections and using objects, toys, or other items (e.g. baby oil or lubricants) without consent and to cause pain or humiliation. https://pandys.org/whatissexualabuse.html
- Harassment: the act of systematic and/or continued unwanted and annoying actions of one party or a group, including threats and demands. https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/harassment
To progress this topic relevant data sources will be considered to produce a balanced and logical discussion around the chosen title. Such sources will include historical information, material and evidence through to more contemporary facts and data. Theories and concepts as to why, in the past, women felt unable to come forward to report such dreadful crimes against them and why, in more recent times, women have felt more confident in raising awareness to such degrading crimes.
Discussion.
Historically, the crimes of sexual abuse and sexual violence have been found to date back as far as the Roman and Greek empires (circa AD 100). In such times women were perceived merely as a possessions, they had no rights what-so-ever, including those over their own bodies. Women “belonged” to their husbands, their masters, and there are an abundance of references to sexual violence and r**e in historical literature including early authors such a Homer, Herodotus, Livy and Hebrew prophets. During conflicts and wars sexual violence was much more prevalent and alarmingly was professed to be just an ordinary occurrence during such troubled times and was in-effect simply accepted.
Some five hundred years later, during the middle ages, very little seemed to have changed with regards to sexual abuse, harassment and violence. Women were still effectively viewed as the property of their husbands, so much so that they were, barbarically, not permitted to refuse to engage in sexual activities with their husbands. Ironically laws were passed to deter offenders from committing such crimes, however such wrong-doings were merely consider petty and insignificant, and ultimately very few cases progressed to court, leaving the perpetrators free to continue with their vile offences.
Slowly and by the 19th century during The Victorian era changes began to happen. Although women were still considered the “weaker sex” the life of a woman in these times was still restrictive, invariably being expected to live their lives mainly around their husbands, houses and children. The class system played an important role in the direction a woman’s life would take. Five classes were essentially recognised during this era, these being:
- Nobility & Gentry: fundamentality the richest of society, living a life filled with luxuries, enjoying afternoon tea parties, lavish balls, delighting in activities such as horse rising and croquet. Such privileged women would also be well educated and act as role models for the younger generations of the same standing.
- Middle Class: women belonging to this strata of the social structure enjoyed a fairly advantaged life, being educated to a level whereby they could join family businesses or being employed as nurses, tutors or writers.
- Upper Working Class: such women had a reasonable standard of living, perhaps gaining employment as housekeepers and other similar positions.
- Lower Working Class: women living at this level of social standing gained employment in areas such as cleaning, housekeeping.
- Lower Class: such women lived in abject poverty, working a labourers in mills or other heavy and unpleasant industrial positions, many turned to prostitution as a way to make money.
Women in early Victorian times were not allowed to vote, to own a property or have the right to sue – their lives lacked parity and as time progressed women started to realise the unfairness and inequality of the world they were living in. Such realisations lead slowly, to the rise of Feminism or Women’s Liberation/Women’s Movement which endeavoured to bring about reforms in voting rights, equal pay, sexual harassment, domestic violence and many other issues.
During the first world war as the majority of the male population of a given age were deployed to fight overseas, the women they left behind played a hugely important role in attempting to keep life as normal as possible. They took over the jobs that the men had vacated – the women began working in munitions factories, shops, driving trams and trains, working for the civil Service etc…
Many women were enticed by the thought of change from their hum-drum domestic lives, of extra money and future employment opportunities. These women proved beyond doubt that they were just as capable as men in carrying out a wide and varied number of jobs they were intellectually and physically able and this started to pave the way for big social change. The extent by which women assisted during the war effort simply underpinned the publics and the politician’s views that women did indeed warrant the right to vote
Many brave and courageous women became part of the Suffragette Movement, which strived to divert women away from a life of domesticity – such women were often part of the upper or middle classes, they were well educated and suffered dreadfully for their cause, often enduring long spells in prison where they were invariable abused and tortured. After a long and arduous struggle by women such as Emmeline Pankhurst and Emily Wilding Davison, the vote was granted for all women by 1928. This was a tremendous step forward with regards to women’s rights although this was essentially the limit to the equalities of women.
“The 1944 Education Act was supposed to give everyone ‘parity of esteem’, but that is not how it worked out. Many teachers and parents had narrow expectations for girls whose destiny was to be marriage, a home and a family, with work just an interim measure between leaving school and walking down the aisle, rather than a career. Just 1.2 per cent of women went to university in the 1950s”. (https://www.historytoday.com/reviews/story-women-1950s).
The 1960’s became known as “the decade of change for women”. As more and more women were becoming an integral part of the country’s workforce and along with this came the realisation of the great disparity between the pay grades between men and women, the greater career opportunities offer to men coupled with the growth in sexual harassment within the workplace.
One of the great advancements for women in the 1960’s came in the form of the contraceptive pill. This empowered women, giving them choice, independence and more control over their personal lives. Once again the feminists worked tirelessly in the 60’s for
“equal pay for equal work, an end to domestic violence, curtailment of severe limits on women in managerial jobs, an end to sexual harassment, and sharing of responsibility for housework and child rearing…” (https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2010/03/12/the-1960s-a-decade-of-change-for-women).
The 60’s were a turbulent and exciting time, The Miss world contest was boycotted on the grounds that it was sexist, rallies, marches and sit-in were organised by feminists giving them media exposure and a voice to be heard. Equal employment opportunities were fought for, wage and age discrimination were tackled by air stewardess, restrictions on abortions were undertaken – this as a most exhilarating time for women.
“the 1970’s witnessed a pivotal shift in the public understanding of sexual violence. The second wave feminist movement brought about the first public discussions of r**e as a personal experience and a widespread social problem”
Prior to the anti-r**e movement which derived from the second wave feminism the consequences of such an act of criminality were not effectively analysed or evaluated primarily as me were still responsible for the terminology and meanings of such acts – extremely disturbing definitions have been recorded…
“the victim was a respectable white virgin who was violently attacked by a stranger who was either psychologically disturbed or a black man. Any other sexual encounter, whether it was coerced or exploitative, was not considered to be assault.” Astonishingly this definition was still employed in the 1970’s (https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=classicshp).
“One of the ground breaking texts to come from this period of nascent momentum in the anti-r**e movement is Susan Brownmiller’s “Against Our Will”. In Brownmiller’s view “if a woman chooses not to have intercourse with a specific man and the man chooses to proceed against her will, that is a criminal act of r**e. This clear -cut definition established a widely applicable standard for sexual assault.”(https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=classicshp).
Turning to more contemporary times, it is estimated that more than one third of working woman (some surveys report a figure as high as 50%) have experienced sexual harassment in the work place in various forms and to varying degrees.
“More than a quarter were subjected to suggestive remarks or jokes of a sexual nature (27%), while a similar number (25%) were forced to endure unwanted comments about their appearance. Unwelcome behaviour of a sexual nature was experienced by 17%, while 14% endured unwanted and inappropriate touching, hugging or kissing.”(https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jun/10/third-of-women-say-they-have-faced-sexual-harassment-at-work).
This raises a number of relevant questions that need to be appropriately tackled…
- Why is sexual harassment so prevalent in the work place
- Why do women fail to report such incidents
- What can senior management do to prevent sexual harassment?
After in-depth research into question one there are seemingly many reasons which include:
- Sexual harassment is a demonstration of power. Inherently the workplace has been perceived as a male dominated environment. “Women are much more likely to be victims of sexual harassment precisely because they more often than men lack power, are in more vulnerable and insecure positions, lack self-confidence, or have been socialized to suffer in silence” (http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/svaw/harassment/explore/3causes.htm).
- Men in the work place often feel threatened by women who are deemed to be at a similar or higher level of management than they are; often they feel resentful of such women and assume that they will lose their control in the work place.
- Acts such as sexual harassment may be employed by men in the work place as a bullying tactic to demonstrate the vulnerability of the woman, to undermine her, intimidate her and generally demoralise the woman – invariable the man himself may indeed feel threatened by a woman in a similar or higher role than him. Inevitably the woman may feel compromised lack confidence and self-belief and not feel capable of progressing or advancing in her chosen career.
- Inferiority complex
- Narcissism & narcissistic traits
- Fear of negatively assessed by other co-workers
- Having recently been demoted
- Seeking sexual gratification
Why do Women fail to report sexual harassment?
- Fear of reprisals or the consequences
- Fear of not attaining promotions
- Low self-esteem / lack of belief in themselves / feeling of hopelessness
- Not wanting to be perceived as an “informer”
- Fear of not been taken seriously
- Shame – “Shame is a natural reaction to being violated or abused. In fact, abuse, by its very nature, is humiliating and dehumanizing.” This is especially true with sexual violations. The victim feels invaded and defiled, while simultaneously experiencing the indignity of being helpless and at the mercy of another person.” (https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/the-compassion-chronicles/201711/why-dont-victims-sexual-harassment-come-forward-sooner)
- Denial / minimisation
- Lack of information as to what actually constitutes sexual harassment
How can management help?
- Be trained to identify high risk individuals
- Education and intervention for both men and women
- Early detection
- Open door policy
- Support and counselling
- Development anti-harassment policies and procedures
- Be sensitive and understanding to employees making official claims
- Support employees
Turning now to the question in hand regarding why women have taken it upon themselves to come forward with claims of sexual harassment now, when this isn’t a new phenomenon needs to be analysed in detail to gain clarity on this aspect of the discussion. To underpin this, appropriate to look in detail and analyse in depth a number of recent cases which have had a great deal of media exposure in the last year or so.
Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein is a renowned Hollywood film producer, who cofounded the film company Miramax with his brother in 1979 and became one of the principal independent film producer and distributor concentrating solely on the circulation of films produced outside the remit of the major film studio system such as Paramount Films, 20th Century Fox, Universal, Disney etc… The concept was originally deemed unviable originally b the major studios; however the Weinstein’s proved them wrong and had major hits with cult films such Pulp Fiction, The Crying Game, Shakespeare In Love. Perhaps its most successful film, Chicago, grossed over $300 million worldwide – Miramax was a huge success, the Weinstein brothers had firmly established themselves as major players in Hollywood. With this success came vast amounts of money, immense power and the ability to turn unknown actors into international stars. From the outset, Harvey Weinstein was always perceived as a domineering, authoritarian individual – a ruthless business man determined to succeed in an aggressive, fast moving world of entertainment.
Ex-employees of the firm Miramax have since likened the working conditions at the firm to those of a “cult, the cult of Harvey, and that’s how he got away with his behaviour for so long,” said Webster. “It was crude but very effective. People became brainwashed, some people had nervous breakdowns. People would be hired and then destroyed for no apparent reason, and then their careers and lives would be in tatters.”
(https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/25/the-cult-of-harvey-weinsteins-staff-at-miramax-describe-bullying-and-abuse)
Additional and highly concerning comments such as: “Everything Harvey did was all about manipulation and fear. He was a massive bully. He would flatter people, get the best out of them and then dump on them really, really hard to destroy them. It was this whole thing of breaking people down so you could build them up in your own image.” (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/25/the-cult-of-harvey-weinsteins-staff-at-miramax-describe-bullying-and-abuse) serve to demonstrate what a truly despicable character Harvey Weinstein was.
Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby, a famous and previously well-loved stand-up American comedian and actor began his career in 1960’s, “his stand-up act was a coast-to-coast sensation, spawning a string of hilarious, best-selling comedy albums, which went on to win eight Gold Records, five Platinum records and five Grammy Awards”. (http://www.billcosby.com/the-artist/). Bill Cosby was deemed a mega-star, gaining further public adoration when he starred in the sit-com The Cosby Show – a hugely successful show that ran for eight years and was regarded as America’s most popular show for five consecutive years. Cosby turned to production for the TV giant CBS.
Like Weinstein, Cosby was viewed as a huge American star that everyone felt they knew – his persona was one of a likeable easy-going, father figure; however there was a much more sinister and menacing side to this man. Again he was wealthy, powerful, influential and had the ability to make stars out of unknown actors.
Jimmy Saville
Jimmy Saville was a highly popular DJ, radio and television personality with his career starting in 1958 when he hosted a radio show for the commercial broadcaster Radio Luxembourg. He later joined Radio 1, the most popular radio station of its era, moving onto television presenting, hosting hugely popular shows such as Top of the Pops, doing public information campaigns, developing and hosting his own show Jim’ll Fix It, which ran from 1975 – 1994 and was watched by some 15 million viewers at its peak. The show huge and the host was an enormous star. Saville was also renowned for his charitable work, fund raising, voluntary work at hospitals such as Leeds General Infirmary – he raised over £40 million for numerous charities including Stoke Mandeville Hospital and the Jimmy Saville Trust.
Similarly, we can see comparable traits between Saville, Weinstein and Cosby – hugely famous, vastly wealthy, immensely influential and seemingly untouchable. Saville had a character that everyone perceived as caring, charitable and compassionate – however as we have seen with the previous two men, there was a much darker, sinister, evil and predatory side to this person.
Probably one of the most disturbing aspects of the three people examined during this discussion and the industry they worked in, is the fact that the abuse, harassment that was being meted out, was widely acknowledged by senior executives and yet nothing was done to help the victims of these appalling crimes. It would appear to be endemic to this industry and young, innocent women were simply ignored.
Having researched in depth this particular topic under discussion, there are seemingly a number of reasons as to why the women involved in high profile abuse scandals failed to come forward and report such heinous wrong-doings.
What is clear from the evidence gleaned about the offenders in question, is that they all have specific criteria in common:
- They are all highly powerful in their chosen industry.
- They are all hugely famous.
- They are all vastly wealthy.
- They are all immensely influential.
- They were all extremely well connected.
- They all deemed themselves untouchable.
Previously a list of reasons why women fail to report sexual abuse and /or sexual harassment was detailed and this list would also accompany the more specific suggestions given above.
The facts listed above would clearly deter any woman from reporting an incident of sexual harassment to a higher authority, so why then have women decided to come forward now to highlight such crimes when we have deduced that such crimes are not a new phenomenon.