The cost of sexual harassment when it comes to employers has not been widely discussed, or even measured, but the NPS survey does provide some hints.
Consequences of harassment and/or assault behaviors were examined with data from employees who experienced harassment and/or assault behaviors and completed questions assessing job-related outcomes including job satisfaction, job engagement, and organizational commitment. Regression analyses revealed statistically significant associations of harassmentand/or assault behaviors and these job-related outcomes. While the magnitude of the effects were small, the pattern of associations indicated that employees who experienced harassment and/orassault behaviors were less satisfied, less engaged, and less committed to the organization than their counterparts.
Which should surprise absolutely no one.
Within our military, the problem of sexual harassment is ongoing, although the numbers have shrunk. However, in spite of the efforts of Sen. Claire McCaskill and Sen. Joni Ernst, the well-founded fear of retaliation is alive and well, and no doubt has stopped others from reporting assaults.
Within the recent military report was an anonymous survey, conducted every two years, which found that 14,900 service members experienced some kind of sexual assault in 2016, from rape to groping, down from 20,300 in 2014.
But 58 percent of victims experienced reprisals or retaliation for reporting sexual assault, the report showed.
Last year Sens. McCaskill and Ernst introduced the "Military Retaliation Prevention Act." It was sent to the Committee on Armed Forces, where it remains, according to Congress.gov. The deputy director of the Defense Department’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, Nate Galbreath, is quoted in a DOD press release:
Prevention is the key in the way ahead to further reduce the occurrence of sexual assault and increase reporting, Galbreath said.
“If we expect prevalence rates of sexual assault to decrease in the future, we will need to get after the prevention of co-occurring misconduct like sexual harassment, hazing and alcohol misuse,” he said. “We have plans in the works to collaborate with our counterpart organizations across the DoD to press forward together.”
The federal government needs to clean up its act, and then pass the legislation that we need to finally be free from the fear of sexual harassment and/or assault in the workplace.
In response to a massive social media movement under the hashtag #BalanceTonPorc (Expose Your Pig), France is beginning to address its problems with sexual harassment. According to the New York Times, the movement has already generated tens of thousands of posts by women who have been harassed. And now:
Proposals are under discussion to fine men for aggressive catcalling or lecherous behavior toward women in public, to extend the statute of limitations in cases of sexual assault involving minors, and to create a new age ceiling under which minors cannot legally consent to a sexual relationship.
Marlène Schiappa, a feminist and writer who is France’s junior minister for gender equality, said on Monday that the government was considering precisely how to define street harassment and how much to fine. The government would consult legal professionals on its proposals and hold workshops for citizens across the country, she said, aiming to put measures before Parliament next year.
France has a ministry for gender equality?
Why don’t we?
France, by the way, is not the only nation dealing with this problem that our country appears happy to ignore.
In Europe, several countries have moved in recent years to criminalize sexual harassment, including Portugal, where the left-leaning government in 2015 made verbal sexual abuse a crime with a fine of up to 120 euros, or about $142. Belgium has also moved against sexual harassment, and in 2014 introduced penalties including a jail sentence of up to one year for remarks intending to express contempt for a person because of his or her gender.
It is pretty safe to say that had the popular vote winner in 2016 occupied the Oval Office when the Weinstein scandal broke, she would have already initiated the hypothetical actions attributed above to President Obama. After all, this is the woman who addressed the world with the words, “Human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights” in 1995, when it was still a revolutionary concept, especially in China where she was speaking. There’s no doubt that she would be leading the charge against sexual harassment in the workplace.
Until we have more equal representation in the legislative and judicial branches, as well as the executive branch, we will constantly be battling those who benefit most from the status quo. Men like Harvey Weinstein do not restrict themselves to Hollywood. You can find them in commercial real estate development in New York City or in the corridors of Washington. And in small town grocery stores, and fast food joints. They are everywhere.
But under the current government, we are on our own and must rely on tools like Twitter to expose and shame these sexual predators.
And we can also rely on our votes to bring about the changes we need. As long as we are still allowed to cast them.