10 hot stories, including Brad’s cosy date with Jen in LA, and the British bosses behaving just like Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein-type sexual harassment in the workplace wasn’t a horror that was restricted to Hollywood. And while more celebrities came forward with their tales of abuse outside the movie industry last week, you too wanted to speak out about your exper
The tidal wave of #Metoos that washed across our social media feeds last week was shocking, but on some level we all know – and have always known – how universal sexual harassment at work is.
In the aftermath of the Weinstein revelations, well-known names across all kinds of industries are coming forward to expose abuse. Emma Cline, author of The
Girls, wrote a widely shared piece about how rife sexual assault is in the publishing industry. Olympic gymnast Mckayla Maroney alleges that she was molested by her former team doctor from the age of 13. Model Cameron Russell has been sharing stories about harassment of young models in the fashion industry with #Myjobshouldnotincludeabuse. Lady Gaga, Björk, Lupita Nyong’o, Jennifer Lawrence – the list of celebrities who are now speaking out about their abuse is depressingly long. Add to that stories you’ve told us spanning harassment from management in public sector housing,
groping on production lines in manufacturing and vicious attacks in the service industry. From Hollywood to Hartlepool, whether you’re an athlete, an author or an accountant, the stories keep on coming.
‘Unfortunately it’s an experience women across the country, in every job, can relate to,’ says Scarlet Harris, policy adviser for the TUC, who last year conducted a study which found that 52% of women had experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. ‘Although we found that it was particularly prevalent in male-dominated workplaces, this is happening across the board – in retail, office work, teaching, the NHS. That’s why the Me Too phenomenon has resonated so much.’
Tellingly, the TUC study found that four in five women who’d experienced sexual harassment at work hadn’t reported it to anyone at all – until now. ‘ The main reason for this is shame,’ says Harris. ‘ The very act of sexual harassment is degrading and humiliating, and professionally undermining, so often women don’t want to draw attention to it. There’s also a real and valid fear of recrimination. Women feel that if they speak up they will damage their career prospects or lose their job, and a minority of women we spoke to did indeed find they were victimised as a result of coming forward.’ Just look at the backlash against some of the #Metoo stories on social media, telling posters they must have been asking for it, or that it was just banter, and it’s not hard to see why women might be reticent about speaking out.
Michael Newman, a partner at the solicitors Leigh Day, says this is often the reason sexual harassment cases don’t make it to court. ‘ Women wait until they’ve been dismissed, made redundant or have left the company because it’s got so bad, and only then will they seek legal advice,’ he says. ‘ Then they will reel off instances of people touching their legs under the table or making inappropriate remarks in lifts, things that have gone on for years in some cases, but at the time they didn’t want to jeopardise their careers over it, so they left it unreported. This then makes it impossible to take to a tribunal, as the case needs to be brought within three months of the sexual harassment happening.’
If a case does go to an employment tribunal involving three people – a judge and two laypeople – once it is being examined it can be a lengthy and expensive process,