Panel’s ideas to combat harassment in politics: Rules for drinking, dating — and more women in power
Don’t drink too much.
Don’t ask a fellow campaign worker out a second time if you’ve been rejected once.
Those are some of the commonsense recommendations a trio of Democratic women is offering to political parties and campaigns to try to combat sexual harassment and promote women in state politics.
But there are also larger, overarching recommendations from the Anti-Harassment, Equality and Access Panel, such as tying funding and resources to campaigns adopting policies and participating in anti-harassment training, creating an independent body to receive complaints of sexual harassment.
They also are pushing to increase the number of female state legislators, as well as state, county and municipal officeholders in Illinois, to at least 50 percent of the total.
“The issue of sexual harassment, in and of itself, is never going to get better until women are in the positions of power to actually make the rules,” state Comptroller Susana Mendoza, one of three panel members, said.
The intent of the report, created by Mendoza, state Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Champaign, and state Sen. Melinda Bush, D-Grayslake, is to encourage state parties and campaigns to adopt clear, comprehensive policies regarding anti-harassment, anti-discrimination, anti-bullying and anti-retaliation.
“This is really a blueprint so that we can show the parties how they can change the culture and the behavior because, frankly, they haven’t really done a great job,” Bush said.
But there are some very literal recommendations which came straight from information the three gleaned from six listening sessions across the state, including trying to regulate dating relationships within campaigns and the recommendation to “monitor alcohol use” within campaigns.
The report concludes “over-regulation” may “discourage the friendship and camaraderie that is a hallmark of a well-run campaign and may be impossible to enforce.” But it still recommends a “one ask rule” — campaign workers and volunteers are allowed to ask co-workers out one time but cannot do so again if the invitation is declined. The report also discourages dating relationships between superiors and anyone who directly reports to them.
The report includes a recommendation that campaigns “should monitor alcohol use” — “prohibiting consumption to the extent it interferes with a campaign worker’s ability to perform his or her job or exercise proper judgment.”
“Regardless of the exact policy language, alcohol use should never be used to justify harassing and inappropriate behavior or used to discredit a victim,” the report says.
The report recommends state parties come up with policies that are annually updated. They also want anti-harassment training and workplace culture training for all those involved in campaigns on a quarterly basis.
The panel also recommends campaigns provide workers with multiple discrete ways to report sexual harassment and that an “independent body” be created to conduct investigations that are “fair and thorough.”
The report also recommends that state parties have an independent entity investigate complaints and seeks to prohibit campaigns from using nondisclosure agreements in any employment agreements.
The three women heading the panel are all Democrats, but they sent the report to Democratic, Green, Libertarian and Republican party leaders at the state and county level, as well as to statewide and state-level campaigns registered with the State Board of Elections.
One of their key recommendations includes electing more women in Illinois and promoting more to leadership positions. There are currently 46 women in the 118-member Illinois House and 16 women in the 59-member Illinois Senate. That means women hold 39 percent of the House seats and 27 percent of the Senate seats.
But the panel’s report implores leaders to commit to a goal of increasing the number of female lawmakers to reach equality.
The panel was formed in February by House Speaker Mike Madigan as the Southwest Side Democrat tried to do damage control after firing Kevin Quinn. When he created it, Madigan admitted he hadn’t done enough to combat sexual harassment.