Many women face retaliation if they allege harassment

Three years into the # MeToo movement, there may be more awareness around workplace sexual harassment. But a new report finds that almost threequarters of people reporting such harassment suffer from retaliation if they complain.

More than 7 out of 10 people who reported sexual harassment at the workplace said they faced some form of retaliation, up to and including being fired, said the report. It analyzed 3,317 online requests for legal help from the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, between January 2018 and the end of April 2020.

The finding on retaliation was one of the most striking of the broadranging report released Thursday. It also found that workplace harassment severely impacted workers’ economic, physical and mental health, and that often, people were subjected to more than one form of workplace harassment — both sexual and racial, for example.

The study was conducted by the National Women’s Law Center, which houses and administers the Time’s Up Legal

Defense Fund, launched in early 2018 to help workers who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford to take their complaints of sexual misconduct to court. It connects them with legal assistance and in some cases helps defray costs.

The number of people reporting retaliation was “shocking,” said Sharyn Tejani, director of the fund.

“Retaliation takes all different forms,” she said. “Losing your job, losing shifts, losing pay — or if you’ve already lost your job, you can’t find another job in that industry.”

The report found that power dynamics remain a strong factor fueling sexual harassment. More than half, 56%, of workers who identified their harasser in their online requests said it was someone they reported to.

And often, harassers were not held accountable; nearly two in five people, 37%, said nothing happened to the perpetrator.

Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the law center and cofounder of the fund, said the scenarios outlined in the report should sound “an alarm to legislators and policymakers: Until harassers are held accountable, workplaces will remain unsafe for everyone.”

Tina Tchen, president and CEO of the Time’s Up Foundation, noted a positive sign in the findings, which is that more survivors are coming forward.