director of the not-for-profit US
civil-rights law firm Equal Rights
Advocates. “Then they tell us that
they get persistent comments and
dating requests, and co-workers
are calling women bitches. Nearly
100 per cent of those callers are
experiencing sexual harassment.”
If someone’s comments single you
out for being a woman – and are
severe or pervasive enough – they
can add up to create a hostile work
environment, which is a legal
definition of harassment.
Other cases are less clear,
and the lines increasingly blurry.
For example, when two people
who work in the same industry
“meet” on Twitter and go out for
drinks and talk shop, one of them
may see it as a business meeting
and the other may consider it a
personal hangout.
Take the case of Hannah
Waters, a 27-year-old science
writer, and Bora Zivkovic, the
inf luential (now former) editor
of Scientific American magazine’s
blog network. Waters says that
Zivkovic began promoting her
blog posts online after they met
in 2010, which she admits helped
launch her career. But she told
friends she was disturbed by what
she describes as lingering hugs
and a Twitter DM that read “I
love you!!!” By 2011, he’d hiredher to write for Scientific American.
At a “tweetup” for science writers,
she says she felt uncomfortable
when he handed her a rose from
a street vendor and “ jokingly”
called her his “concubine”.
Waters hesitated to call this
sexual harassment at first, but in
2013, she and two other writers- Kathleen Raven and Monica
Byrne – wrote blog posts accusing
Zivkovic of sexual harassment. “It
wasn’t overt, textbook, grabbing
a bum, or asking me on a date,”
explains Waters of her experience
with Zivkovic, “but I felt deeply
uncomfortable and sexualised and
it created anxiety problems for
me. I wanted to make a career as
a writer on my own merit but it
felt like it wasn’t my work that
was being elevated.”
Zivkovic, on the other hand,
denies he acted inappropriately
towards any of the women and
says the incidents they labelled
harassment were actually simple
misunderstandings that didn’t
happen in professional settings
or circumstances. “This is a small
community – we were all friends
or trying to become friends,” he
says. “We were building a more
egalitarian world of online science
writing. We all met [each other]
in social settings and had drinks
together. Nobody felt this was a
working environment.” Zivkovic
says the “concubine” comment,
for example, was an “innocuous
joke”. He says he and Waters were
smoking outside a bar when he
bought a rose for his wife, who
was inside. When the salesman
gave him two, he says he joked,
to the salesman, not to Waters,
“What’s that, one for the wife, one
for the concubine?” And as for the
Twitter DM, Zivkovic argues the
word “love” can convey friendship
and admiration.
Why you should report
In the aftermath of the Scientific
American controversy, Raven says
she is now much more likely to
call out behaviour that makes her90
%
of harassers in the
Workplace are men.
uncomfortable. “At a past job, an
editor sent me some Facebook
messages, saying, ‘How old are
you? Your blouse looks nice. How
long have you been married for?’
I took this guy aside and I said
to him, ‘Those comments were
inappropriate, could you please
not make them?’ He didn’t seem
happy about being confronted, but
he did stop messaging me with
personal questions. These are the
small things that most women
push aside but it was interfering
with my ability to focus at work.”
That’s the thing about reporting- the Human Rights Commission
survey shows that 45 per cent of
the respondents who did make a
complaint to HR found that the
harassment stopped within a
month. Still, only 20 per cent of
those harassed made a complaint.
Part of the reason is because
reporting bad behaviour can be
complicated. “There’s a part of me
that does understand why women
don’t report it,” says Broderick.
“Women can be victimised if they
report, and their careers derailed.
And it’s quite hard to stand up to
sexism in a culture that [continues
to] perpetuate it.” But there is a
good reason to report: of the 20
per cent who did, 79 per cent said
they were “satisfied” or “highly
satisfied” with the outcome. It’s a
good place to start.
But there’s another often
unmentioned part of the solution:
bystander intervention. “This is
so effective,” says Broderick. “It’s
a way for somebody within the
workplace to start to change the
status quo by saying, ‘We’re not
going to put up with this.’ And it
can help take the pressure off the
victim.” So like those old terrorist
ads said, “If you see something,
say something.” And if you can
say something in the heat of the
moment, all the better. “A lot of
offices have the ‘unfunny joker’,”
notes Broderick. “Someone who
thinks it’s hilarious to talk about
women’s body parts or to make
sexually suggestive jokes – and
“Whistles
and catcalls
from
across the
parking lot
and in
front of
other co-
worker s.”- 29-year old
woman in medical/
health care
“Being
called dear,
sweetie,
cu t ie, etc.”- 31-year-old in
arts/entertainment
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