I was harassed but
I didn’t speak up.
Here’s why.
52
20
51
per cent
of Harassers are
co-workers.per cent
of tHose Harassed
made a complaInt.per cent of
respondents saId
tHey’d taken
actIon after
wItnessIng a
co-worker beIng
Harassed.“Aggressive
flirting after
telling him
I didn’t like it.”- 21-year-old woman in retail
Georgina
Dent, editor
of Women’s
Agenda,
explains how
workplace harassment left her
feeling angry and confused.“Like lots of students studying
law, I took part in a few clerkship
programs. At one firm, I was
quite surprised to discover that
I had been assigned to a practice
group I had listed as my 13th
preference out of 13 choices. I
assumed that this was because
I had ranked below my fellow
clerks so had been assigned my
final preference.
Turns out that wasn’t the
case. On our very first day, I was
informed that I’d been selected
on the basis of my photo. Even
now, more than a decade later,
I am still disbelieving that this
actually happened. But it did.
And that wasn’t the worst
of it. The same partner, in front
of clients and other legal staff,
asked whether I would sleep with
him. I was 22 at the time. He wasmarried with children and, at a
guess, double my age. A junior
lawyer intervened and said that
wasn’t appropriate. He was told
to be quiet. “As if you don’t want
to sleep with her, too,” was the
retort. The fact it was tabled in
a public setting made it easier to
dismiss; it was as outrageous as
it was offensive.
I tentatively raised it with
human resources but the reaction
just confirmed why I hadn’t been
more forthright. The underlying
message was that if something
inappropriate had happened, I
obviously took part in it so I was
somehow responsible. It was as
extraordinary to me then as it is
now. The idea that a summer clerk
wields any power whatsoever over
a large law firm is absurd.
It still angers me that this
happened and I wonder why I
wasn’t braver or more willing
to fight it. What I was subject to
didn’t ruin my life or my career.
What I was subject to symbolises
and perpetuates a culture that
does ruin, or, at the very least,
limit the careers and lives of somany women. So why didn’t I
raise it with HR straight away?
Because I was 22 and what
power did I have? The people who
had power were either using it to
perpetuate the sexist behaviour
or they were using it to protect
perpetuators or to permit other
people to do so.
The partners at the firm
could have modelled appropriate
behaviour, could have identified
unacceptable behaviour when they
saw it and reported it. They could
have reached out to colleagues
to enlist them. They could have
encouraged their colleagues to
develop an attitude about rejecting
unacceptable behaviour. And they
could have supported anyone who
has been subject to this sort of
unacceptable behaviour.
Are these things all easy?
No. Are some feathers likely to
be ruff led? Most likely. But is it
better than telling someone to
stay silent in the face of sexual
harassment? Absolutely.
When all’s said and done,
the standard you walk past is the
standard you accept.” #72 cosmopolitan.com.au to subscrIbe cAll 136 116