In October 2017, allegations surfaced that media mogul Harvey Weinstein had harassed and assaulted dozens of women over decades of his career. (Weinstein denied the allegations of non-consensual sex.) In the months that followed, thousands of women have echoed similar experiences with workplace harassment and sexual assault using the hashtag #MeToo, which has grown into a national movement for women’s rights.
The #MeToo movement took off after reports of Weinstein’s alleged sexual harassment and assault by The New York Timesand The New Yorker. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces civil rights against workplace harassment, filed 66 harassment lawsuits, including 41 regarding allegations of sexual harassment, reflecting a more than a 50% increase in suits challenging sexual harassment over fiscal year 2017.
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The EEOC recovered nearly $70 million suing companies on behalf of victims of sexual harassment in fiscal 2018, up 47% from $47.5 million in fiscal 2017. The #MeToo movement has given women a clearer idea of what constitutes harassment and empowered them to come forward, said Kristen Houser, spokeswoman for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, a nonprofit group based in Pennsylvania.
The EEOC recovered nearly $70 million suing companies on behalf of victims of sexual harassment in fiscal 2018, up 47% from the previous year.
Case in point: Earlier this week, an office of Italian exterior lighting manufacturer Magneti Marelli in Tennessee was accused of violating federal law by failing to address complaints of sexual harassment. Women working at the company’s factory said an assembly supervisor repeatedly subjected them to unwelcome sexual advances, comments, and touching.
“A former employee and other women who worked in assembly were repeatedly subjected to unwelcome sexual advances, comments and touching by their line assembly supervisor,” according to the EEOC. “Specifically, the supervisor repeatedly propositioned his female subordinates to have sex with him, uninvitedly massaged their necks and backs, made inappropriate comments about their bodies, sang sexually explicit songs, and asked that they refer to him as ‘Big Daddy.’”
The suit was filed in a U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, Columbia Division after the company declined to reach a pre-litigation settlement. (Magneti Marelli did not respond to request for comment.)
This was us, exactly a year ago today, about to push the button on the Weinstein story, unsure of what would happen next. pic.twitter.com/WNljiNySXy
— jodikantor (@jodikantor) October 5, 2018
“As the #MeToo movement continues to spur a national dialogue regarding workplace sexual harassment, the EEOC is firmly committed to ensuring that workers are free from a sexually hostile work environment,” Delner Franklin-Thomas, district director of the EEOC’s Memphis District Office, said. “The EEOC will continue to hold employers accountable for failing to protect employees from unlawful harassment.”
“If nothing else, the stigma around victimization has been shattered and some of the shame has been alleviated for a lot of individual victims,” she said. “A lot of people have been mobilized by outrage over things that have happened to them and have been more willing to talk about it.”
‘If nothing else the stigma around victimization has been shattered and some of the shame has been alleviated for a lot of individual victims.’ —Delner Franklin-Thomas, district director of the EEOC’s Memphis District Office
It is too early to tell what long-term effects #MeToo will have on the corporate landscape or for women’s rights in general, Houser said. While more women may be reporting, the framework for women who report harassment and assault is still lacking.
There was a 32% increase in reports of rape to the New York Police Department in 2018, which the agency attributed to the #MeToo movement, but the department remains ill-equipped to deal with investigations, a report by The Wall Street Journal found. Victims reported investigators treated them in an “insensitive manner.” A Department of Investigation Report found that the NYPD was understaffed and poorly-equipped to deal with investigations of assault. (NYPD disagreed with the findings in the report and maintained that it supports victims of sex crimes.)
Similar problems exist in the corporate world, said Donna Ballman, a sexual harassment and employment lawyer based in Florida. Though a higher number of employees are now coming forward to report harassment, that doesn’t mean they will be supported. She said in her 32 years of practice litigating sexual harassment cases, in some ways the landscape has gotten worse for women.
‘Corporations are still rallying behind harassers and circling wagons to protect the accused.’ —Donna Ballman, a sexual harassment and employment lawyer based in Florida
“When I started, the concept of workplace harassment was relatively new so employers took it more seriously,” she said. “In the years since, they have started treating the victim as an enemy. Corporations are still rallying behind harassers and circling wagons to protect the accused.”
Weinstein has now been indicted for charges of rape and actor Bill Cosby was sentenced to a minimum of three years and maximum of 20 years in prison last month for rape, but despite a handful of high-profile perpetrators facing punishment, the #MeToo movement has a lot of progress to make, said Jennifer Drobac, a professor of law at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.
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The Senate is widely expected to approve U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh this weekend, despite multiple accusations of sexual assault against him. (Kavanaugh has denied all allegations). Drobac said the sexist comments surrounding the confirmation hearings, including President Donald Trump mocking Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault, are a direct backlash to the #MeToo movement.
“Has #MeToo made a difference? Yes. Women are mobilized,” Drobac said. “And guess what? It’s not over. We need more women voting, we need better education of our children around issues like this, we need better discrimination laws. We have not seen the end of this.”
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