Sexism Is Over? Give Me a Break.
Here’s a number that might come as a surprise: According to a Pew Research survey released in August, most American men—56%—think sexism is over and done with. More than half believe that “the obstacles that once made it harder for women than men to get ahead are now largely gone.” As in disappeared. Past tense. Ancient history.
Of course, most women—63%—disagree. So might anyone who has been paying attention to the details emerging from the lawsuits and allegations from women currently and formerly at the Fox News network. One plaintiff described an environment run like a “sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult” under former Fox chairman Roger Ailes, who resigned in July amid accusations of sexual harassment and suggestions that he fostered an atmosphere where women were judged by looks and pliability and where men weren’t judged much at all.
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But Fox scandal is hardly the worst story of the summer when it comes to women in the workplace. Consider the National Park Service, which celebrated its 100th birthday as “America’s best idea” while dealing with a sexual-misconduct crisis. Women reported being groped and propositioned by male National Park Service employees on trips into the parks, and if they rejected the advances, they were subject to verbal abuse and other kinds of bullying. The practice is apparently so widespread that Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell admitted in July on NPR that the allegations that have surfaced are likely only the “tip of the iceberg.” “For many of us who’ve been in the workplace for a long time, we’ve experienced some form of sexual harassment,” she said, “hazing rights of passage that have made us really uncomfortable.”
It’s no better at the local firehouse. This summer a number of fire departments are coping with allegations that the few women in their ranks are routinely bullied and harassed. After a young Virginia firefighter hanged herself earlier this year, the Fairfax County fire department began looking into lewd and misogynistic messages posted by her colleagues on an online forum. Other female firefighters across the country have reported that they’ve had their shampoo bottles filled with urine, semen put on their bunks and holes cut in their clothing. As a result of such behavior, fire departments have paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to women in the past five years, but changing the firehouse culture remains a challenge.
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But words matter too, as Sam Polk, a former Wall Street bond trader, pointed out recently in the New York Times. Polk wrote an op-ed arguing that the way men talk among themselves about women has a tangible effect on how women are treated at work. He notes that men bond by objectifying women, often referring to them as objects. As in: “I’d like to get behind that.” It’s hard to imagine calling someone that in any other context: “That is going to the store.” But speaking out could be a career killer, so the boys’ club is perpetuated. “When you create a culture where women are casually torn apart in conversation,” Polk writes, “how can you ever stomach promoting them, or working for them?”
More..
http://time.com/4465734/workplace-sexism/
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I admit, I watch the news on TV, read LBN on DU, read two newspapers a day and except for the FOX news, it was all new to me. And I shuddered reading this.
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