Responding to Sexual Harassment: Advice From a Woman in Construction
The number-one factor causing a decrease in workplace sexual harassment is the presence of women in leadership positions.
More than 70% of sexual harassment incidents go unreported.
By no means do you need to be working in a male-dominated field to experience sexual harassment, although it certainly increases your chances. When working in male-dominated settings, sexual harassment can become so commonplace that it becomes unrecognizable — “just another day.”
This is when women can face repercussions for speaking up for themselves. They’re seen as difficult or trouble-makers, making something from nothing because no one else notices it or experiences those problems. For this reason, 68% of filed sexual harassment charges result in retaliation from the employer, which in turn intimidates victims against speaking out, resulting in 71% of incidents going unreported.
Remember, sexual harassment is not about sex, per se. It’s about power; it’s about communicating to women in subtle and not-so-subtle ways that they don’t belong. Research has shown time and time again that sexual harassment overwhelmingly takes place when women enter male-dominated spaces and tends to be directed at women who act outside of typical gender roles, such as by working in male-dominated fields, enjoying stereotypically masculine hobbies, taking on leadership responsibilities, having masculine personality traits, etc.
What does sexual harassment look like?
In practice, sexual harassment can take many forms. In my personal experience, sexual harassment has included comments made about my appearance, rude staring, rumors about my sex life, sexist comments, retaliation after declining a date offer, and unwanted touching. Whatever the form, sexual harassment can be summarized as any time someone uses sex as their weapon of choice to intimidate, shame, or discredit you.
Sexual harassment can be disguised as a joke or “boys being boys” and can therefore be difficult to identify and to speak up against. However, this is a cycle that must be broken and the more people to speak up against incidents of sexual harassment, the less commonplace it will become.
How Should I Respond to Sexual Harassment?
In an interview with a colleague who’s worked in construction for many years, she had the following advice to share:
Develop a Framework Beforehand.
”You have to pick your battles by deciding what treatment you’re unwilling to accept and whose opinions you care about. It took a toll on my mental health when I was trying to fight every single battle. Instead, developing a framework helped me decide in the moment which comments I wanted to stand up to.”Stay Professional. Don’t Stoop to Their Level.
”It’s better to be professional and keep your cool. There’s a time and a place for jokes, but if you try to make a snarky comment back it can go wrong quickly. A funny comeback is entertaining, but overall, the person who keeps their cool is much more professional. Keeping your cool and not being phased by mistreatment — that’s memorable and that gains respect. When others see you taking things in stride, that says a lot about you. You can stay poised and simply say, ‘I don’t appreciate being spoken to like that.’”Tell Someone and Get Documentation.
”It’s important to report these incidents and to get written documentation. Include the dates, locations, names of parties involved and any witnesses, and details of the actions/conversations. If you report the incident to your employer, ensure you’re given a copy of the complaint record. Check the paperwork you received during your onboarding, your employee portal, or other sources of documentation to find your company’s policy about how to report sexual harassment. In some cases, you may want to seek legal counsel if your organization’s policy is not reasonable for you to use. Remember, your employer will only be able to help if you tell them about the incident. It can be intimidating to report these incidents, but its critical to do so, both for protecting yourself and for creating change.”Be in it Together.
”Find your allies and people you can trust and seek advice from them. As women overwhelmingly are the targets of sexual harassment, we must stick together and support one another. In fact, the number-one factor causing a decrease in workplace sexual harassment is the presence of women in leadership positions. When one of us rises, we all do.”
In her TedX talk, Stanford University sociologist Marianne Cooper shares research about the root causes of sexual harassment.
SOURCES
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye4Y_VpvCko
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWNae7vYK6s
https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-to-deal-with-sexual-harassment-at-work
https://www.leaf.ca/news/sexual-harassment-at-work-what-can-i-do-about-it/
Sobieraj, S. (2018). Bitch, slut, skank, cunt: Patterned resistance to women’s visibility in digital publics. Information, Communication & Society, 21(11), 1700-1714.