Tuesday, August 9, 2016
What Eric and Donald Trump Get Wrong About Sexual Harassment
The
issue of workplace sexual harassment has made its way to the forefront of
election issues with the slew of recent allegations against former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. In an interview with NBC,
Trump gave his (predictably sexist) take: “some of the women that are
complaining, I know how much [Ailes has] helped them…[N]ow, all of a sudden,
they're saying all these horrible things about him.”
What
Trump fails to recognize is that victims of abuse are often forced to maintain
good relationships with
their abusers, especially when the abuser is in a position of power. The
accusations of the alleged victims are not “sudden”; rather, most of them no
longer work at Fox (with many arguing they were fired in retaliation for refusing further sexual advances).
Because they no longer need to choose between career advancement and personal
safety, they are better able to speak out about their experiences.
Unfortunately,
larger societal stigma still lingers. Public reactions to incidents of sexual
harassment and assault are often mixed, with many people believing that the
victim somehow is to blame. Harassers, on the other hand, usually walk away
with little consequence and no incentive to change their behavior. This is
epitomized in Eric Trump’s remarks on his
father’s comment: “There is no question that obviously [sexual harassment]
should be addressed, and it should be addressed strongly,” he said. Then he
added that his sister, Ivanka, “is a strong, you know, powerful woman,” and “I
don’t think she would allow herself to be subjected to [sexual harassment].”
The corollary of Eric Trump’s statement is that it is the victim’s, not the
harasser’s, responsibility to stop sexual harassment.
Ivanka
Trump, who responded to a question about her father’s comments on Tuesday by
denouncing harassment of any kind as “inexcusable,” is no doubt a strong and
powerful woman. Unfortunately, that does not make her impervious to
inappropriate behavior. In her 2009 book, The
Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work and Life, she describes her “recurring nightmare[s]” after
being cat-called by workers at her father’s construction sites. She faced a
“no-win situation,” she wrote. “If I ignored the inappropriate remarks, I might
come across as weak. If I responded too harshly, I’d be a tightly wound witch.”
Eric Trump’s logic (or lack thereof) was
echoed by Donald Trump. He remarked that if Ivanka were sexually harassed in
the workplace, “I would like to think she would find another career or find
another company.” In other words, a victim of harassment must sacrifice his or
her career in order to find the workplace safety that is guaranteed by Title
VII of the 1964 Equal Rights Act.
Besides
the fact that Trump Sr.’s plan further places a burden on victims, it is simply
not an option for most women, especially those in low-wage jobs. In a study of
1,200 low-income workers in the Greater Boston area, 26 percent of women and 22
percent of men reported experiencing sexual harassment. Even this likely
undercounts the number of incidents; 60 percent of workers who
experienced harassment said they never reported it. However, many said that
they chose to stay at their jobs and/or not report harassment for financial
reasons.
Trump’s
approach to workplace harassment is predictably Trump-esque. Rather than having
a comprehensive policy plan, he “says what he thinks” and
then moves on without really addressing the issue at hand. It is precisely this
lack of discussion that results in workplaces where harassment is the
disappointing norm.
-- Sarah, MWPC Intern
-- Sarah, MWPC Intern
