W.H.Bender Quote 62 - Always strive to be a Hospitality Service professional
Gender, Abuse of Power and Harssment at Work
1. Abuse of Power, Gender,
Harassment and Unintended
Consequences
2. In 1996, following a 15-month investigation, the
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission sued Mitsubishi Motor
Manufacturing of America Inc. on behalf of 300
women employees at its Normal, Illinois auto
plant for "repeated, routine, generalized,
serious, pervasive sex harassment that was
known to and supported by management."
2
3. Female workers in the plant were constantly told by male supervisors and co-
workers that women did not belong in the plant, they were not welcome and they
were considered second-class employees.
When new workers were taken on a tour of the plant, women were routinely
subjected to catcalls, whistling, screaming and howling, according to witnesses.
This hostility was demonstrated by an unending stream of offensive names.
Some victims were threatened, stalked and menaced.
Victim after victim reports a workplace saturated with sexuality, most of it
demeaning to women.
Sexual graffiti was placed on cars as they came down the line, and men's bathrooms
were virtually papered with sexual graffiti including insulting pictures and names
and phone numbers of individual employees.
It was common for male employees to simulate masturbation or fondle themselves
in front of their female co-workers," victims told the EEOC. Other male employees
allegedly exposed themselves to female co-workers.
4. $36 Million Settlement
The settlement document does provide for Mitsubishi to
pay the $34 million into a fund that will be divided among
the up to about 500 women in the class.
Class members are eligible to receive as much as $300,000,
although attorneys noted that there will be at least five
levels of compensation available for claimants.
In addition, Mitsubishi agreed to a number of programs
aimed at preventing harassment in the future, including
once-a-year training on the issue for all supervisors and the
appointment of a panel of outside monitors.
5. The Mitsubishi Plant Culture
4,000-employees, about 800 women, 300 of whom worked on the assembly line
Besides allegedly ignoring complaints or retaliating against women who filed them,
the company is accused of organizing sex parties at local hotels for its employees.
The parties are described as usually including a buffet dinner, keg of beer and
strippers. Sex play between women hired for the occasion and employees was
described as common.
Participants later passed photographs of the parties around the plant floor, the
EEOC alleges.
One group leader described a party at which people went to a back room where
they paid sex workers
7. Muller v. Oregon (1908)
Upheld 10-hour work-day for women
"woman has always been dependent upon man.“
"in the struggle for subsistence she is not an equal competitor with her brother."
"her physical structure and a proper discharge of her maternal functions — having in
view not merely her own health, but the well-being of the race — justify legislation
to protect her from the greed as well as the passion of man.
8.
9.
10.
11. • Women comprise the majority of professional, technical,
administrative support workers
• Women comprise the majority of sales and service workers
• Women contribute 42.29 % of family income
• Full-time working women earned 83 cents to every dollar earned by
men (2010 Census).
• The average 25-year old woman who works full-time, year-round
until 65 will earn $523,000 less than the average man (AFL-CIO,
2004).
• Social security payments and 401(k) contributions are lower for
women (Institute for Women’s Policy Research).
• Among people ages 27 to 33 who have never had a child,
women’s earnings approach 98% of men’s (Congressional
Budget Office, 2002)
• Women are families’ primary caregivers (EEOC, Guidance on
Discrimination Against Workers who are Caregivers)
• Between the ages of 18 – 34, women have left the workforce 27%
of the time, compared to 11% for men (National Longitudinal Survey,
2006)
• Women take 90% of leaves, primarily to care for newborns
12.
13.
14.
15.
16. “Angry white men are on the losing side of
history, which is poised to roll over them like
a demographic steamroller. Theirs is a
rearguard action, the circling of wagons,
Custer's last stand. In fact, they've already
lost.”
17. Since the Mitsubishi settlement, U.S.
companies spent $300 million per year on
diversity training.
But data from 830 mid-size and large U.S.
firms shows that after diversity training the
percentage of women and minority
managers actually went down
17
18. Diversity training is viewed as an exercise
in political correctness, a form of identity
politics, or as forced inclusion
18
19. HOT political rhetoric
19
“There is a religious war going on in our
country for the soul of America. It is a
cultural war, as critical to the kind of
nation we will one day be as was the
Cold War itself. And in that struggle for
the soul of America, sides must be
chosen.” - Patrick J. Buchanan – August
17, 1992
20. 20
President’s Glass Ceiling Commission
Report concluded that many white males
perceive that they are, losing –
“losing the corporate game, losing control,
and losing opportunity. Many middle-and
upper-level white male managers view
inclusion of minorities and women in
management as a direct threat to their own
chances for advancement.”
22. #MeToo is a sign that American women are finally
catching up to what she has known all along — that
sex is political, pornography degrading and consent in
a patriarchal workplace a farce.
23. 23
National Study on Sexual
Harassment and Assault -2018
81 percent of women and 43 percent of men
said they had experienced sexual harassment
or assault at work
24. 24
Conduct Can Take Many Forms:
• Slurs/Epithets
• Derogatory Comments
• Bullying/Hostility
• Stereotyping
• Touching/Pushing/Shoving
• Abuse/Intimidation
• Graphic/Pictorial/Virtual
• Quid Pro Quo
25. 25
Sex harassment at Work is
Underreported
Anywhere from 87% to 94% of individuals do
not file a formal complaint because of
intimidation and threats
EEOC Select Task Force on the Study of
Harassment in the Workplace - 2016
26. 26
EEOC Select Task Force on the Study of
Harassment in the Workplace -2016
Employees who experience harassment fail to report
the behavior or to file a complaint because they
anticipate and fear a number of reactions:
• inaction on their claim;
• receipt of blame for causing the offending actions;
• humiliation, shunning, ostracism; and
• damage to their career and reputation.
27. 27
EEOC Select Task Force on the Study of
Harassment in the Workplace -2016
The fears that stop most employees from reporting harassment are well-
founded.
75% of employees who spoke out against workplace mistreatment faced
some form of retaliation.
Other studies have found that sexual harassment reporting is often followed
by organizational indifference or trivialization of the harassment complaint as
well as hostility and reprisals against the person making the complaint
29. 29
Google Walkout Organizers Demand HR
Investigation After Claims Of Retaliation
“Google’s HR department is broken,” the post reads. “Over and over again it
prioritizes the company and the reputation of abusers and harassers over their
victims. The collateral damage is all around us.”
A Google spokesperson reiterated the
company’s stance that no retaliation
occurred.
30. 30
Pew Foundation Research (2012)
78% of Americans believe there are “absolute
standards of right and wrong”.
31. 31
• 43% of employees admitted to at least one
unethical act at work
• 75% observed an unethical act and did nothing
about it
• Nearly one-third of respondents say that co-
workers condone questionable ethical practices
• One-third report that questionable ethical
practices are rewarded
o Price Waterhouse Coopers (2012)
33. 33
Victims and those who Report
Harassment Entitled to Protection
The law protects employees who make good
faith complaints and reports from retaliation.
34. 34
Does the adverse action dissuade a
reasonable employee from making or
supporting a charge?
Such as:
Unfair discipline
Unwarranted transfer
Blocking promotion
Unjustified criticism
35. 35
Crawford v. City of Nashville
U.S. Supreme Court (2009)
Law protects an employee who provides
information during an employer’s internal
investigation.
36. 36
Weiler v. R & T Mechanical
(Third Circuit, 2007)
Law protects supervisor (and any employee)
who reports harassment, even if they are not
the target.
37. 37
Craig v. Suburban Cablevision,
N.J. Supreme Court (1995)
The law also prohibits retaliation against
employees who “aid” or “encourage” another
employee in the exercise of that employee’s
right to complain.
38. 38
Unintended Consequences
60% of male managers say they are uncomfortable
mentoring, socializing with or even working alone with
women in the workplace, up from 46% a year ago.
Men in senior leadership roles are 12 times more likely to be
hesitant to meet with a woman than a man; nine times more
likely to not want to travel on a business trip with a female
colleague; and six times more likely to avoid work dinners
with a woman.
LeanIn.Org Survey, 2019
39. 39
Perpetuating the Problem
“I really think we are facing a very serious crisis for
women in getting promoted The problem with this
knee-jerk fear, of course, is that to get promoted,
younger employees need the kind of informal face time
and one-on-one interactions that build trust and
develop relationships, giving senior-level managers the
confidence to take a risk on promoting them. When
senior executives — who are often disproportionately
male — back away from those relationships, it can
make it harder for women to get promoted.”
Sheryl Sandberg
