My Word against Yours: Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
- Sexual harassment by boss to female workers
- No recourse, powerless – job security, revenge by boss, etc.
- Human Rights Commission useless, cannot provide with new job quickly
- Low chances of finding new job where there wouldn’t be sexual harassment – male-
dominated field
- Tough to prove – no witnesses, obvious evidence
- “Big tits mean big tips!”
o Uniforms that “proffers” workers’ breasts
o Almost all patrons are male
- “The customer is always right”
o Objecting to being touched by customers will get you reprimanded
- “Those with a vocation for the hospitality profession know there is no place for this kind
of flagrant insubordination” – It is customary for workers to receive “friendly kisses”
from the boss
- Being tolerant with customer and boss’ “flattery” is what it takes to succeed in this
business
o Anyone who objects was described as “lesbians, frustrated spinsters”
- Around the same time period of Clarence Thomas’ case – new awareness to the term
Sexual Harassment
- Anita Hill
o Law professor and former colleague of Thomas (candidate for US supreme court)
o Pleased pubic hair on a can of Coke in his office
o Seemed unflustered, poised – unwomanly, where woman usually trained to be
deferential and eager to please
o Her failure to break down shed doubt on her testimony – victimized?
Different standard of man and woman – would give credibility to man in
this state
o Had more to gain by keeping silent than stepping out – called a liberal fantasizer,
etc. by media, called to have her dismissed from the University of Oklahoma
o Punished for protecting her career over her woman sensibilities, for hanging
through unpleasant times and her determination
o Must jeapardize job and give up career in order to prove harassment actually
happened
- Thomas actually benefited from the allegations – confirmed his place as Seat
o Chosen to reinforce conservative majority on supreme court
o Only three Democrat senators withdrew their support for Thomas after the
allegations
o Still welcomed into the Supreme court with 52 to 48 votes
o Gained public support – casted himself as a martyr of the process and of racial
discrimination, crying, “high-tech lynching of an uppity nigger”