A paradigm has begun to shift over the last year. It is now normal to talk about sexual harassment and to recognize that it is wrong. During the 2016 electoral campaign, reporters noted that “locker room talk is no longer acceptable.” Men like Mark Halperin are remarking in public that they understand that their “behavior was inappropriate and caused others pain.”
Yet while the conversation is shifting, the consequences for this behavior remain at best inconsistent. Only in the past two years have high-profile offenders started to experience legal and professional consequences and public shaming. But sexual harassment is a widespread issue and is not limited to industries accustomed to the spotlight.
This issue has become clearer than ever with the rise of the #Metoo campaign, which focuses as much on the individual acts as it does on the enormity of the problem. The aim is to show that women and men face harassment regularly, across all sectors, and at all career levels.
As the director of the Women in Public Service Project, I worry that this conversation overlooks the very real threats to women in public office in governments across the globe. This conversation needs to take place; women comprise over 43 percent of the civil service globally. We have the evidence both in terms of data and individual stories to show that female politicians and women working in government across the globe are harassed. Data from the National Democratic Institute's #NotTheCost campaign shows that nearly two-thirds of female politicians have faced sexual harassment and more than 44 percent have been threatened with physical harm while in office. Sexual harassment is widespread across all sectors, including in the U.S. government.
Sexual harassment has entered the public spotlight -- now we need to act. There must be clear consequences for sexual harassment. As Anne Marie Slaughter noted in a recent FT piece it’s not that men do not know it’s wrong, but they know they will not be punished.
Let’s start with the U.S. government. A congressional report authored by Republican members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee notes that federal agencies are operating with no clear definition of sexual misconduct and have doled out inconsistent punishments for those engaging in this behavior. The report concludes that dozen of agencies provide no clear definition of sexual misconduct and give no clear examples. Further, dozens of agencies have no table of penalties detailing the disciplinary expectation for each type of misconduct, or have an outdated table which either does not mention sexual offenses or has not been updated in decades. This has led to inconsistent punishments for employees involved in sexual misconduct both throughout government and within individual agencies.
This matches a report by the Office of the Inspector General in the Department of Justice. This report concludes that among other things, the Department's Civil Division must address “significant potential systemic issues” related to the department’s handling of sexual harassment and misconduct allegations; weaknesses in its tracking of allegations, as well as inconsistencies among penalties imposed.
Both reports show that in the U.S. government, federal agencies not only lack a harmonized or clear definition of sexual harassment, but that the treatment of the issue is inconsistent. Complaint mechanisms are available and due process concerns regarding investigations of course must be followed. At the same time, there must be clear definitions of what harassment entails, and clear consequences when sexual harassment is proved.
A table of penalties is one tool. Such a table would lay out a set of factors to consider when dealing with allegations. At the same time, a consistent definition is key.
Sexual harassment is hard to define -- it encompasses a power imbalance as well as factors that create a hostile environment. And yet, the conversation and movement going on right now show that we know what sexual harassment is. We should be committed to dealing with it across all sectors.
Governments across the globe, including in the United States, must make clear the price to be paid for sexual harassment. Having a complaint system is not enough. When an investigation finds wrongdoing, consequences was must be clear and uniform.
