Lessons for academic institutions: how to prevent campus sexual harassment, misconduct, and abuse

Blog, Culture, Policy

Even with sexual harassment, misconduct, and abuse on the national radar, we were disappointed to learn last week that many students still don’t feel confident that their higher education institutions will take a report of sexual misconduct or assault seriously. This was a key finding in the Association of American Universities’ confidential online survey of 180,000 students at 33 major universities, which demonstrated that higher education students today significantly experience sexual harassment, misconduct, and abuse.

So how can campuses and workplaces overcome barriers to reporting and make campuses healthier?

First, change the perception that campuses won’t act on the problem. So much has to go right for a survivor to come forward and report, and many considerations include whether the system will take the report seriously, act on the information, and hold the person who caused harm accountable. With Title IX changes hanging in the balance, it’s vital campuses do more, not less, than what the requirements dictate.

Second, address a campus culture that enables harm and blames the victim for their rape. Programming that teaches students to not be victimized with messages like never leave a drink unattended or don’t walk home alone, may reduce risk factors, but more can be done on campuses to teach healthy behaviors and relationships, ways to look out for each other, and how the community can hold the university accountable to its role in the process. In our society, girls are taught to avoid risky situations, but rarely do parents, schools, or programs talk about what consent means — which could help ensure no one pressures someone sexually, or crosses the line into even more serious sexual harm.

Third, deepen understanding of perceptions and attitudes about sexual harassment, misconduct, and abuse on campus. For example, conducting climate surveys and establishing processes for sharing procedures and protocols can help school administrators develop tailored prevention solutions and measure its progress.

Fourth, engage students and the campus community through programming that encourages them to learn about this sexual violence and how to be part of the solution. These prevention conversations could take place during classroom electives or campus activities with organizations like campus police, student health centers, and LGBTQ groups.

Thankfully, there are several good organizations that are already leading changes and conversations about sexual assault and respect on campus. It’s On Us is preparing campus leaders to take this issue on with skills and support. RALIANCE impact grantees Strength United or the Power Up! program at Prairie View A&M University are both working with athletic departments and student-athletes to improve how their schools prevent and respond to sexual harassment, misconduct, and abuse.   For more ideas, check out RALIANCE’s Sport + Prevention Center and Impact Grant database.

Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg at a campaign event

Buttigieg’s platform addresses gender inequity

Blog, Culture, Policy, Workplace

Photo by Gary Riggs. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Democratic Presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg announced a sweeping $10 Billion Proposal tackling sexual harassment and other issues of inequality for women and girls. After Senator Gillibrand left the primary race, Buttigieg is the only candidate still in the race to release a plan displaying a path toward a world without sexual harassment, misconduct, and abuse.

The South Bend mayor’s platform – “Building Power: A Women’s Agenda for the 21st Century” –  addresses gender equality with a specific focus on closing the pay gap, supporting women’s health and reproductive right to choice, securing women’s power and influence through key Cabinet appointments, and building safe and inclusive communities, including for low-income workers. Additionally, Buttigieg’s investment would entail tackling workplace misconduct and discrimination by holding employers accountable for protecting women workers and banning forced arbitration.

It’s encouraging to see that accountability, transparency, and respect are cornerstones of the platform.

In Buttigieg’s plan, public companies would be required to track and share annually the total number of reports and investigations. Industries with the highest risk of harassment would need to assess their workplace climate to inform and drive prevention plans. While it would be wonderful to live in a world where companies operated transparently and implemented prevention methods proactively, few would do this without a mandate.

For many #MeTooVoters, their voices are just starting to be heard. We applaud Buttigieg for stepping up for survivors and offering a concrete plan to address #MeToo comprehensively as an issue of safety and gender inequality. It’s encouraging, and we hope his example will spur other candidates to more proactively be part of the solution.

Sexual harassment complaint form

Fear of reporting and ensuing process keep employees from reporting workplace issues

Uncategorized

Technology platform HR Acuity released its findings from the 2019 Employee Experience Survey that polled over 1,300 workers to better understand how employees handled sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviors.

Two years after #MeToo, employees surveyed know where to report issues, yet they don’t report because they’re concerned about the process that follows, its fairness, and the possibility of retaliation for reporting. The survey also found hotlines were the least used resource for reporting and managers receive more misconduct complaints than HR. And while employees experience problematic behavior equally between the sexes, reports by men receive more follow-through and investigation than reports made by women.

With some 90% of respondents experiencing or witnessing some kind of misconduct, it’s imperative for workplaces to build a culture that empowers employees and bystanders to report. Inaction is detrimental when it comes to proactively building a safer, healthier workplace. Trust in HR is built and cultivated through transparency and taking reports seriously. By resolving employee issues, workplaces can increase employee confidence in organizations as well as reduce turnover.

Employees should not only feel safe and comfortable in workplaces — they should also feel like they are working for a corporation that prioritizes the issue and is actively working toward a solution.

RALIANCE works with businesses that are ready to improve their organizational cultures and make their workplaces safe from sexual harassment, misconduct, and other disrespectful behaviors. Learn more at https://www.raliance.org/consulting/.

Democratic Presidential Candidates Miss Opportunity to Discuss #MeTooVoter

Blog, Culture, Policy, Workplace

Two years ago, 12 million people responded to the hashtag #MeToo in just 24 hours. During last night’s Democratic presidential primary debate, survivors of sexual harassment, misconduct, and abuse took to social media with a powerful message to presidential candidates and policymakers: Survivors deserve change now. #MeTooVoter champions survivor voices to inform that change. It’s time candidates listened to this important voting body.

On Tuesday evening, powerhouses like Me Too Movement founder Tarana Burke, National Women’s Law Center President Fatima Goss Graves, President of Justice for Migrant Women and Gender Justice Campaigns Director for National Domestic Workers Alliance Monica Ramírez, and Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance Aijen Poo posted on social media.

But during Tuesday night’s debate, there wasn’t a single question about how Democratic presidential hopefuls would address sexual harassment, misconduct, and abuse nationally.

Despite the debates being held in Ohio, where a case of high school football players in Steubenville raping a young student gained national attention. The case pitted members of the town against each other and was recently featured in the documentary Roll, Red, Roll on Netflix.

Despite the fact that every social issue that impacts the health and wellbeing of communities; the safety of women, girls, and families; and the equity, respect, and resilience of workers is also an issue of sexual violence. The fact is, when you talk about gun violence, for instance, you have to acknowledge that when a domestic abuser has a gun, the chance of homicide increases exponentially.

Despite the Washington Post including a question about Title IX among the most important education topics in a recent survey that asked 2020 Democrats where they stand on key issues. The question — in Title IX investigations, should college students accused of sexual assault have the right to cross examine their accusers – speaks to Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ proposed new rules for how schools handle allegations of sexual harassment and assault.

It’s time to use our voices to demand #AskaboutMeToo at the November 20th debates in Atlanta. And candidates: survivors are counting on you and we encourage you to check out our policy platform to end sexual violence in one generation.  

Cover of book You Throw LIke a Girl: The Blind Side of Masculnity with pciture of authro Don MsPherson, African AMerican man with beared wearing blue shirt and darker blue sweater

You Throw Like a Girl

Blog, Sport

“How do we raise boys to be whole men without degrading our daughters in the process?” asks Don McPherson in his newly released book You Throw Like a Girl: The Blind Spot of Masculinity.  This former National Football League and Canadian Football League quarterback proceeds to explore how to do speaking not only as a man, as an African American and as an athletic, but as a person dedicated to preventing gender based violence. McPherson tells his story of becoming and being a prevention practitioner.

The book’s title is a common insult from men to other men.  In these pages, McPherson calls to men to explore what they can become. He insists that “we should be asking more what boys and men can become and asking less what they should or shouldn’t do.”

Drawing on his experiences as a boy, as a son, as an athlete and as person working to prevent men’s violence, he provides many examples of how to challenge men to move away from sexist, homophobic and misogyny.  Similar to what another Syracuse University football star Joe Ehrmann wrote in his book InsideOut Coaching, McPherson demonstrated how sport can go beyond reinforcing negative and destructive male norms, and help shape positive behaviors.

He credits those whom have help teach him, from Mentors in Violence Prevention founder Jackson Katz, to Oakland Men’s Project development of the “Act Like a Man Box” to his father’s examples of loving his family. I was moved by his stories of how he learned to be a man from our culture, and how he had to relearn how to become the man working to be a healthy man actively engaged to prevent men’s violence.

We need more examples like Don McPherson of how to work to create a world without violence.

Check out RALIANCE’s Sport + Prevention Center on strategies to engage sport to be part of the solution to preventing sexual and domestic violence.

#MeToo voters matter

Blog, Culture, Policy

It’s been two years since Alyssa Milano’s #MeToo tweet helped bring light to a movement and call for solidarity trumpeted first by Tarana Burke and the Me Too Movement. In a recent TIME op-ed, Tarana reflected on the importance of accountability in the upcoming 2020 elections and urged all the presidential candidates to address sexual violence in their platforms. Survivors of sexual harassment, misconduct and abuse have long been silenced in their communities, companies, and institutions, but we can’t forget that their votes and voices matter.

Candidates need to champion a comprehensive policy platform for addressing sexual harassment, misconduct, and abuse to create real and lasting change for survivors. What do these policies look like? Below are some key highlights that RALIANCE recently published in Guide for Political Parties and 2020 Candidates: A Policy Platform to End Sexual Violence in One Generation.

Bipartisan reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act including increased investments in prevention, enhanced protections for Native women, strengthened housing provisions, homicide reduction tools, and improved criminal justice approaches.

Resources to meet victims’ most basic needs. It’s critical that Congress fund the Sexual Assault Services Program at the Office on Violence Against Women at $60 million and the Rape Prevention & Education Program at the CDC Injury Center at $100 million.

Stronger workplace harassment protections and accountability.

“We, as survivors, aren’t just people looking for services. We are a constituency looking for change. We are working people, taxpayers and consumers who push through our trauma every day, despite being triggered and erased by a world that tells us our healing isn’t important. It’s been only two years since the movement began to shed light on the behavior of wealthy and powerful predators, but we’ve already witnessed many of them return to and continue their daily lives without much consequence or repercussions.

Tarana Burke in Time Survivors of Sexual Assault Are Voters Too. So Why Aren’t t he Presidential Candidates Paying Attention to Them?

To candidates and elected officials, we say: Your leadership on addressing sexual violence is needed now more than ever. Don’t underestimate the power and voices of survivors. We are strong in numbers and will never be silenced again.

RALIANCE releases Parent 2 Parent Toolkit

Blog, Culture

We spend so much time as parents trying to protect kids from outside harm that we sometimes forget the importance of teaching kids the skills they need for healthy sexual development and behavior. No parent or caregiver wants to believe their child is capable of causing harm. Children and youth with sexual behavior problems need compassion and services; and parents and caregivers need help to reduce the silence, stigma, and isolation families can experience.

Leading the way on this important conversation was NEARI Press & Training Center – which unfortunately closed their doors on October 1. As a RALIANCE impact grantee, NEARI undertook an important project to create and archive resources that empower families to support each other as well as their children with sexual behavior problems. Beyond the silence, fear, and stigma are children who need adults with knowledge to act and support healthy sexuality and behaviors.

These important resources have become a part of the RALIANCE series of toolkits. We are proud to offer these resources and further the conversation about this important aspect of preventing harm.

If you are a parent or caregiver concerned about your child’s behaviors, you aren’t alone. RALIANCE’s Parent 2 Parent Toolkit can help. Explore the toolkit at: https://www.raliance.org/parent-2-parent/

Lessons learned from NBC’s approach to allegations against Matt Lauer

Blog, Culture, Workplace

Photo by David Shankbone. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported

It’s been almost two years since MeToo became a household phrase globally, and we’ve begun to talk quietly about redemption for high-profile figures whose harmful behavior was spotlighted. Aziz Ansari came back this year with his own Netflix comedy special. Louie CK was back on stage less than a year after his MeToo moment. And news reporter Matt Lauer was predicting his own return to TV. That is, until information from an advanced copy of journalist Ronan Farrow’s much-anticipated book Catch and Kill detailed allegations of Lauer raping a former NBC News employee in his hotel room while covering the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Lauer moved quickly to the defense, releasing a letter to Variety emphatically saying the allegation is “categorically false, ignores the facts, and defies common sense” while discrediting the survivor by describing a mutual and consensual extramarital affair. Despite the survivor confirming she was too drunk to consent, despite the power differential that meant Lauer could make or break her career in news.

Far too often we hear sexual assault framed as a “he said/she said” scenario – a move that seeks to blur facts and discredit or shame survivors. In fact, those who perpetrate sexual assault use alcohol in three strategic ways: to lower the inhibitions of the other person, to decrease their own inhibitions about carrying out sexual assault, and to ensure the other person won’t be believed. Lauer is banking on society’s ease with blaming victims for their own abuse – and turning the tables to frame himself as the victim worthy of our protection and sympathy. If we are ever to live beyond MeToo, then accountability cannot mean paying lip-service.        

Accountability isn’t only on the individual whose behavior is at best inappropriate or at worst criminal. Institutions, corporations, and communities must face the music and accept how our culture silences survivors and ignores them to the point of condoning these behaviors.  Farrow documents in the book a pervasive culture of complicity at NBC, and articles have come out detailing Lauer’s misconduct and behavior were well known. And central to NBC’s response was a settlement tied to a non-disclosure agreement, tying the survivor’s hands from speaking.

The lesson for companies and organizations? It’s time to step up and create workplaces that are safer, healthier, and more equitable for all employees. This starts by implementing workplace policies that emphasize transparency, clear and confidential reporting processes, and appropriate responses for addressing incidents of sexual assault, misconduct, and abuse. Employees deserve better and our corporate leaders must be part of the solution to end sexual violence once and for all.

#MeTooMedicine – How the medical field needs to change

Blog, Culture, Workplace

A recent Washington Post Health Perspective article by a female medical resident brought to light how pervasive sexual harassment and misconduct is in the medical field. The author described inappropriate groping by patients, and the article uplifted the fact that faculty and staff members are the perpetrators of almost half of the sexual violence experienced by female medical students. The unspoken rule is not to report – that these experiences are just part of the job. We know that when harassment and misconduct come from a superior, there are even fewer options for recourse or safety. The MeToo movement has shown that no industry is immune to the dialogue or mirror being held up to what has been long ignored and silenced – and that includes the medical field. 

“It’s ironic, she said, that as a gynecologist she is trained to believe patients’ claims about sexual assault. In the workplace, though, it’s well known that raising such matters can backfire. She added: ‘Physicians should be setting a standard on this.’” –  Christina Jewett,  “Women in medicine shout #MeToo about sexual harassment at work”

It’s important to note the level of trust everyone – survivors and non-survivors – put in their medical providers. That’s why it’s vital the medical industry stop harm before it happens by addressing problematic behaviors in medical settings for survivors and staff members alike and working towards a culture where this isn’t the norm. ­­

From the courageous female athletes who read their victim impact statements, to Larry Nassar’s conviction, to an unprecedented $500 million settlement at Michigan State University, it’s clear that change is possible. However, the medical field is often a hierarchical space where men dominate in positions of power and authority. We must create safe spaces where female medical students and doctors feel comfortable coming forward with complaints of inappropriate behavior. Reporting, transparency, and accountability are all key to making in-roads. Advocates can also apply pressure on medical boards to address sexual assault by doctors and medical staff.

Every step counts when it comes to ending sexual harassment, misconduct, and abuse in one generation. We must work toward a world where female residents do not have to write a column in the newspaper to be heard.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Subscribe