An HBR article explains how perpetrators of sexual harassment are not the only ones to blame for their despicable behaviour.
An article in the Harvard Business Review explores how managers, colleagues and co-workers pressure women into staying silent about sexual harassment. Given the recent spate of media reports around sexual harassment and gender discrimination in South Africa, it’s an article that HR leaders should be reading.
The story of Nerisha Singh, the former Director for Risk Advisory in the Forensic Division at Grant Thornton South Africa, raised eyebrows throughout the country after she went public about her own experience. She alleged that her boss had made suggestive comments, touched her inappropriately, and bought her an expensive necklace and that the executive leadership of the company tacitly condoned such behaviour as it was not his first offence.
Another shocking headline involved more than 20 female employees at a branch gambling franchise TopBet, who, under the instruction of management were forced to undress and were physically inspected in search to find the culprit behind the menstrual blood discovered in a communal staff toilet.
In summary, the article argues that, by silencing the affected individuals, leaders, managers and co-workers are complicit in sexual harassment because they “not only provided a safe haven for perpetrators to operate, as they were spared punishment, but also made victims feel confused, unsupported, and, ultimately, compelled to acquiescence" to their ill-treatment.
But most women don’t bother reporting sexual harassment, according to the HBR piece, because they are made to feel like they are overreacting or, when they did choose to raise the issue, they were urged to be patient and allow the issue to be quietly resolved. The third reason, which is arguably the most common, is that women fear the repercussions of laying an official complaint. In many instances, even the most well-meaning of colleagues would discourage victims of harassment from voicing their discontent because of the impact it will have on their career and social standing at the workplace.
