Mad (Wo)Men: Taking a Stand Against Workplace Harassment
At its core, the popular AMC drama, Mad Men, was a show portraying the dark and corrupt world of high-powered advertising agency executives in New York City during the 1960’s. The high-functioning, booze-swilling, chain-smoking, extramaritally-fornicating men of Sterling Cooper were part of a workplace culture that deemed these acts not only normal, but they were also encouraged. The award-winning show also captured the trials and tribulations of the agency’s women who endured this unruly behavior while under the thumb of men who treated them like objects rather than people. Though society has come a long way since the ‘60’s, some things have remained the same— and one of them is sexual harassment of women in the workplace. But thanks to a recent increase in public awareness, many organizations are actively making a change to protect employees from this particular brand of on-the-job misconduct.
I’m sure it’s safe to say the history of women facing sexual harassment in the workplace goes back as far as the history of women having employment. Though it may not be as outwardly aggressive and in the open as it was in the era of Mad Men, sexual harassment is still prevalent today in the workplace. According to a 2016 report from the EEOC, at least 25% of women have experienced sexual harassment at work— and that’s just in the United States alone. This means no less than 1 in 4 women have fallen victim to some aspect of either having their job being contingent upon providing sexual favors or they have faced a hostile work environment due to sexual misconduct. These numbers tend to be much higher in some industries such as tech and hospitality.
In our new, progressive world that supposedly promotes equality for all, why are so many women still being harassed in the work place? There are a number of possible reasons, and each industry seems to have their own theories. For the food and retail services, which rank highest among reported sexual harassment incidences, it’s believed that low-paying jobs in work forces dominated by women are the key culprits. For industries such as manufacturing and tech, it’s said that lack of power and representation and not being taken seriously are the causes. With such a wide range of reasons women face harassment at work, many organizations across various industries have been taking notice by enforcing zero-tolerance policies.
Lawmakers in California are in the process of trying to create a new task force that handles cases of sexual misconduct as a way of eliminating harassment among government officials. Media streaming giant Netflix has tightened its policy on workplace misconduct— even going as far as to enforce a 5-second staring rule as sexual harassment. Some schools are also updating their sexual harassment policies to include online incidences. These types of motions being enforced throughout the country seem to be direct results of blurred lines within former or current sexual harassment policies. It’s good to see some serious changes being made in the workplace, but it’s unfortunate that it still takes something awful happening for things to be fixed. Hopefully more places in the workforce will continue to implement and enforce policies to protect their employees from sexual harassment before they happen. The last thing we need are more mad men ruling the workplace and making life on the clock unbearable for others.
