When Dinosaurs Wore Suits
“Back in my day, we had to fight dinosaurs in the snow to get to our school, and that was a 15-mile walk, uphill both ways!” sounds like something my grandfather, and maybe yours, might have said. Although a bit of an exaggeration, he’s not the only one who sees dinosaurs existing around that time. Except in my mind, they aren’t wearing snowshoes; they’re wearing suits.
The corporate world has changed drastically in many ways over the past century. Thanks to the hard work of advocates and allies, diversity has increased and opportunities have expanded. It is difficult for some to recall a world where white men alone ruled all industries without much effective resistance. We see those old-fashioned, powerful men as dinosaurs – a distant past that has lost its power after extinction. But that reality is not as far from the present as it seems.
Let’s take sexual harassment in the workplace as an example. Nowadays, there are countless outspoken defendants fighting to protect women and their safety in the workplace. At many companies, executive officers are quickly let go when their wrongdoings towards female coworkers come to the surface.
We all know this hasn’t been the case forever. It took a lot of hard work to get to the place we are today, but just how long ago did the dinosaurs in suits lose their power? When did America come to the conclusion that women should not be harassed and assaulted by their male coworkers? The 40’s? 50’s?
Unsurprising to some and surprising to others, it took until the 1970’s for the issue to finally gain legal momentum. Although the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited “sex discrimination,” the EEOC didn’t include sexual harassment in that category until 1980. The Supreme Court finally considered the issue in 1986 with Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson.
Sexual harassment made its way into mainstream conversation during Anita Hill’s testimony at the Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Clarence Thomas in 1991. By the time the Anita Hill’s testimony drew national attention to the issue of sexual harassment, the problem itself was hardly a new one.
THE HISTORY OF WORKPLACE SEXUAL HARASSMENT
For most of American history, women silently endured mistreatment in the workplace, with little protection or recourse. As far back as the 18th and 19th centuries, sexual coercion was a fact of life for women and an often-expected common experience among domestic workers.
In the early 20th century, women started seeing employment opportunities in manufacturing and clerical positions and were immediately confronted by physical and verbal assaults from male supervisors. Union leadership was successful in enacting protective legislation that shielded women from performing physically demanding labor, but not from the propositions of lecherous bosses. As recent as the 1950’s and even 1960’s, working women were commonly advised to simply quit their jobs if they could not handle the inevitable sexual advances.
Those who complained discovered that predatory sexual behavior on the job was dismissed as trivial and harmless. Women rarely talked openly about the issue, often feeling shame or even guilt. The situation became even more pressing as their participation in the workforce increased throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
FIGHTING BACK
The phrase “sexual harassment” was coined in 1975 by a group of women at Cornell University. A former employee of the university, Carmita Wood, filed a claim for unemployment benefits after she resigned from her job due to unwanted touching from her supervisor. Cornell had refused Wood’s request for a transfer and denied her the benefits on the grounds that she quit for “personal reasons.”
Wood, together with activists at the university’s Human Affairs Office, formed a group called Working Women United. At a Speak Out event hosted by the group, secretaries, mailroom clerks, filmmakers, factory workers and waitresses shared their stories, revealing that the problem extended beyond the university setting. The women spoke of masturbatory displays, threats, and pressure to trade sexual favors for promotions. The issue soon made the news, especially after a widely reprinted New York Times article used the phrase “sexual harassment” in its headline that August.
In 1976, a survey by Redbook showed that 80% of respondents had encountered sexual harassment on the job. Hollywood addressed the issue with a successful 1980 comedy, Nine to Five, about three female office workers — played by Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton — who exact revenge on their sexist boss.
By 1977, three court cases confirmed that a woman could sue her employer for harassment under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, using the EEOC as the vehicle for redress. The Supreme Court upheld these early cases in 1986 with Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, which was based on the complaints of Mechelle Vinson, a bank employee whose boss intimidated her into having sex with him in vaults and basements up to fifty times. Vinson was African American, as were many of the litigants in pioneering sexual harassment cases; some historians suggest that the success of racial discrimination cases during these same years encouraged women of color to vigorously pursue their rights at work.
Since 1991 and the Thomas hearings, the issue has continued to evolve. Finally, in 1998, SCOTUS ruled that same-sex harassment was also unlawful, establishing that gender and sexual orientation do not determine whether one is the perpetrator or victim of harassment.
Most recently, the term #metoo was originally coined in 2006 (then just “me too”). The movement gained momentum in 2017 with the widespread abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein. That momentum accelerated numerous legislative actions requiring sexual harassment training in many states – and even countries.
Those who believe sexual harassment is acceptable, a.k.a. dinosaurs in suits, aren’t extinct. A few remnants of their era remain. You’ll catch sight of them in the news as they resign from their positions after allegations come to light. But it’s a new day now, and every business has a moral obligation to maintain a harassment-free workplace. There are plenty of tools out there to help businesses aid the extinction of these offenders, from case management systems to employee training. In the meantime, if you run across a dinosaur in a suit, let them know, “Not on my watch!”
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MEET THE AUTHOR
J Rollins is the co-founder and CEO of ETHIX360. J is a well known leader and innovator who has served on senior leadership teams ranging in responsibility from Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, SVP of Product Strategy and Chief Operating Officer.
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