The Harvey Weinstein Trial Begins Today
It’s time to make sure women know they’re safe at work.
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Happy New Year! We’re facing potential war, a climate emergency, and the first trial of the decade. So, <clasps hands> let’s dig in.
I prepared for the Harvey Weinstein criminal trial, which starts today, by doing a good, old-fashioned journalistic deep dive. There’s a lot to process: He stands accused of raping one woman in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and performing a forcible sex act on another woman in 2006, charges that could lead to serious prison time. By lunchtime on the East Coast, prosecutors in Los Angeles had charged him with rape and other crimes against two additional women, and more charges are likely, as his record of misdeeds is staggering. The Cut has compiled a list of 100 allegations of harassment or assault during the mogul’s lengthy tenure. He has denied all criminal wrongdoing.
I started with Ronan Farrow’s Catch and Kill, a book based on his reporting for The New Yorker, and Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s She Said, based on their reporting for the New York Times. I know these are books about the reporting process, but they are not inside baseball. They are about how power—and specifically power in media—works, and they are chilling, necessary reads.
I also went to the theater to watch Bombshell, a film about the downfall of Fox News honcho Roger Ailes, led by Gretchen Carlson. I even subscribed to Apple TV+ specifically to watch The Morning Show. The series, whose executive producers included Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, brilliantly depicts the complex way powerful men are allowed to roam free as affable predators, aided and abetted by others.
The combination of all of this left me shaken, gutted, and
When I talk about my own experiences, I typically mention just one because it has such a tragic-comic ending. I was assaulted by my boss, the CEO of an international organization, in the back of a taxi after a work event. He was the second to last to be dropped and became enraged when I wouldn’t go up to his apartment. I don’t know how long it took me to get him out of the cab, but the cabbie left the meter on. The next day, I went to the office, and here’s the fun part: I expensed my own assault and… just went back to work.
Hey, I needed that job. I knew who his friends were. I knew his influence and understood the threat. I knew how the world worked, even if I didn’t know it.
Research shows that nearly 40% of women and 14% of men have said they’ve experienced sexual harassment at work, yet the vast majority will never file either a legal or internal complaint. Women in the military. Women in the hospitality or retail industries. Women in manufacturing. Hell, former CBS chief Les Moonves even assaulted his own doctor.
As we head back to work today, it’s a safe assumption that we all will be side by side (or Slack by Skype by Hangout) with someone who has been harassed or assaulted in the workplace at some point, and probably didn’t find any sort of relief or safe haven. My guess is that the Weinstein trial will be an uncomfortable reminder of how the world has always worked.
By design.
So, this is an excellent time for companies to take a culture gut-check, and make sure they’re clear on issues of harassment, equity, and workplace respect.
It’s important for leadership to be present if employees are upset; thoughtfully designed surveys can help you dig beneath the surface. (We’ve covered these topics in the past.) Make sure everyone knows about safety-
Make sure frontline leaders know when, how, and if to check-in with anyone who may be struggling with the news or having trouble in their interactions at work. (If their upper-level supervisors don’t know how to advise them, it’s a leadership blind spot.)
And, in particular, make sure male leaders have the support they need to understand what constitutes good boundaries—and don’t allow them to stop coaching, including, or developing women on their teams. Professional dinners are fine. Hiding behind trumped
In a beautifully timed move, Time’s Up has published an entertainment-industry guide that explains respectful best practices during auditions and intimate scenes, and how to report bad behavior.
“The entertainment industry is not a typical workplace, so figuring out your rights and options around workplace harassment, discrimination and misconduct can be confusing,” said actor and activist Alyssa Milano in a statement.
But few industries are typical anymore.
Do the women who work in your corporate catering facilities know their rights? In your manufacturing plants? In your emergency rooms? In your design and research groups? In your high potential pools? In your podcast and video sessions? At corporate conferences? Among your academic advisees? Are they safe? Would they tell you? Are you sure?
These are the actual stakes in the Weinstein trial. It’s not about Harvey Weinstein or Matt Lauer or Les Moonves or Roger Ailes or what their accusers did, thought, or wore, but about the society that continues to make harassment acceptable by protecting and overvaluing the men who do bad things. A society who would elect a person with credible accusations of misogyny, racism, and sexual assault—who bragged about inappropriate behavior on tape—to the highest office in the land with barely a shrug.
I recommend that senior leaders take the worst-case scenario approach and assume that the women walking or dialing into work today aren’t sure of their rights, or that they’re safe, or that you care. Extend that all the way to its painful conclusion that they believe you know how the world has always worked, even if you don’t know it. I think it’s now safe to assume that they don’t trust you.
So, what are you going to do to earn their trust?*
(*Feel free to forward this to your CEO.)
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com