Enough is Enough

By Giuliana Rodriguez / Fall 2020

I had always known or heard about sexual harassment in the workplace and how much of a growing problem it was for women, but I had never truly felt that experience until I started working. I began working alongside my sister at a smoothie shop in Malibu where most of my coworkers were teenage girls just starting college at Pepperdine University. My sister and I had become close friends with the manager of the store, and she confided in us and told us the truth. She said that several girls told her that the owner had touched them inappropriately and was messaging and commenting on their Instagram posts. The owner was a wealthy, 40-year old white male who was well-known in Malibu for his success in coming out of poverty and becoming a multi-millionaire. He would come in daily and do nothing but boast about his recent trip to Hawaii or the Bahamas. Our manager reported the incidents to human resources (HR), as was her job to do so, and they said they would investigate it further. After a few months, HR concluded that the manager lied about the reports and instead accused her of being the one who told the owner to message the girls on Instagram. They gave her a warning and made her sign a form. The owner purposefully stopped coming back into his store while the manager was there and my coworkers who were sexually harassed quit their jobs. And that was the end of it. Case closed.

There is this idea that goes through all of our heads when we hear about sexual harassment cases, especially when there are so many of them today, and that is the thought of well maybe the accusations are not true and the girls were with him initially and then tried to get back at him. I have also thought of this before. But it is not our fault for thinking this way, it is neoliberalism and American culture that puts this into our minds. We grew up believing that women do sometimes dress provocatively and can sometimes be over-sensitive. I went to Catholic school all my life and if I wore a tank top or if my skirt was more than an inch above my knee, I would be sent home to change. Or I was told I was being too dramatic about a situation and that I should calm down. In Harvard Business Review’s article, “The #MeToo Backlash,” Professor Leanne Atwater is interviewed and states that “the idea that men don’t know their behavior is bad and that women are making a mountain out of a molehill is largely untrue. If anything, women are more lenient in defining harassment” (Bower). Harassment does not always come in physical form, it can also come in verbal forms, such as joking and commenting, and online on social media. I sometimes wonder how many times I have discreetly been a victim of harassment. How many times have I brushed off a joke that made me feel uncomfortable because I felt I was over-thinking? It is not always obvious.

But this is not the only issue hanging over our heads. A common factor in sexual assault cases in the workplace is money. Many highly educated people often wonder why more women do not come forward and speak up about their experiences. They believe it is that easy. The truth is, when there are money and power involved, it becomes harder not to fear the consequences. In fact, “the greater the imbalance of income and power, the more opportunity there is to take advantage. As a result, many women feel trapped by their abusers” (Quart). The girls at my work had the courage to report the harassment, but they were shut down by a company that had too much wealth and power. My manager stayed at her job for a few more years and when I asked her why she never quit, she said she could not afford to. My point is, because the owner had money, it allowed him to feed off of vulnerability. He knew he would get away with it - as many elitists do - because there was a financial disparity between him and the girls. They knew that he had significant power and had strong connections to people that could potentially ruin their lives forever. These girls never stood a chance.

The neoliberal society we live in widens the gap between men and women financially and only increases gender bias in the workplace. Gender bias leads to women being paid less and this income inequality leads to a higher chance of sexual harassment. It becomes this snowball effect.  

We can date this snowball effect back to the 19th century where women constantly faced unwanted sexual relations in the domestic service. To see this, we can consider an essay published by the Yale University Press who further analyzes that African American women who worked as slaves were not protected by law against rape whereas free women working as servants were. However, the legal system defined rape and sexual coercion so broadly that women found it difficult to rely on the system to punish the men who took advantage of them (Rostow). From the beginning, women were given no education and were expected to be household servants and learn to be mothers, nothing more. With this lack of education, women had no possibility of moving up the ranks. Further on, as women gained confidence and began progressive movements like the Women’s Rights Movement and the Suffrage Movement, more laws were put into place to protect women, but not enough. In the 50s, many women stopped working altogether and became housewives who cooked, cleaned and were good wives. Then came the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibited sex discrimination at work. This was a steppingstone for women because they finally had better employment opportunities but were paid significantly less than men. Time and time again, we see that women are trapped by their socioeconomic status and their subordinate roles in the workplace.

Now that we see the history of sexual harassment in the work environment and have examined the deeper roots that contribute to the problem, we can consider obstacles that prevent today’s society from making further changes. Lack of education is one of them. The school setting is the first place where children learn to interact and relate to each other. If we are teaching girls that they cannot wear this or that, or that they are at fault for promoting unwanted attention, then they will grow up feeling insecure. When I was in school, girls could only wear skirts, no shorts, and the teachers were worried that if I wore a shirt that did not cover my shoulders, it would distract the boys. Blaming young girls for how they dress or act causes them to them blame themselves in the future as an adult. Meanwhile, boys are never taught to ask for consent and to respect women as equals. They are never punished for harassing at a young age; therefore, they grow up thinking it is okay to harass as an adult. We need to stop criticizing young girls and start educating boys on their behavior. We need to stop promoting gender-bias at such a young age.

The second obstacle we face is none other than traditional gender norms seen in pop culture. An article by Youth Incorporated emphasizes that young women are constantly comparing themselves to others on social media which has negative effects on their personal lives as well as their mental health (Noel). To this day, I cannot help but compare myself to thin Victoria Secret models and other women on social media. Growing up in LA did not help either. As women, we are constantly expected to look and feel a certain way. If we do not live up to these expectations, then we are not welcome. Society needs to set aside these unrealistic expectations for women and realize that they are actually placed there by men.

Lastly, I would say that the most important obstacle of them all is the gender wage gap. On average, women are paid 82 cents for every $1 earned by men. However, if we look closer to the problem, it is not specifically the wage gap that shows discrimination, but the failure to adjust the factors that push for these income differences. The Economic Policy Institute continues to argue this and says that although “women disproportionately enter lower-paid, female-dominated occupations, this decision is shaped by discrimination, societal norms, and other forces beyond women’s control” (Schieder). A woman’s decision as to what occupation they want to enter is shaped by society from the start. By society I mean parental expectations. Parents can subconsciously steer women towards more gender-normative jobs like those in the nursing field, whereas men are steered into more STEM jobs, ultimately making more money. Nonetheless, even in the same occupation and same education level, women are still paid less. Understanding the gender wage gap and examining the unequal opportunities women are given from the very beginning can decrease income inequality between men and women and lead to a stop in sexual harassment.

As a society, the first thing we can do is believe these victims and not put the blame on them. A lot of the time, victims are left to deal with their situations alone which can lead to serious mental health issues. We need to give them the support they need and help them to cope with it in a healthier manner. And instead of asking what they did wrong, we must ask if they are okay. In a larger sense, society needs to change its expectations for women and decrease the wage gap. Institutions need to reform their ways of teaching that promotes gender equality and gives young girls a strong foundation for their future careers. The owner of the store is not an educated man, in fact, he was homeless and a drug addict before starting the company. If he had the right education from the start, everything would have turned out differently. Unfortunately, he was given too much money, more than he could handle, and abused his power over teenage girls who did not have anywhere to go.

As a woman, I understand the fear of people not believing me and I understand the feeling of being criticized and thinking it is my fault for what happened. Fortunately, I was not a direct victim of sexual harassment at my workplace, but witnessing it happen and seeing how power can dominate the weak has opened my eyes for the better. All I can think is if this happened at a small smoothie shop, imagine what goes on in big corporations. But despite this immense fear that we as women have, I feel like history continues to show that speaking up and standing for what is right almost always makes a difference, even if it is small.

Since I have left the company, young women from other chain stores of the company have spoken about the sexual assault they faced on their social media. It started off with one or two girls accusing the owner, but then the numbers soared. In just a few weeks, the entire city of Malibu knew what was happening behind the scenes. I ran into a regular who would come in every morning and she told me that she no longer goes in because she heard about the accusations and did not want to support the store anymore. I also know that most of the other regulars who would come in have also stopped going. The store has not been doing well since and multiple stores have been shut down. This man might not be in jail and that is a whole other issue, but our dignity as women has shown him that he will not get away with it.

Neoliberalism manipulates not only how women are viewed, but how women think of themselves. Women grow up believing they are responsible for their failures and society encourages this belief. But we tend to forget that neoliberalism is created by elite men. And I say enough is enough. I do not want just a decrease in sexual assault in the workplace, I want a full stop to it. We need to start educating people now about what constitutes sexual harassment and teach women that it is not just a joke. It is not just a comment. And it is not just a hug. Society needs a cultural shift, and it needs to start now.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez once said that “hope is not something that you have. Hope is something that you create, with your actions. Hope is contagious. Other people start acting in a way that has more hope.” Being the first person to speak up about personal experiences takes a lot of courage. But when a community comes together and raises their voices in light of the situation, it becomes easier to do. This year, thousands of women have come forward about abuse from their employers and have caused a chain reaction in which more and more people are speaking up. The time for toleration has run out. It is time to bring an end to sexual harassment. 

Works Cited

Bower, Tim. “The #MeToo Backlash.” Harvard Business Review, 30 Nov. 2020.

Equal Rights Advocates. “Know Your Rights at Work: Sexual Harassment.” 2 Nov. 2020.

Fenton, Matthew K. “History of Sexual Harassment Laws in the United States.” Wenzel Fenton Cabassa, P.A., 4 Aug. 2020.

Noel D'souza, et al. “Is Social Media Making You Feel Insecure? - Youth Incorporated.” Youth Incorporated Magazine, 20 July 2017.

Quart, Alissa. “What's the Common Denominator among Sexual Harassers? Too Often, It's Money.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 9 Nov. 2017.

Rostow, Eugene V., et al. Directions in Sexual Harassment Law. Yale University Press., 20 Apr. 2012.

Schieder, Jessica, and Elise Gould. “‘Women's Work’ and the Gender Pay Gap: How Discrimination, Societal Norms, and Other Forces Affect Women's Occupational Choices-and Their Pay.” Economic Policy Institute.