The Akron Legal News

Login | March 29, 2024

Ivanka Trump, sexual harassment: Why her dad finds no harm

MARC SIEGEL
KAREN CONTI
Law Bulletin columnists

Published: August 23, 2016

When USA Today asked Donald Trump what his daughter Ivanka would do if she were sexually harassed, he responded, “I would like to think she would find another career or find another company if that was the case.”

Trump’s son Eric followed by saying that because Ivanka is a strong and powerful woman, she would not allow herself to be subjected to it.

Team Trump was resoundingly criticized for these comments because they gave the impression that a woman should not fight for her rights in the workplace, but should instead simply quit — and that a woman who is being harassed somehow allows herself to be in that situation.

The sexual harassment discussion began because Donald Trump has defended Fox CEO Roger Ailes, who was recently sued for harassment by a female broadcaster and who has attempted to impugn the credibility of six other women who have complained about his behavior.

Unfortunately, Ailes’ behavior is not unusual. What is fairly unusual is that Fox actually terminated his employment, since many employers don’t take such action.

Clearly, contrary to Trump’s “advice,” most working women who are harassed in the workplace do not have the luxury of simply quitting without a replacement paycheck to pay rent or support children.

The sad reality is that workplace harassment is still rampant. A 2015 survey of 2,235 women found that one-third of women between the ages of 18 to 34 have been sexually harassed at work. Yet, 70 percent of these women did not complain about the harassment.

This underreporting stems from fear of retaliation, concern for job safety and security and concern for a reputation in the woman’s given industry as a “troublemaker.”

Our firms have represented both low-wage workers who cannot afford to simply leave their jobs and high-level executives who are afraid that voicing complaints will blackball them in their industries. Regardless of socio-economic status, sexual harassment and the fallout from complaining about harassment severely hinders women’s progress in the workplace.

In fact, Trump’s comments regarding sexual harassment also speak to a larger issue in the workplace: the perpetuation of the glass ceiling.

If women who are harassed simply leave their job, this effectively cuts short an otherwise successful tenure, forcing the victim of harassment to start from scratch again. Moving from job to job makes it more difficult to advance at the same rate as men, further perpetuating the wage gap and the vicious cycle of women being passed over for promotion.

To resolve this problem, it is incumbent upon top management to change the working culture, not upon women who fall victim to harassment.

Sexual harassment not only negatively impacts women who are harassed, it has a broad, negative impact on the economy in general.

According to one study, more than 25 percent of women who feel they are being sexually harassed use leave time to avoid the situation and at least 15 percent leave their jobs. Those women who simply try to ignore the harassing behavior typically experience a 10 percent drop in productivity.

In the aggregate, this costs U.S. businesses millions of dollars due to employee absenteeism, high turnover, low morale and low productivity. This also does not factor in the cost of sexual harassment lawsuits, which companies can spend additional millions litigating.

A typical victim of sexual harassment has poor options at every turn:

Complain and risk being considered a complainer with a target on her back.

Don’t complain and live with the intolerable harassment.

Leave and have to find a new job in a very difficult job market (and have to explain why she is leaving without referring to the harassment).

Sue and face a litany of litigation challenges and being discovered as a litigant by future employers, many of which won’t hire someone who has brought a lawsuit.

The hypothetical question to Trump about his daughter being sexually harassed presents an atypical situation.

Ivanka’s family name and the fact that she is running the show at her workplace may make her immune from the boorish conduct of her underlings. And if she were harassed, she would also clearly have other options.

But I think we can all agree with the simple words of Ivanka, speaking for herself on the topic: “I think harassment in general, regardless, sexual or otherwise, is totally inexcusable.”

Every employer needs to do its part to ensure that women are free from harassment in the workplace and are simply allowed to do their jobs.

Marc Siegel is managing partner of Siegel & Dolan Ltd. Karen Conti is owner of ContiLaw LLC. She is a regular legal commentator on the local Fox affiliate, CNN and truTV.


[Back]