A Watershed Moment for Women

With the recent revelation of the shocking predatory behavior of a well-renowned, now infamous, Hollywood film producer, women have a unique opportunity. As someone who has been an advocate for women in the workplace for a long time, I am appalled at the depth and length of the tyranny of this individual as it appears this has been going on for many years (likely with the knowledge of many).

With my passion for helping women leaders advance and for parity in the workplace, you can imagine that the Harvey Weinstein situation has really gotten my blood boiling. I feel compassion for the women who have endured his advances and those of others like him in that the women were young and not equipped with the language or courage to resist someone with power in their industry. Who has the verbal skills and confidence to stand up to a Hollywood mogul at the age of 19 who is threatening to blackball you forever from Hollywood if you don’t bend to his sexual needs? Ultimately, the issues that are most glaring are the abuse of power (or intimidation) and the perceived lack of true equality between men and women. I believe that there is still a perception of women as inferior or less competent to men when it comes to large segments of the workplace. Unconscious bias in this country against women has permeated into our compensation and pay (women making 82 cents on the dollar compared to men), our exclusion from the board table (women hold only 20% of board seats) and lack of c-suite positions (just 5% of F500 companies are run by women).

The reasons for keeping Harvey Weinstein’s sexual transgressions secret are complicated and mainly rooted in the basic misogyny of our workplace culture and bias against women in our society. By nature (and even through nurture), female tendencies could have led us to endure some unequal treatment. In general, women tend to be more insecure, more fearful of taking risks, more fearful of raising their voices and being heard, more fearful of taking large opportunities they are not 100% totally qualified for, and more fearful of being assertive for fear of being labeled. Regardless of natural proclivities, the current workforce climate for women is unbalanced with Hollywood’s scandal just the latest demonstration of the bias that continues to prevent women from rising up the corporate ranks.

The reason for this current scandal coming to light now has a lot to do with critical mass – in that many women have this shared experience and are collectively and individually speaking out. Having just published a book on bullying in the workplace, (The Bully-Proof Workplace, McGraw-Hill, 2017 with Peter J. Dean, PhD), this latest abuse of power and leveraging of perceived weakness or inequality leads me to applaud the courage of the women who are speaking out. Here is our opportunity to stand up! The bottom line is that we have 3 options – stay and suffer; leave the job or industry; or speak up. Women are finally gaining momentum, building a stronger voice, and creating greater visibility for the pervasive and ugly issues of inequality, abuse of power and women’s exclusion.

In order to continue moving the needle forward, women leaders – regardless of industry – need to build confidence to speak up, stand up to bullies and a hostile workplace, learn their value by knowing their strengths and skills, and develop a comfort in sharing and asserting these abilities. Strong women leaders and those with a platform (like these Hollywood celebrities), can make a huge difference in gaining ground for all of us. Furthermore, men need to be a part of the solution – their active participation is a must. Righteous and ethical men need to step up for women and stand up against bad behavior and women’s exclusion.

The watershed moment in this latest scandal is the opening up of lines of communication to discuss power and inequality in the workplace publicly. Women leaders will continue to break down barriers, confront abuses of power and bullying and demonstrate their considerable, positive influence in this country – if they speak up!