There’s a line in Nick Cohen’s blog about the allegations about Lord Rennard (and the earlier SWP scandal) that really hit home:
I have one further point, which I accept it is difficult for a man to make. If women in either the Liberal Democrats or the Socialist Workers Party feel that the hierarchy is brushing their grievances aside for the sake of political convenience they should not just go to the police. They should also think of going to a TV studio and making a fuss. I know, I know, easy to say and hard to do. But there is nothing the Comrade Deltas and Comrade Cleggs fear more than a woman speaking to camera, live and on air.
Much though I appreciate Cohen’s wider point – that internal investigations into sex abuse allegations are often compromised – I did balk a little at his suggestion that a victim of any crime related to sex – assault, harassment or discrimination – “out” herself on TV.
I found myself asking: if I were in that position, would I?
And then I thought: hang on, I have been in that position. Or something near it.
As I went through school and university, I worked in lots of places; a shop, a warehouse, a taxi dispatch office, a burger van, several newsrooms. In more than one of them I found “flirty” (older, male) bosses and inappropriate comments, although thankfully I can’t remember anyone trying to touch me up, or worse.
Did I say anything? Yes, I grumbled to other people at the same level as me. To the “authorities”? No. Who are these mysterious authorities? In many places, the groper is the ultimate authority: he is the boss, and there’s no one to complain to about him. The police? Come off it. They are obviously the people to report serious sex assault allegations to, but what can they reasonably be expected to do about derogatory comments, touching employees up by the photocopier, or after the Christmas drinks party? If you’re young – your parents? Hell no. Who wants to talk to their parents about sex?
Allegations of sexual harassment are so difficult to deal with because they are about two things: hierarchy, and shame. Whistleblowers are often incredibly badly treated – even when they have sheaves of documents to prove wrongdoing. Imagine being a whistleblower when you know that half your listeners don’t think that being patted on the leg sounds like such a big deal, anyway.
Meanwhile, as a woman in the workplace, one of the safest strategies to pursue is to deny your gender entirely. Be one of the boys. Watch your every move, and every outfit, so that you can never be accused of using your femininity to get ahead. Because the same people who don’t take harassment allegations seriously are also those who think that young women have it easy, being able to flirt with the boss. They don’t see that those two things are sides of the same coin: reflections of workplaces where the power is concentrated in the hands of older men.
When pretending not to be a woman seems to be the best way to be treated as well as a man, complaining about harassment would break the spell. Suddenly, you are exposed: you have drawn attention to your female body. It would be, more than anything else, embarrassing. Demeaning. Shameful. Even if you’re saying “he touched my breast”, you’re still talking to total strangers about your breasts. Most of us are fairly reluctant to do that in public.
Meanwhile, I feel embarrassed even writing this. . . because who wants to be seen as weak? Who would choose to be a victim? And yet that’s the situation into which probably every woman in Britain has been forced at one time or another, whether in the workplace or in the street, or at home. Never feeling like that is a luxury that most men don’t even appreciate.
So, Nick – maybe it would be the best thing for society if a woman with allegations to make would do so to camera, live on air. But which of us can say that would be the best thing for the woman?
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