In the wake of the release of audio of Donald Trump’s crude comments about women — and his ongoing criticisms of Bill Clinton’s conduct with women — some local female business and community leaders say sexual harassment and assault by men in power isn’t unusual.
“I think you’ll be hard-pressed to find a woman who has not been the victim of sexual harassment to some degree,” said one woman, an educator who asked not to be named because she has been the victim of repeated sexual assault and a rape throughout her life.
The Beacon Journal does not identify victims of sexual assault.
“Growing up, I always had a very voluptuous, full-woman’s body at age 9,” she said. “I was harassed and groped and grabbed on the street.”
As recently as a few years ago, she was also groped in Washington, D.C., while at a crowded public event. She told the man to stop, and he eventually ran away.
“The victim is always blamed,” she said. “We’re still fighting these struggles.
“While others have found their voice, I’m still not out, but I celebrate those who are,” she said of victims of assault who speak out or press charges against their offenders.
Norma Rist, who owns an Akron-based business consulting firm and is the former vice president and general manager of Pepsi-Cola Bottlers of Akron, said she suspects sexual harassment in the workplace is “as rampant, but may not be quite as overt” as it used to be.
Rist and about 150 other established and emerging female leaders were at the Athena International Akron Chapter’s Women’s Leadership Day Luncheon on Thursday at the Fairlawn Country Club. Established female leaders were asked to bring emerging leaders for a networking lunch.
Part of Rist’s position before she retired was as the bottling company’s Equal Employment Opportunity coordinator. She would regularly talk to women about their sexual harassment complaints.
“It’s a pattern ... and unless something happens to call it to task, it doesn’t stop,” she said.
The presidential election has put a spotlight on sexual harassment, Akron Municipal Court Judge Kathryn Michael said.
Michael said she experienced sexual harassment as a young lawyer and she believes it still exists, though she doesn’t personally see it as much since she became a judge.
Thirty years ago, fresh out of law school, Michael said, she went to interview at a law firm. The man, who was 30 years older than her, “put his feet up on his desk. He kept asking me if I was ‘good’ and was leering at me.”
Michael said she didn’t know how to react. She didn’t know what to say.
“It was awful.”
As she advanced in her career, Michael said, she also witnessed a now-retired male judge regularly sexually harass young female attorneys.
“We had to be like ducks and let it roll off our backs,” she said.
It’s part of what made her want to become a judge, she said.
But the sexual harassment can go both ways, said Joan Wessman, a retired hospital administrator. Wessman said she had not seen any women physically sexually assault men, but she had seen women verbally sexual harass male workers.
“It should be no more tolerable,” she said.
A young millennial woman who works for a Northeast Ohio school district said she’s also seen blurred lines, from both men and women in the workplace.
“It is OK or not OK?” she asked. “It makes me personally uncomfortable.”
Erica Voorhees, a magistrate and judicial judge for Judge Michael, wondered whether there is a generational difference. Voorhees said there are some older male lawyers who always comment on her suits or how she looks in them. There are some who “sometimes feel like they can make a comment every time they see you.”
With an increased emphasis on “teamwork” in the workplace, some women who face sexual harassment might be afraid to speak up because they won’t be seen as team players, she said.
Another local young businesswoman who is in management at an area bank said she hasn’t experienced sexual harassment in her workplace. Her boss is a man in his 40s.
“Maybe it’s not as prevalent in the newest generation,” she said.
Michael said she hopes working mothers and the new generation of mothers raising their sons are teaching them that sexual harassment or demeaning women is not OK.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty