Work After #MeToo

03/01/18 • 54 min

The hand on the thigh. The creepy come-on. The lingering leer. These are some of the milder forms of sexual harassment that women have been reporting in the wake of the #MeToo outpouring. Other women have made allegations of sexual assault and even rape at the office.

While once such accusations would be met with — at most — a monetary settlement and a non-disclosure agreement, today they are more likely to be publicized and investigated. Some have welcomed this change but are worried it won’t last. Others are worried #MeToo has gone too far already and that perpetrators of harassment aren’t getting a fair chance to defend themselves — or that the movement will spark a backlash that’s ultimately worse for women.

We talk with UC Hastings professor Joan Williams about history and the law, HBR’s Amy Gallo about different ways to say “This is making me uncomfortable,” and Stony Brook University professor Michael Kimmel about how men can be allies.

Our HBR reading list:

Now What? by Joan C. Williams and Suzanne Lebsock

Getting Men to Speak Up by Michael S. Kimmel

How to Talk About Sexual Harassment with Your Coworkers by Amy Gallo

Have Our Attitudes About Sexual Harassment Really Changed? by Sarah Green Carmichael

Training Programs and Reporting Systems Won’t End Sexual Harassment. Promoting More Women Will by Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev

The Omissions that Make So Many Sexual Harassment Policies Ineffective by Debbie S. Dougherty

What Works for Women at Work by Joan C. Williams and Rachel Dempsey

Email us: [email protected]

Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.

Our HBR reading list:

Now What? by Joan C. Williams and Suzanne Lebsock

Getting Men to Speak Up by Michael S. Kimmel

How to Talk About Sexual Harassment with Your Coworkers by Amy Gallo

Have Our Attitudes About Sexual Harassment Really Changed? by Sarah Green Carmichael

Training Programs and Reporting Systems Won’t End Sexual Harassment. Promoting More Women Will by Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev

The Omissions that Make So Many Sexual Harassment Policies Ineffective by Debbie S. Dougherty

What Works for Women at Work by Joan C. Williams and Rachel Dempsey

Email us: [email protected]

Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.

Previous Episode

Mind the (Wage) Gap

Do you earn the same salary as your male coworkers? How certain are you? For women, the wage gap is a common concern, for good reason: the average, college-educated woman starts out earning close to what her male peers do, but over a lifetime, the pay gap widens. Even for women who graduate from college, get an MBA, and take a job at a high-paying firm — 10 or 15 years into our careers, we’re earning only 60 percent of what men are.

There are a lot of complex factors that go into creating the wage gap — race, education, industry. Amy, Sarah, and Nicole dive into one that doesn’t get as much attention: age. What’s going on in our careers that causes us to earn so much less as we get older? Guests: Claudia Goldin, a Harvard economist, and Margaret Gullette, an age critic and author.

Our HBR reading list:

The Average Mid-Forties Male College Graduate Earns 55% More Than His Female Counterparts by Erling Barth, Claudia Goldin, Sari Pekkala Kerr, and Claudia Olivetti

Ending the Wage Gap by Sudip Datta, Abhijit Guha, and Mai Iskandar-Datta

Women Dominate College Majors That Lead to Lower-Paying Work by Sarah Green Carmichael

Everyone Likes Flex Time, but We Punish Women Who Use It by David Burkus

How the Gender Pay Gap Widens as Women Get Promoted by Lydia Frank

The Maternal Wall by Joan C. Williams

Email us: [email protected]

Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.

Next Episode

The Advice We Get and Give

Don’t negotiate against yourself. It’s OK to drop the ball. Sleep. We get wisdom from women who are experts on how we work — and who have advice on how to ask for more money, achieve more by doing less, and avoid burning out.

We talk with Duke University management professor Ashleigh Shelby Rosette about negotiating, Thrive Global CEO Arianna Huffington about sleep, Levo Chief Leadership Officer Tiffany Dufu about dropping the ball, and New Yorker writer Susan Orlean about confidence. Then HBR senior editor Alison Beard teams up with Amy to answer a few of your questions about work.

Our HBR reading list:

“Nice Girls Don’t Ask” by Linda Babcock, Sara Laschever, Michele Gelfand, Deborah Small

“Can an Agentic Black Woman Get Ahead? The Impact of Race and Interpersonal Dominance on Perceptions of Female Leaders” by Robert W. Livingston, Ashleigh Shelby Rosette, and Ella F. Washington

HBR Guide to Negotiating by Jeff Weiss

“How to Keep Email from Ruining Your Vacation” by Arianna Huffington

“Connect, Then Lead” by Amy J.C. Cuddy, Matthew Kohut, and John Neffinger

“Women, Find Your Voice” by Kathryn Heath, Jill Flynn, and Mary Davis Holt

Please fill out our listener survey at hbr.org/podcastsurvey — tell us what you think of the show!

Email us: [email protected]

Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.