Keeping Current: Eliminating Sexual Harassment in the Workplace through Inclusion and Change Management

The #MeToo movement and its progeny has appropriately returned the spotlight to the pervasive cultural problem of sexual harassment in the workplace. Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and Roger Ailes are but the latest high profile celebrities to remind us what Isiah Thomas, Bill Clinton, and Clarence Thomas brought to mainstream cultural awareness 10, 20 and 30 years ago. Powerful men discriminate against less powerful women. This abuse of power in the workplace is more than the acts of a few powerful celebrities whose hubris was an exception; these acts are the tip of the iceberg of a societal and cultural problem. Terminating, fining or imprisoning a few famous harassers may make us feel better as a society, but treating the symptom does not advance a cure. It will only be ameliorated and eventually eradicated with shifts in the workplace behavioral and demographic paradigm. Inclusion, leadership and modeling are needed.