In this video Celina McEwen, Alison Pullen and Carl Rhodes summarise key points made in their article “Sexual Harassment at Work: A Leadership Problem” published in May 2021 in the journal Revista de Administração de Empresas.
TRANSCRIPT
The three of us are academics working in Sydney universities in Australia.
We respectfully acknowledge that we are located on land stolen from the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. The Gadigal people have cared for their community, land and waters for thousands of generations, based on their deep knowledge of their country.
We pay our respects to their Ancestors, their Elders and acknowledge their ongoing status as the First Peoples of this land.
I am Celina McEwen a senior researcher working with Alison and Carl on an Australian government funded project on Leadership Diversity in Australia
We are investigating the relationships between people in organisations and how they are affected by different forms of workplace diversity.
I am Alison Pullen and have enjoyed doing fieldwork with Celina and Carl for our project. I am joint editor of GWO.
I am Carl Rhodes and it has been my privilege to work on this project and learn so much from all of the people who generously gave their time to contribute to this project
Our article recently published in Revista de Administração de Empresas is about sexual harassment at work. We argue that this is, among other things, a leadership problem.
Sexual violence against women in the workplace is often perpetrated by leaders, managers, or supervisors because of abusive power relations and cultural tolerance for sexual violence in organizations and society. This form of abuse is still common practice despite policy reforms and well-established gender equality schemes and strategies.
We analysed American and Australian data about sexual harassment in the workplace to understand why it remains so widespread and poorly addressed. For example, we looked at people’s submission to the Australian Human Rights Commission’s 2018 national survey into sexual harassment in workplaces and a national data from the US on sexual harassment and assault from the same year. We also looked at high profile cases of violence against women, such as Harvey Weinstein’s.
We found that this form of abuse was not only connected to power imbalance between men and women but also at intersecting inequalities across gender, class and ethnic lines.
We also found that leadership practices play a central role in maintaining or enacting a culture that supports abuse of power over women in the form of sexual misconduct.
This needs to change. To tackle sexual violence and achieve equality in organizations requires disrupting the underlying conditions that reproduce privilege and injustice, including the cultural tolerance of violence. So, we need to recognise that violence is normalised through leadership practices. We also need to interrogate the gender structures and systems that facilitate sexual harassment.
Addressing sexual violence in the workplace requires political change and commitment from leaders.
It is essential to make leaders responsible for addressing this violence and abuse.
More than that – leadership practice needs to acknowledge the existence of inequality regimes
It also needs to challenge and transform traditional gendered relations in the workplace – relations characterised by productive and restrictive power-based interactions.
Leaders of all kinds can learn from shared practices or ‘community’ as exemplified by feminist movements, such as #MeToo, #ShoutingBack and Black Lives Matter.
Leadership is a political practice, and it is up to leaders to make a difference for others.
TRANSCRIPT
The three of us are academics working in Sydney universities in Australia.
We respectfully acknowledge that we are located on land stolen from the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. The Gadigal people have cared for their community, land and waters for thousands of generations, based on their deep knowledge of their country.
We pay our respects to their Ancestors, their Elders and acknowledge their ongoing status as the First Peoples of this land.
I am Celina McEwen a senior researcher working with Alison and Carl on an Australian government funded project on Leadership Diversity in Australia
We are investigating the relationships between people in organisations and how they are affected by different forms of workplace diversity.
I am Alison Pullen and have enjoyed doing fieldwork with Celina and Carl for our project. I am joint editor of GWO.
I am Carl Rhodes and it has been my privilege to work on this project and learn so much from all of the people who generously gave their time to contribute to this project
Our article recently published in Revista de Administração de Empresas is about sexual harassment at work. We argue that this is, among other things, a leadership problem.
Sexual violence against women in the workplace is often perpetrated by leaders, managers, or supervisors because of abusive power relations and cultural tolerance for sexual violence in organizations and society. This form of abuse is still common practice despite policy reforms and well-established gender equality schemes and strategies.
We analysed American and Australian data about sexual harassment in the workplace to understand why it remains so widespread and poorly addressed. For example, we looked at people’s submission to the Australian Human Rights Commission’s 2018 national survey into sexual harassment in workplaces and a national data from the US on sexual harassment and assault from the same year. We also looked at high profile cases of violence against women, such as Harvey Weinstein’s.
We found that this form of abuse was not only connected to power imbalance between men and women but also at intersecting inequalities across gender, class and ethnic lines.
We also found that leadership practices play a central role in maintaining or enacting a culture that supports abuse of power over women in the form of sexual misconduct.
This needs to change. To tackle sexual violence and achieve equality in organizations requires disrupting the underlying conditions that reproduce privilege and injustice, including the cultural tolerance of violence. So, we need to recognise that violence is normalised through leadership practices. We also need to interrogate the gender structures and systems that facilitate sexual harassment.
Addressing sexual violence in the workplace requires political change and commitment from leaders.
It is essential to make leaders responsible for addressing this violence and abuse.
More than that – leadership practice needs to acknowledge the existence of inequality regimes
It also needs to challenge and transform traditional gendered relations in the workplace – relations characterised by productive and restrictive power-based interactions.
Leaders of all kinds can learn from shared practices or ‘community’ as exemplified by feminist movements, such as #MeToo, #ShoutingBack and Black Lives Matter.
Leadership is a political practice, and it is up to leaders to make a difference for others.
Leadership Diversity through Relational Intersectionality in Australia 