From derogatory comments about new mothers to bullying sick women: Just an average Wednesday - Women's Agenda

From derogatory comments about new mothers to bullying sick women: Just an average Wednesday

On the same day that I was told about one of the worst examples of sexual harassment I’ve ever heard, a number of media reports emerged of some atrocious language being used against women at work – one woman who is on maternity leave, a second who was in treatment for cancer, another for daring to have an opinion.

The sexual harassment story I was told resulted in the victim opting out of the industry she had worked so hard to make a career in. While there were lawyers involved, she chose not to pursue the claims further due to concerns about the case being dragged through the media. She lost her job, her career, her confidence, and a lot of money in the process.

Meanwhile also on Wednesday, reports emerged about a racist slur made against Liberal MP Kelly O’Dwyer regarding how she’s parenting her two-week old baby, according to Sky News. That would be the same MP who, while at home with her newborn, is currently up against a number of powerful, rich men who want to see her unseated.

 

And over at the Australian Olympic Committee – that is currently looking very much like the “five star circus” one newspaper has described it as today – allegations have emerged that boss John Coates once told a female employee who was then in treatment for cancer, that she was not working in a “sheltered workshop” and should “get out in the real world”. Former AOC chief executive Fiona de Jong claims Coates knew the woman had been undergoing months of chemotherapy.

Over on Paul Murry’s Sky’s Paul Murray Live late last night Yassmin Abdel-Magied was described as a ‘bitch’ by guest Lisa Oldfield. Oldfield added that, “Yassmin, you are brown, you are Muslim and you are a girl, and that’s the only reason you have a job at the ABC.” Abdel-Magied was also yesterday the target of a Daily Telegraph campaign, where she was described as a “PC poster girl”.

These four things are just what I came across on an average Wednesday. Two of them in the media, one while having coffee with a Women’s Agenda reader. These are all different stories but they’re also all connected. They speak to different manifestations of workplace bullying involving women who’re not necessarily powerless, but at a vulnerable point in their lives.

One can only imagine how many other forms of workplace bullying occurred yesterday affecting women who’re just as vulnerable, but may have no recourse or opportunity to ever have anyone defend or speak up for them. Perhaps these women put up with it, over and over again. Or maybe they simply quit their jobs quietly.

Right now a lot of very large organisations are investing a serious amount of money and time working out how they can stop losing their talented female employees and get more women into senior leadership positions.

The problem is that despite all that unconscious bias training, and those mentoring schemes and leadership courses for women, women keep leaving. Some due to being unable to balance their roles with pressures and responsibilities at home, others because they’re not given the pay and promotions they know they deserve, and others again due to throwaway comments or gestures made by male employees.

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