We can easily sit here and say it's not worth sacrificing our dignity or whatever, but have we never been in a situation where if we lose our job, we're homeless? If we have to quit, we may not get to eat next week? Hindsight is always 20/20 but it's never as black and white as that.
One of my stories is that I had a stellar job on a watch floor for a three-letter agency and at first it was wonderful. Then the harassment started. "Why do you wear heels when your legs are already so long?" and more and worse until I filed a complaint. Then? Crickets. Nobody did anything.
He was the hiring manager for the entire agency. There was no way I'd get a job in that agency again if I quit this one. Need to supply a reference to your next potential employer? They're going to call your former employer and what do you think that former employer would do if you left on bad terms because you "stood up for yourself" and quit the job over harassment? Not gonna be a glowing recommendation is it?
We need to be realistic and understand that sometimes it's more than sacrificing this one job, this one position at this one company. Sometimes, there's a threat that it will literally end your entire career and then what?
Instead of "empowering" women by making them feel ****** for not reporting and not standing up for themselves, how about we prosecute harassers and abusers? Instead of making excuses like what happens all up and down these threads (oh she lied about the signature, he just wanted a child so badly, but it was 30 years ago!, she kept dating him after, on and on and on).
If you want to empower women, believe them. Stand by them.
