>>ow, omnnings >> welcome to a very special edition of "beyond the headlines." almost every day in recent months, another account of sexual harassment comes to in the workplace. thousands of voices are rising up to say, "me too" and "time's up." we want to look more closely at these behaviors, their impact, and ways we can work together to end these abuses of power in the workplace. my abc7 colleague kristen sze has more. >> thank you, cheryl. as a growing number of people come forward claiming they've been harassed at work, many are finding they don't know where to go for help. today we will discuss these issues and look at solutions from around the bay area. we recently brought together a group of experts to discuss the issues facing employees and employers in workplaces, both locally and across the nation. our goal is to provide you with

resources and tips that may help you navigate some of the challenges facing our communities. considers ti t'ben to two bay area women who found themselves searching for help after dealing with sexual harassment and then decide the "aha" moment happened just over a year ago when they read software engineer susan fowler's blog, claiming she was sexually >> it was the first time that we realized that we were not alone with our personal experiences dealing with harassment and discrimination at work. >> and when we talk to our friends and family, almost all have experienced this, as well. >> grace and tammy, who met working on a tech-industry startup, began spending all their free time gathering information. >> after talking to hundreds of individuals, including targets of harassment, employment lawyers, human-resource experts, and more, we realized that there was just a huge shortage in terms of knowledge about what

your rights or options are. >> so they created betterbrave.com. it's a free how-to manual for victims of harassment and discrimination and people who want to help them. betterbrave has clear, basic answers to a wide range of questions, such as what to do before you go to the human-resources department, when to go to a lawyer, or what to do if you don't have any evidence. >> so, you can create some evidence by telling a friend and capturing that screen shot or saving that conversation, and so that will give you a date and time. >> tammy and grace say thousands of women and men are now using the site, and they aren't just tech workers and actors. >> the service industry -- people who work in restaurants -- and i'll say, then, universities -- staff members, professors. >> i was really taken aback by just how deep this problem runs. >> the response has been so overwhelming, the women have now formed a nonprofit to provide even more help to victims and their allies. >> all right. you can see the issue spans across government,

business, all sorts of areas -- schools. who amongst you -- can i see a show of hands? -- has experienced or witnessed sexual harassment in your own workplace? okay. almost everybody. could i ask a couple of you to share your stories? >> i have so many stories to share. i remember being super young, eager in politics, and this man starts talking to me, and i'm talking, i'm eager, i'm in politics, i'm talking about all the things i want to change. um, and he...starts touching my leg under the table. and, you know, he continued to say, "i can help you in politics." of course, i left the table. i left the event. >> jonathan? >> in my case, it's the same kind of stuff. i've had a male colleague in a place of work where i was at my desk and --- and he, um, got up behind my chair and sort of started rubbing up against my head. and you're kind of confused by it, and you sort of do the tulyveything atoi, ou don't

so indstanthat iulse to just not say anything directly. >> absolutely. i'm glad you shared your story, jonathan, because we want to be clear, too. always tictims in sexual the perpetrators in sexual harassment. it can go both ways. >> so, i think what's important to understand about all of these personal stories -- and i work in journalism. i've spent a lot of wk and worg in human trafficking. and the women that i see who are being trafficked are women who are single mothers, who have to work two shifts at wendy's or mcdonald's because they don't get their hours in time, so when a manager presses them and sexually harasses them and wants sex from them, it has a huge economic impact on their lives and their children's lives, and so this is not a men-versus-women issue. this is an issue about an abuse of power. it has nothing to do with sex. so, that's my perspective on that. >> yeah. you brought up the

shift workers and single mom, and i want to direct this to saru and estella. you both work with women in fields which may be particularly vulnerable because of the situation, economically, they find themselves in. can you start with that, saru? >> california has the largest restaurant industry of any state 13 million restaurant workers nationally, so you have to understand we're not talking about some tiny sector of women. we're talking about the largest employer of women with the absolute lowest wages of any sector in the united states and the highest rates, literally, of sexual harassment. our industry allows employers to basically have part of the compensation be tips. they have to tolerate all kinds of inappropriate behavior from customers in order to feed their families in tips, and, beyond that, our research shows managers actually encourage them, "dress more sexy, show more cleavage, wear tighter clothing in order to make more money in tips." and because this is the first job for most young women in america -- 1 in 2 american women

starts their work life in this industry -- this sets the stage for what's acceptable, tolerable, legal in the workplace. we also set the standard. we set the floor for women across the economy. >> that is something to think about. how about in the farm industry? i know you represent a lot of farm workers who, economically, also have a difficult situation, but there may be other concerns for them, too. >> the thing to keep in miabrm r includes dairy workers, farm workers, field workers, packing-house workers, nursery workers, they often live in rural communities, so imagine how difficult it is for a woman in a law firm or in a boardroom to speak up against sexual harassment. just imagine not even being able to speak the language, being undocumented, having that fear of being deported or even being just reported to the police. these workplaces are isolated. you might be the only woman. you might be the only person out in a field on any given day, and that physical isolation

contributes, as well, to the power dynamics that we've been speaking about. >> it's a really important point. i just want to say that what we're doing and exploring here there are some who would say the me too or time's up movement is tied to a certain political belief or it's on one side of the spectrum. what we're trying to do is to broaden that and let people seee with disabilities are disproportionately affected by sexual harassment and taking advantage, and this is a group that nobody's talking about. it's not part of any of the conversations, and that's partly because people with disabilities are not seen as sexual by our society or they're seen as overly sexual. people with disabilities are twice as likely to be harassed sexually, of either gender, and then among people with disabilities, the group that's probably the largest are people with developmental disabilities.

they're seven times more likely to be harassed because, in a way, they're people that have gotten tssage,be gperson, wt ot you to do," and they're not given sexual education because people don't think of them as sexual or it's too -- people are too uncomfortable for that. >> how do we make a change in the workplace? there are so many women and men that this happens every single day, and we don't feel that our employer has our back and we don't feel protected, and we feel that when we do speak up, we need all this evidence. something has to give because what we have is just not

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and accessoriesphones for your mobile phone. like this device to increase volume on your cell phone. - ( phone ringing ) - get details on this state program visit right now or call during business hours. >> now let's get back to our town-hall discussion with a deeper look at the impact of masculinity and the challenges of raising boys in today's society. >> the way that we construct masculinity in america is about predators, but the fact is menn.

are responsible for most of the sexual violence in this country. it's our responsibility as men to hold other men accountable and to change the culture of manhood in america that enables the harvey weinsteins of the world to do what they do. >> you're right, because i was looking at a stunning eeoc statistic, and 82% of sexual-harassment charges filed are by women, made by women, against men, and 17% were filed by men. how do we begin to change that, both on a family level -- the way we raise our boys, perhaps -- and then how do we reshape that on a corporate, cultural level? >> well, i have a young, 16-year-old boy, and so i'm around these 16-year-olds all the fose, rse years ago -- she said, "you

know, women need to stop complaining about how men treat them when they stop raising sons that do that." now, i'm not saying that it's all on the mothers, because i think the fathers have to have something to say there, too. but i also have a young african-american boy who is -- it's doubly important for me to teach him how to be cautious in how he interacts in the world. >> yeah. there's a great gloria steinem quote which is that "it's all fine and good that we're raising our daughters right, but let's also bring up our sons to be good men." and so, in my book, i do talk about various ways that you can do that. the first is that men have to -- husbands, fathers -- have to model the right behavior. the second things is that we have to start to encourage that male and female leadership attributes, that things that are traditionally defined as a strong leader or a great leader, traditionally, that's been conventional male attributes of

assertive, aggressive, go get 'em, right? and female attributes tend to be stereotypically described as nurturing, collaborative, communicative, and we have to start modeling behavior that both of those or a blend of both of those is 100% acceptable. >> i have to tell a heartening story here. i have a now-24-year-old son who happens to have a twin sister, and two years ago, i was in the kitchen, and boys were home from college, and there were at least 10, maybe 12, of my son's friends, all boys, in the kitchen. and they were making pizza, and i was sitting at the kitchen table, working away. jack said, "oh, connor, don't be such a girl." and there was this pregnant pause in the whole room, and one of my son's friends turned and went, "you mean a girl who's launching a billion-dollar global technology company?

that kind of girl?" [ laughs ] >> kristen, you asked about how we change masculinity, and, as maureen's comment sort of points out, boys are thinking about things differently now, and they're starting to think about masculinity differently. we know from decades now of research that men and boys who have more kind of restrictive ideas about how a man or a boy can be, those men or boys are siif sexually harass others or commit sexual violence. you know, too often we just dismiss boys' poor behavior with "boys will be boys." >> is there any sense that men may be fearful of mentoring women in this current climate? and, hayley, i know you have some thoughts on that. >> there is evidence of a backlash that is harmful to women because of these movements. twice as many male managers now feel uncomfortable alone with a woman, and the number of men who

are uncomfortable mentoring women has more than tripled since the media coverage on sexual harassment. inclusion and diversity really need to be a first priority from the day one of starting a company, and we've seen this in the bay area with founders like stewart butterfield. he created that as an explicit priority from the top down from day one of slack, and he now has 43% of women and one of the most diverse workplaces in tech in the bay area. >> you know, you bring up some good examples of companies that are stepping up, but you take companies like ibm. we instituted equal pay for equal work in 1930, long before this was even a discussion point at any sort of legislative level. we brought on the first person with a disability in 1914. so i think it's imperative on corporations and their leadership, as you said, to step up. >> you know what bugs me? is hearing hayley talk about uncomfortable being in a room with women now, and it's like...

"yeah, imagine that." how thesen have felt for decades and decades and decades?" and men, i think, are kind of oblivious to the fact that they have advantages, everyday sort of advantages, when they walk into a room, when they go before some venture capitalist to say, "will you fund this?" men are not aware that they have that advantage, and we need to make them aware. another way i think we need to do that is to think about the language we use. sexual violence is a huge problem for women, but it's really an issue with men and with masculinity. how many men are responsible for rape or sexual harassment? that's reframing idon'dohat, its very easy to blame the victim, and we start asking the wrong questions. we start asking, "what was she wearing?" the dialog around it really shapes the way that we think about

>> i'm kristen sze. welcome back to this special edition of "beyond the headlines," a town-hall discussion on sexual harassment in the workplace. our conversation continues with a look at solutions and next steps from our local experts. >> this has been an open secret about sexual harassment for centuries. we all know that guy in thenow . but no one's done anything about that, right? he still went out after work and said something inappropriate to an employee. so, whatever we have in place

has to change, 'cause it's just not working. >> one thing that we do at ibm is we have mandatory training for all our leaders and executives, that you have to do this training and you have to pass this training. and when you talk about this first level of innuendos or making a comment, part of this training includes understanding when you, as a leader, hear this, you're expected to step in and stop it. but we're also rolling this training out to all employees now, all 380,000 of them worldwide. we think it's obviously an important subject to the ibm corporation, but i think people understanding these what they may believe not important or just a comment is very much important. >> it's not just important -- it's illegal. i mean, i really have to clarify, as an attorney who represents low-wage workers, that it's really important for viewers to know, regardless of what situation you're in, whether you're in a restaurant or work in a corporation, any kind of comments that make you feel uncomfortable, scared, afraid, especially if it's a

i an, i that in museumsgal andsa and galleries, in all those dynamics, all those power dynamics that you have to encounter, you do find these kinds of roadblocks put in front of you. and i think that it's very important for us to speak up and to have the courage to really understand when we feel uncomfortable, that it's important for you to let the person know that you feel uncomfortable. >> mm-hmm. >> so, at 68, in the workplace for 40-plus years, leaning in for a long time and trying to persuade the guys to be nice and things to change, i've come to two radical conclusions of my theory of how things should shift. number one is happening right now, and that's public shunning. and here's my second.

i think we need to start passing some legislative rules for parity in the workplace. >> i think that there are some do around sexual harassment as men. we need to, number one, stand with women as allies and really listen. then we need to stand up to other men who are committing sexual harassment or sexual violence or making lewd comments in the workplace, because when we don't do that, it is a form of consent. it's condoning that behavior. we're complicit when we don't speak up. >> in canada, they've passed laws that say women can't be asked to wear different uniforms in a restaurant than a man. i mean, that is power, to force a woman to wear a cocktail uniform as a cocktail waitress and a man wears a different uniform. there are very clear policies we can enact that actually not only change the power dynamic but go a long way to shifting the culture that we keep talking about. >> oftentimes what happens in

corporate cultures is, "oh, this person is a unicorn. he's an amazing engineer" or "this guy, harvey weinstein -- he has the magic that it takes to make oscar-winning movies, and so we will tolerate bad behavior." so, just say no to a high performance trumping bad behavior. >> employers have an affirmative duty in california to prevent sexual harassment and assault in the workplace. it is an affirmative duty. you cannot wait until you get a report of sexual harassment or assault to deal with it. >> i would be remiss or we would be remiss, talking about the #metoo movement, if we don't talk about tarana burke, who actually founded the movement as a result of a sexually violent incident, and she did something about it. she was proactive. and one of the things that she says is that, "we keep talking about how millions engage with the movement, but even if just 10% of those people stay committed to the work, we will have created an incredible army,

because the power of #metoo isn't just naming it. naming it is just the beginning of the journey." and i think that that's really, really powerful and important, because we, as women, as artists, as people who are working in this field, really have an opportunity to make a difference. >> it's not just telling the stories but it's getting stories out there because i think it's really important for people to have individual stories about minority experiences or non-standard, non-mainstream experiences, so i wanted to give a plug for a group called rooted in rights, who are soliciting for disability-based me too stories because of that conversation not happening. >> we put two programs in place at ibm. one of them is leaning in tech, and it's taking women who have exited the workforce for a temporary period of time to bring them back. it's typically women that have been out of the workforce between 2 and 20 years. we bring them in as interns. we give them a 12-week assign

we also have opportunities where we're mentoring women to become senior leaders in the country. >> so, in my other role as an angel investor in tech companies, i made a pledge a couple of years ago that i would co-foundest in your company ifue let me tell you why i did that. there's a lot of very disheartening research from harvard that shows that the same identical pitch from a man versus a woman, same powerpoint slide, and the same investors, the man gets funded 68% more likely, almost 70% more likely, right? and i think that that's completely unfair. >> i see a lot of women in the bay area who now do not want to go work for a startup where there's no h.r. they don't want to go work for a company that's just 10 men. and so if men are trying to have the best chance at business success, they need to hire women from the very start, or else it's very hard to steer a ship

once it's already in that direction. >> we are so forgetting we're half the world. we are half the world. there's 50% men and 50% women. who controls most of the economic clout in the universe? women. it's something like 77% of all spend in the universe is by women. it's trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars. >> thank you all so much for that. really appreciate it. if you're facing sexual harassment at work, hopefully you see through our conversation today that you are not alone, that you have a voice. if you are dealing with these issues, our website is a great resource for you -- a great place to start. we've compiled and vetted some of the best bay area resources and put them all in one place for you to be able to access. and that website is abc7news.com/takeaction. again, abc7news.com/takeaction. thank you all for coming, thank you so much for watching, and thank you for being allies in action.

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