By Kayla Haggett [1]
BELLEVILLE – In the wake of the #MeToo movement, local organizations say that workplace sexual harassment isn’t just a big city issue.
Ellen Carlisle, public educator at the Sexual Assault Centre for Quinte and District [2], said it’s an issue that occurs in the Quinte region as well and that she’s had women disclose their experiences with her.
“It’s not something that just happens in cities. It’s not something that just happens in far way communities,” she said. “But a lot of times we’re so uncomfortable with this topic, people like to push it away and pretend it’s not happening.”
Time magazine announced Wednesday that “The Silence Breakers” [3] were the 2017 person of the year. These silence breakers are women and men at the forefront of the #MeToo movement, a Twitter hashtag started after the allegations against movie producer Harvey Weinstein as a way for people to share their own experiences with sexual harassment.
A study by the Angus Reid Foundation [4] found that 28 per cent of Canadians have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace, with women experiencing it more often at 43 per cent of respondents.
Carlisle said part of the issue is that there’s a lack of understanding of what sexual harassment actually is. Though people often think of physical violent attacks, she said attitude and language are also things that can be traumatizing and considered sexual harassment.
She spoke about #MeToo, saying that it’s always powerful when someone is brave enough to come forward with their experiences, and that she’s seen the impacts of the movement locally.
“Over the last few months there’s been a lot of women that have been coming in and saying that they are feeling really connected to this campaign. Even though people are tweeting from far away, they’re feeling engaged and feeling connected to this conversation.”
She says that social media has allowed women living in rural communities to connect with others despite physical distance.
Jill Raycroft, executive director of the Belleville Chamber of Commerce, spoke to QNet about the responsibility of employers when it comes to workplace sexual harassment.
She said that the issue is a legal one and that it’s important businesses have the proper policies and paperwork in place. The chamber works to support businesses when it comes to understanding these policies.
Though Raycroft said they’ve never held a roundtable discussion on this topic, this might change in the future as she thinks having a discussion with employers about what these policies look like in real life could be helpful.
“When I was trying to find what resources we had available, the first thing that came to mind is, ‘Well, if we don’t have something, we should,’ ” she said.
Raycroft said that since the chamber isn’t the organization a person would go to to disclose these complaints, she isn’t sure how much of an issue it is the area. The chamber represents over 500 businesses, which includes small businesses and large corporations.
Carlisle said that when it comes to sexual harassment she doesn’t think the size of the workplace matters.
“Someone who is in a small town is able to abuse that power. Someone who runs a family business, someone who is married – they’re all people that can abuse their power. It doesn’t matter if it’s a small business, a big business, small town, big town, what their family dynamic is like,” said Carlisle. “It’s about them deciding that they’re going to abuse their authority.”
The #MeToo movement is part of a long history of activism in Canada and the U.S., said Carlisle, and moving forward the people who care about this issue are going to continue to organize and find ways to empower themselves – but change is going to take time.
“Our attitudes around sexual violence and sexual harassment are really deep-rooted in our society, so it’s going to take some time to really have some really nuanced conversations around this,” she said. “As long as it’s still happening, I think more work definitely still needs to be done.”