Few in Washington are saying #MeToo. California congresswoman wants to change that.
Thank you Jackie
Few in Washington are saying #MeToo. California congresswoman wants to change that.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/congress/article180767631.html#storylink=cpy
By Emily Cadei
October 25, 2017 9:47 AM
WASHINGTON
The nation’s capital has been MIA from the #MeToo moment.
Actresses, athletes, media personalities and state lawmakers around the country continue to go public with their stories of sexual harassment. On Capitol Hill, there’s been mostly silence.
Many female lawmakers have tweeted about #MeToo in recent days, but their spokespeople say they were using the tag to show their solidarity with harassment victims, not to signal they, too, have been harassed. Just four women senators participated in an Oct. 22 Meet the Press segment on NBC that asked them to share their #MeToo stories. None of the incidents related by Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., or Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, occurred in Washington.
The ratio of complaints to employees in Congress is one-seventh what it is in the executive branch.
Given the well-documented cases of politicians’ inappropriate behavior with underlings that continue to emerge, year after year, it’s difficult to argue that Washington is immune from the problem of sexual harassment. What’s more likely is that there are still few who want to talk about it. McClatchy reached out to more than a dozen female lawmakers, former lawmakers, staffers and lobbyists in the wake of the Weinstein scandal, including former staffers for North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows who complained about being harassed by his former chief of staff, records from the Office of Congressional Ethics show. No one was willing to discuss any harassment they’ve faced in their careers in Washington.
California Congresswoman Jackie Speier is hoping to change that. The veteran lawmaker is planning to introduce new measures that would shine a light on sexual harassment in Congress and make it easier for victims of harassment to report it. The legislation, which Speier is still putting together, is just the latest in a series of proposals the Democrat from San Mateo, Calif. has pushed in recent years to tackle harassment on Capitol Hill. Her previous efforts, which focused on training for House offices, stalled in 2014. The issue was simply not a priority for Congress then – “out of sight, out of mind,” she surmises.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/congress/article180767631.html#storylink=cpy..........