Includes Testimony from Lawyers’ Committee’s Economic Justice Project
Washington, DC (April 1, 2020) Today, the United States Commission on Civil Rights issued a report titled Federal #MeToo: Examining Sexual Harassment in Government Workplaces. In this report, the Commission examined the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) enforcement efforts to combat workplace sexual harassment across the nation’s largest employer, the federal government.
Dariely Rodriguez, director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law’s Economic Justice Project, testified at a briefing held by the Commission on May 9, 2019 to highlight the negative impact of sexual harassment on women of color. Part of her testimony is quoted in the report:
Women of color are more likely to experience harassment in compounded ways on the basis of their gender and race or ethnicity. Most victims of harassment, however, will not come forward and file complaints for fear of retaliation or inaction on their claim. In fact, 68 percent of sexual harassment charges include an allegation of retaliation, with black women being the most likely to experience retaliation. Women of color with limited economic resources who rely on their jobs to support their families may feel even more deterred from filing a complaint for fear of losing their jobs.
