As an employee of the Defense Department I am required to complete an (ever-increasing) menu of annual training requirements on subjects ranging from Personally Identifiable Information (PII) to Active Shooter Response. These are usually PowerPoint Presentations I view while sitting at my desk. Occasionally, however, employees are required to attend an All-Hands presentation. Such was the case recently, for training on Preventing Sexual Assault. The Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) responsible for oversight of the United States Department of Defense sexual assault policy gave the presentation. SAPRO’S responsibility is to work with the military services and civilian community to develop and implement innovative prevention and response programs.
Requiring employees to attend an in-person presentation designates that leadership considers sexual assault a serious problem needing to be addressed. No one doubts that commitment.
The presenter used a slide that placed ‘sexual assault’ activity on a “Continuum of Harm” ranging from (covert) sexism, to (overt) sexual harassment and sexual assault.
But the word “covert” connotes surreptitious or undercover when often that’s not the case. The sociological literature calls it gender harassment (constant and insidious putting down of people by gender). For consideration here, a better descriptor than “covert” is simply “tacit.”
Sexism or gender discrimination is now known to occur from a form of prejudice based on a person’s sex or gender. While it affects both men and women, it is primarily understood to impact female populations to a higher degree than male populations. Research has shown there is a link between tacit and overt activities on the Spectrum of Harm denoted in the all hands training presentation. Sexism can escalate into the overt arena.
It can start, for example, with a lone female colleague’s comments being regularly ignored at meetings. If ignoring her is acceptable, she inherently becomes a second-class citizen, and someone might then decide to throw a snide comment her way. Getting away with a snide comment or two can encourage that to become a regular, though subtle, practice, which creates the perception that the female is a fair-game, penalty-free target. If an aggressor then runs into her or finds her in the right, or wrong, situation, or circumstances, escalation can occur.
What is completely missing in Sexual Assault Prevention training a discussion of the cause and effect trajectory that exists between the continuums tacit components and its violent component in the form of a physical assault on the overt end.
Admirably, the military has taken a number of measures in recent years to address the overt issues. But tacit issues are far less likely to be addressed, sometimes even recognized, in any non-heterogeneous organizational environment. As long as there is a high degree of homogeneity, sexism will more likely be seen as a penalty free bias and a minority population viewed as second-class citizens. Expending efforts primarily in preventing overt activities is a necessary but not the all-inclusive manner of countering sexual assault. Tacit sexism must be addressed as well.
Few women leave an organization because they have overheard a sexist joke or comment, or even one overt incident unless severe. Far more are more likely to leave due to death-of-a-thousand-cuts sexism experienced over time, consisting of being ignored, subtly denigrated, judged differently than their peers, having to repeatedly prove their competency, and having it repeatedly demonstrated to them that leadership is willing to tolerate those slights.
Few women are willing to go forward to leadership with issues or complaints regarding sexism because they have personally seen those who do become dubbed “a problem” while the individuals complained about thrive – often even promoted to higher positions. These actions on behalf of those in positions of authority signal a high tolerance of acceptance. If tacit sexism is organizationally tolerated, that can also send a signal to men that perhaps it’s okay to go further.
Women are also acutely aware, again often through experience, that sexism-related hostile work environment complaints filed with authorities such as the Inspector General are pursued only if there was repeated, witnessed, excessive verbal abuse or physical touching involved. The assumption seems to be if an overt action occurs, it’s a problem; anything less is just a criticism, or worse, whining.
Death-by-a-thousand-cuts experiences degrade women’s trust in an organization, negatively effecting retention. Consequently as well, women who do not trust their organization to take sexism seriously, at any level, become less likely to report sexual assault if it occurs.
Addressing tacit sexism requires changing organizational culture, admittedly among the hardest changes to make in an organization. It cannot be done through a PowerPoint presentation, even in an All-Hands meeting. It requires leadership to demonstrate it is serious about change, in this case meaning what it will tolerate. It requires a change in organizational culture.
The Naval War College senior leadership course includes a case study on former IBM CEO Lou Gerstner, who changed the organizational culture of IBM and so saved the company. Gerstner says he changed the organizational processes used to achieve the organization goals — including communication, hiring, retention, salary and advancement — and the culture changed accordingly. Perhaps most importantly and relevant, he also tells the story of having to fire his top sales person because the individual was unable to adapt to the culture change. Doing that, he said, signaled to the rest of the thousands of IBM employees that he was serious.
While the military has clearly signaled it is committed to addressing overt sexism, regrettably the same has not been true regarding tacit sexism. And as long as tacit sexism is tolerated, problems will persist across the spectrum on the Continuum of Harm.
