Workplace Sexual harassment in 1960s America: a blog post by Adam Collinge
Introduction
In January 2021 UCIL piloted a new module on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion that began with a historical overview of social reform and legal frameworks around EDI. Students enrolled on ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: Your Role in Shaping a Fairer World’ were asked to complete an assignment in which they found and evaluated a historical source. This was in a response to blog post created by the University of Manchester Special Collections called ‘Gender, Race and Disability: what do the archives tell us?
We are delighted to share samples of student work submitted for assessment on this module. We would like to thank Adam Collinge for permission to include his reflection on workplace sexual harassment.
This cartoon offers a glimpse of the past. Published in 1962 for the American magazine Playboy, it depicts a male figure, presumably the President of ‘Monorail Inc.’, peering down a female’s top. We can assume from the note-taking trope she is his assistant, and the look of panic indicates she feels violated.
Today, many of us would describe this as sexual harassment; “where any form of unwanted … [sexual] conduct … occurs with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person.” (European Commission, 2013) Sex discrimination, under which harassment falls (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, 2021a), is prohibited at both international (UN Declaration of Human Rights, 1948) and national (UK Equality Act, 2010) levels, while social movements like #metoo have also raised awareness about the issue. (The Economist, 2018) It is clear to us, then, that the President is committing an act of sexual harassment.
In 1962, however, many Americans would not have perceived this as we would today, since sexual harassment was not illegal. The country was eighteen years away from federally criminalising it (U.S. EEOC, n.d.), with no legal binding to the UN Declaration of Human Rights (Amnesty International, n.d.), despite America’s agreement to ratification in 1948. Moreover, America rejected the ILO Discrimination in Employment Convention (1958) (ILOLEX, 2012) prohibiting discrimination in the workplace on many grounds, including sex.
The absence of this legal framework is evident in the cartoon. Most damning is the attempted satire. The tongue-in-cheek caption, alongside the company name, trivialises the situation, suggesting sexual harassment was viewed as comical. Moreover, to be considered humorous, cartoons must reflect societal thought and practice (Abraham, 2009), so it is plausible to conclude sexual harassment was prevalent in society. The open door is highly symbolic, too, as any passer-by could see in, insinuating that sexual harassment was an acceptable practice at work in the 1960s.
Shocking as they may sometimes be, it is important to consider historical texts as “vehicles of communication” (McKemmish, 1993) that give us key information. By doing this, we can hold the past accountable (de Klerk, 2018; Williams, 2006); to remember — not suppress — history, and to approach themes of inequality critically.
Historical texts are also useful tools to help us analyse our own society (Jimerson, 2007; Martin, 2021), and identify our systemic flaws. By understanding the world in which we live, we can seek to better ourselves by questioning our values and beliefs.
Images such as this cartoon make us question what we would do when we witness inequalities, like sexual harassment at work. Would we become an ‘active bystander’, someone “who can take steps that make a positive difference to [a negative] situation?”
Achieving equality is a process. It relies on the deconstruction of oppressive systems and beliefs that are not factual. The necessity to archive material like this cartoon is obvious. We need to understand what we are moving away from, in order to progress equality. Historical texts grant us this opportunity. And, while women continue to be sexually harassed in the workplace (TUC, 2016) and in public (APPG, 2021), it is more pressing than ever to look at the past and consider how we can change to make the future better for everyone.
Bibliography
Abraham, L. (2009) ‘Effectiveness of Cartoons as a Uniquely Visual Medium for Orienting Social Issues’, Journalism & Communication Monographs, 11(2), pp. 117–165. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/152263790901100202 (Accessed 22 March 2021)
Amnesty International (no date) ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’, What We Do. Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/universal-declaration-of-human-rights/ (Accessed: 23 March 2021).
APPG (2021) Prevalence and Reporting of Sexual Harassment in UK Public Spaces. UN Women. Available at: https://www.unwomenuk.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/APPG-UN-Women-Sexual-Harassment-Report_Updated.pdf (Accessed: 30 March 2021).
de Klerk, T. (2018) ‘Ethics in Archives: Diversity, Inclusion and the Archival Record’, NC State University Libraries. Available at: https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/news/special-collections/ethics-in-archives%3A-diversity-inclusion-and-the-archival-record (Accessed: 19 March 2021).
