Did you read this article, Why Sexual Harassment Persists in Politics – The New York Times yesterday?
At its core, sexual harassment is about power, and politics is the ultimate power profession. And young people are particularly at risk.
On the eve on the first presidential election in our history in which a woman is the leading candidate, this piece might make you vomit. It would seem that the atmosphere in politics is noxious in a much cruder way for women than the atmosphere in other career venues. No wonder so few women want to run for office. And no wonder so many of us admire Hillary Clinton.
Here’s how Sheryl Gay Stolberg begins this story. Warning: brace yourself.
WASHINGTON — Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, got her first tutorial about life as a woman in politics as a college intern at the statehouse in Jefferson City in 1974, when male lawmakers made lecherous remarks to her in the elevator; she took the stairs after that. When she became a state legislator in 1983, the lessons became more explicit when she asked the House speaker on the dais his advice for getting legislation passed.
“Claire,” she recalls his saying in a tone-deaf attempt at humor, “did you bring your kneepads?”