Navigating #metoo for Women in Low Wage

EmploymentRemaining equal when advocating for equality

Ramani Durvasula, Ph.D.Professor of Psychology

California State University Los AngelesPast Chair, Committee on Socioeconomic Status

Past Vice Chair, Committee on Women and Psychology

A new server was hired and he asked his female co-worker if she was single. She responded “what difference does it make…?” He responded “because if you are single, then I can hit on you.” She debated and struggled with even bringing this to the attention of her supervisors. She didn’t feel comfortable with him but she also didn’t want him to get fired, that felt like too much “punishment”, and she would feel terrible if he got fired. She just wanted them to talk him and ask him to stop. When she finally did talk to her supervisors, they said “yeah, you aren’t the first one to say that, that’s just how he is, we will have to figure something out…”

”Risky” industries

• Accommodation and food services (14.2%/7.2%))• Retail (13.4%/10.9%)• Low wage professions• Predominated by women

• Manufacturing (11.7%)• Low numbers of women

• Health care/social assistance (11.5%)• Women and women of color

ROC United, 2014

Psychological Fallout from abuse

• Traumatic stress symptomatology• Hyperarousal, avoidance, re-experiencing, negative beliefs

• Depression and anxiety• Fear• Health Issues

• Stress induced physical symptoms, exacerbation of pre-existing health conditions, diminishment in self-care

• Sleep difficulties• Cognitive issues

• Feelings of worthlessness, hopelessness, helplessness• Affective symptoms

• Sadness, tearfulness, anger/irritability, apathy, anhedonia• A sense of betrayal by an institution or colleague(s)

Other psychological fallout

• Self-doubt• Misattribution (“maybe I gave him the wrong idea”)• Capitulating to hold a job or income and the impacts of coercion• Truncating ongoing educational or occupational pursuits• Loss of confidence• Shame

Re-traumatizing women and the oppressive status quo

Lack of mental health

services

Lack of awareness of

worker’s rights

Judicial procedures that foster

doubt

Indifferent institutions

Women's roles

Wage and wealth

inequality

Scarcity as a theoretical framework

• “Scarcity captures the mind……The mind orients automatically, powerfully, toward unfulfilled needs. For the hungry, that need is food. For the busy it might be a project that needs to be finished. For the cash-strapped it might be this month’s rent payment……”• Scarcity “costs us, we neglect other concerns, and we become less

effective in the rest of life”• Universally impacts people when they are lacking an essential

resource such as time or money

Mullainathan & Shafir, 2014

Stress + Scarcity for low wage women

• The diminished bandwidth at such times complicates• Accessing services given the hoop jumping• Filing a claim or getting appropriate guidance• Seeking new employment and maintaining fiscal responsibilities under

conditions of stress and scarcity

• The net result is often that women give up and this can be followed by periods of unemployment, sliding into poverty, residential instability, inability to solicit job references and negative impacts for others in her purview particularly dependent children

Individual, Societal and Systemic Issues

The narrative of “the other”

• HIV in women did not become a research priority because the women infected and affected represented ”the other” • Substance abuse has often not been a funding and policy priority until

the opioid epidemic which impacted non-minorities• When the women who unmasked pervasive workplace sexual abuse

and harassment were non-minorities and of high social class it became a “movement” – despite low-income women enduring higher prevalence of these conditions currently and historically • Any “remedies” derived from #metoo awareness are still inadequate

for women of color, low education, ESL, undocumented immigration status

Sexualized workplaces

• Accommodation and food services remain the sector with the highest percentage of sexual harassment complaints• Industries that often perpetrate the sexualization of women –

through incentivization via gratuities, “pleasing the customer”, uniforms/costumes (e.g. cocktail servers)• “Normalized” sexualized expectations within these workplaces and

attenuates the likelihood and ability of women to pursue complaints against supervisors or customers • Difficult to enforce patterns such as inappropriate gaze that remain

unsettling and can negatively impact the climate of the workplaceROC United, 2014

Social class gaps

• A gap often most observed in domestic employees, accommodation, food, hospitality, and retail industries• Low wage workers working in high economic environments (e.g. luxury restaurants

and hotels)• Oppressions secondary to privilege, lack of awareness of the impact of

these gaps and privilege• Historically and globally – these gaps have translated to sexual abuse

and/or harassment• Perceived social status (Adler)• Other stressors may include long commutes, irregular hours, psychological

impacts of sometimes enormous gaps between employee and employer, perceived disposability of employees

Lack of awareness and persisting stigmas

• Women with lower educational levels may not have sufficient awareness and knowledge about legal services, employment and HR services, mental health services offered through an employer• Stigma about sexual abuse and harassment and not discussing these

issues (stigma, fear, shame)• Minimizing harassment and abuse (“boys being boys,” “that’s just

how he is”) and other dismissive patterns (e.g. being viewed as a “troublemaker”)• Feeling ”guilty” that a complaint may get someone fired

The Gig Economy

• Remains relatively unregulated and labeling employees as “independent contractors”,• More likely to draw low-wage earners attempting to supplement

wages, maintain flexible hours as well as drawing those hit most hard by economic downturns• Can be risky work settings (driving in cars with unknown passengers,

delivering food) and the chronic change carries unpredictability –harassment here can emanate from clients and there is little protection in such cases

International trends

• These issues are often even more magnified in other regions of the world – and complicated by labor migration, income disparity, language barriers, inability to travel • There are often few rights for women in low wage professions and

domestic and factory work in many regions of the world• Transnational work examining these issues and encouragement of

psychologists to be weighing in on these international policies and human rights related to low wage workers and sexual harassment and abuse of women and girls in occupational settings is essential• However, other world economies have to take the lead and model

these policies – and that is not happening

Shifting blame: Staffing agencies and subcontractors• Staffing agencies may provide temporary or long term staff for well

“branded” corporations or businesses• Is sometimes used as a “layer” of protection to deflect “blame” and

rarely results in protective remedies for affected persons• Low-wage workers particularly vulnerable as these may be temporary

unskilled workers, event staff, hotel workers

Training Issues

• Helping women identify what qualifies as abuse and to become trained on patterns of abusive supervisors and leadership• Training needs to be an ongoing

process – not just pro forma box ticking• Awareness of privilege and the

power that privileged statuses bring• Via gender, social class, race,

language, education, cultural factors (e.g. tribe, familial lineage)

• Training men and training supervisors on being aware of privilege, power differentials, gender appropriate communication

Policy recommendations

• Creating consequences that have real substance for corporations, staffing agencies, and employees• Provide a living wage to servers (rather than dependency on tips)• Making low-wage workers, particularly vulnerable groups, aware of their rights• Providing better training to management and to do so on an ongoing basis• Providing simpler and more transparent means to file complaints about

harassment• Provide mental health services and build it in to employee training• Training psychologists to respond to the psychological fallout of sexual

harassment in the workplace• Addressing harassment early and often with children and students as a

developmental issue

https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/11/21/16685942/sexual-harassment-industry-service-retail

http://rocunited.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/REPORT_TheGlassFloor_Sexual-Harassment-in-the-Restaurant-Industry.pdf

http://hartresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Fast-Food-Worker-Survey-Memo-10-5-16.pdf

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/news/2017/11/20/443139/not-just-rich-famous/

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/12/low-wage-workers-sexual-harassment/549158/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/12/08/sexual-harassment-stakes-huge-low-income-women-metoo-must-help-them-too-katz-alejandro-column/928821001/

https://www.nwlc.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/final_nwlc_vancereport2014.pdf

https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/hidden-health-effects-sexual-harassment-ncna810416

http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/26/pf/mental-health-sexual-harassment/index.html

http://psycnet.apa.org/buy/1997-05398-011

Ramani Durvasula, Ph.D.rdurvas@calstatela.edu

+13104358010