Executives, editors and salespeople have endured everything from harassment to assault.
Interview with Rachel Deahl and Brooke Warner
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Sexual harassment and assault in the workplace is no longer just “the Harvey Weinstein story” nor is it any longer confined either to Hollywood or even the United States.
In London, Prime Minister Theresa May has called this week for stronger measures to protect women working at Westminster, home to the British Parliament. In Paris, protesters gathered on Sunday at Place de la Republique to add their voices to the hashtag #metoo.
According to recent reporting in Publishers Weekly, the book business offers women no safe harbor despite their preponderance in the workplace. Indeed, PW’s News Director Rachel Deahl writes that executives, editors and salespeople have endured everything from harassment to assault.
“Publishing’s high percentage of female workers – it’s estimated at roughly 80% — doesn’t mean the industry is without a sexual harassment problem,” says Deahl.
“Women who have spent much of their careers in publishing said they felt sexual assault and harassment have not significantly lessened over time,” she tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally.
An experienced editor, writing coach and publisher at She Writes Press, Brooke Warner further notes that many men are often unable to recognize their actions as wrong.
Having been a man in that world for about 16 years, there were men often plotting to bed one or another females in the trade, seeing their positions as wedges in the task with often fresh out of college women, thinking this was a glamorous trade, and the way from secretary to editor could be greased with a little compliance with the man in the three piece suit’s wishes. Sleazy and embarrasing behavior.