This week, the most famous members of the Trump family took turns discussing sexual harassment. At the heart of the most outrageous comments were assumptions about the victim's role and responsibility in preventing and responding to such harassment — sentiments that provoked considerable outrage.  Those remarks reflect an important and fundamental misunderstanding of why sexual harassment occurs in the workplace. Though it might be a onetime display of poor judgment or a misunderstanding between co-workers in some cases, sexual harassment is ultimately a symptom of much bigger problem: sexism.  Sexism can be subtle, embodied for instance by a male supervisor who considers himself progressive but addresses only men in meetings. It can be outright, like a CEO who crudely comments on the physical appearance of women. (This might sound familiar to Donald J. Trump.)  "For my entire life, I’ve heard men talk about women ... I’ve listened to men dissect women into body parts."  Either way, the belief that women are lesser than men, or should be viewed mainly as sexual objects, creates the conditions for sexual harassment to thrive in any workplace — even those with so-called zero-tolerance policies.  Last month in a New York Times op-ed, former hedge fund trader Sam Polk made the bleak connection between the thoughtless dehumanization of women and workplace culture that curbs their potential and subjects them to humiliation.  Polk recalls male colleagues saying, "I'd like to get behind that," about their fellow female coworkers. One senior executive asked Polk if he'd "gotten laid" and then lamented when Polk responded that he hadn't. “Too bad. When I was your age, it was like shooting fish in a barrel," the executive said.  This might seem like harmless chatter to some, but Polk sees something more malicious afoot:  For my entire life, I’ve heard men talk about women. On baseball fields, in wrestling locker rooms, at frat parties and in private conversations, I’ve listened to men dissect women into body parts ... [M]ost of the sexism on Wall Street occurs when women aren’t in the room. 'Bro talk' produces a force field of disrespect and exclusion that makes it incredibly difficult for women to ascend the Wall Street ladder. When you create a culture where women are casually torn apart in conversation, how can you ever stomach promoting them, or working for them?  This dynamic is what makes sexual harassment so difficult to battle. Even if a victim reports her harasser's behavior, there's no guarantee an intervention by human resources will result in an investigation and punishment, much less address the root of the problem: insidious, deeply held beliefs about a woman's worth.  Polk's disturbing confession — which many women have long known to be true — is a far cry from the manner in which the Trump family discussed sexual harassment this week. Instead of talking candidly about why sexual harassment happens, both Donald Trump and his son initially suggested that the victim is both responsible for the behavior and its consequences.  “I would like to think she would find another career or find another company if that was the case.”  First the Republican presidential nominee said that if his daughter Ivanka experienced the kind of sexual harassment that Roger Ailes, former Fox News CEO, is accused of committing, he would expect her to walk away (never mind how that's impossible for the non-wealthy or that she might encounter similar or even worse behavior elsewhere).  “I would like to think she would find another career or find another company if that was the case,” he told Kirsten Powers, a paid political contributor to Fox News and contributor to USA Today. He soon revised his out-of-touch stance by telling the Washington Post that it's up to the individual, and a victim might stay or leave depending on her alternatives.  The outrage, however, only intensified when Trump's son Eric indicated in an interview with CBS that some women could avoid sexual harassment with the right personality traits.  "I think what he's saying is, Ivanka is a strong, powerful woman, she wouldn't allow herself to be objected to it," Eric Trump said of his father's original comments, "and by the way, you should take it up with human resources, and I think she would as a strong person, at the same time, I don't think she would allow herself to be subjected to that." (In fact, Ivanka Trump wrote about experiencing sexual harassment at work, including at her father's construction sites.)  Megyn Kelly, a Fox News anchor who reportedly told investigators that she'd been harassed by Ailes, could muster only a "sigh" in a Twitter response. Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, whose sexual harassment lawsuit against Ailes ultimately led to his resignation, tweeted, "Trust me I'm strong."  Surveys indicate that many women experience sexual harassment; depending on the type of questionnaire and sample, the incidence rate may be between 40% and 75% of female workers, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  And yet few women report such abuse. The EEOC's research found that the least common response to sexual harassment is filing a formal complaint because victims may fear retaliation, embarrassment, disbelief, inaction and ostracism. Reporting an allegation to human resources, as many women have painfully discovered, is rarely a cure-all.  "Having a policy is good, but it’s not enough," says Maya Raghu, director of workplace equality at the National Women’s Law Center. "It’s just a piece of paper living in a binder or on a company’s website unless it’s given teeth."  "[A policy] is just a piece of paper living in a binder or on a company’s website unless it’s given teeth."  Raghu says that preventing sexual harassment means changing social norms and workplace culture. Top leadership, for example, must champion respectful policies and behaviors. Human resources departments must have the time and financial resources to not only develop trainings relevant to their employees' needs, but also to prioritize investigating allegations and delivering prompt results. If someone violates the policy, there must be consequences.  Ivanka Trump was the only member of her family who acknowledged that organizational culture is paramount in preventing sexual harassment.  In an interview with Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, she described harassment as "inexcusable" and focused on a company's role in addressing the problem. "We have a very strong HR team at the Trump Organization, who is equipped to deal with these issues if they arise ... and you hope you have a culture in which they don’t arise," she said. "But when they do, it needs to be dealt with swiftly."  Ivanka Trump's answer would be heartening if it didn't reveal considerable differences in opinion between top executives at the Trump Organization. It's worth asking why Ivanka's brother and father made such tone-deaf remarks if her portrayal of their company culture is accurate. Such discrepancies are a prime example of the challenges that remain as workplaces try to eradicate sexual harassment.  Last year, the EEOC was so "deeply troubled" by the slow progress, and the number of sexual harassment complaints it continued to receive, that it assembled a task force to "reboot workplace harassment prevention efforts."  In its recent report, which covers all types of harassment, the task force members laid out a comprehensive prevention strategy and argued that it's not enough for companies to focus on legal liability. Instead, they must conduct trainings that describe unacceptable behavior that could eventually rise to the level of illegal harassment. The report also proposed a national workplace campaign similar to the It's On Us initiative to prevent sexual assault on high school and college campuses.  Such measures are essential if we want to change the culture that permits sexual harassment. If this week's debate can teach us anything, it's that people still don't understand why that behavior occurs in the workplace, and that well-intentioned policies aren't enough.  We must expect and demand that women are implicitly and explicitly treated with dignity at work — anything less sustains the sexism that gives way, with often tragic results, to sexual harassment.  Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
The Trumps weighed in on sexual harassment this week, and showed us exactly why the abusive behavior is so hard to eradicate.