Commentary

Sexual harassment and medicine

Current Psychiatry. 2018 June;17(6):43-45,56

References

1. Felsenthal E. TIME’s 2017 Person of the Year: the Silence Breakers. TIME. http://time.com/magazine/us/5055335/december-18th-2017-vol-190-no-25-u-s/. Published December 18, 2017. Accessed April 23, 2018.
2. Hiltzik M. Los Angeles Times. Will medicine be the next field to face a sexual harassment reckoning? http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-medicine-harassment-20180110-story.html. Published January 10, 2018. Accessed April 23, 2018.
3. Thompson K. For Anita Hill, the Clarence Thomas hearings haven’t really ended. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/for-anita-hill-the-clarence-thomas-hearings-havent-really-ended/2011/10/05/gIQAy2b5QL_story.html. Published October 6, 2011. Accessed April 23, 2018.
4. Toobin J. Good versus evil. In: Toobin J. The nine: inside the secret world of the Supreme Court. New York, NY: Doubleday; 2007:30-32.
5. Barnes B. Motion picture academy finds no merit to accusations against its president. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/28/business/media/john-bailey-sexual-harassment-academy.html. The New York Times. Published March 28, 2018. Accessed April 23, 2018.
6. Thomas G. Because of sex: one law, ten cases, and fifty years that changed American women’s lives at work. New York, NY: Picador; 2016.
7. Landmark cases 2014. American Academy of Psychiatry and Law. http://www.aapl.org/landmark_list.htm. 2014. Accessed April 22, 2018.
8. Meritor Savings Bank v Vinson, 477 US 57 (1986).
9. Harris v Forklift Systems, Inc., 114 S Ct 367 (1993).
10. Okwerekwu JA. #MeToo: so many of my patients have a story. And absorbing them is taking its toll. STAT. https://www.scribd.com/article/367482959/Me-Too-So-Many-Of-My-Patients-Have-A-Story-And-Absorbing-Them-Is-Taking-Its-Toll. Published December 18, 2017. Accessed April 23, 2018.
11. Jagsi R. Sexual harassment in medicine—#MeToo. N Engl J Med. 2018;378:209-211.
12. Jagsi R, Griffith KA, Jones R. et al. Sexual harassment and discrimination experiences of academic medical faculty. JAMA. 2016;315(19):2120-2121.
13. AAMCNEWS. More women than men enrolled in U.S. medical schools in 2017. https://news.aamc.org/press-releases/article/applicant-enrollment-2017/. Published December 18, 2017. Accessed May 4, 2018.
14. Miller D. #MeToo: does it help? Clinical Psychiatry News. https://www.mdedge.com/psychiatry/article/150148/depression/metoo-does-it-help. Published October 24, 2017. Accessed April 23, 2018.
15. Chang S, Morahan PS, Magrane D, et al. Retaining faculty in academic medicine: the impact of career development programs for women. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2016;25(7):687-696.
16. Lautenberger DM, Dandar, VM, Raezer CL, et al. The state of women in academic medicine: the pipeline and pathways to leadership, 2013-2014. AAMC. https://members.aamc.org/eweb/upload/The%20State%20of%20Women%20in%20Academic%20Medicine%202013-2014%20FINAL.pdf. Published 2014. Accessed May 4, 2018.
17. Jablow M. Zero tolerance: combating sexual harassment in academic medicine. AAMCNews. https://news.aamc.org/diversity/article/combating-sexual-harassment-academic-medicine. Published April 4, 2017. Accessed April 23, 2018.
18. University of Wisconsin-Madison, the School of Medicine and Public Health. UW-Madison Policy on Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence. https://compliance.wiscweb.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/102/2018/01/UW-Madison-Policy-on-Sexual-Harassment-And-Sexual-Violence-January-2018.pdf. Published January 2018. Accessed April 22, 2018.

That was until an FBI interview of Hill was leaked to the press. Hill asserted that Thomas had sexually harassed her while he was her supervisor at the Department of Education and the EEOC.⁴ Heavily scrutinized for her choice to follow Thomas to a second job after he had already allegedly harassed her, Hill was in a conundrum shared by many women—putting up with abuse in exchange for a reputable position and the opportunity to fulfill a career ambition.

Hill is a trailblazer for women yearning to speak the truth, and she brought national attention to sexual harassment in the early 1990s. On December 16, 2017, the Commission on Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace was formed. Hill was selected to lead the charge against sexual harassment in the entertainment industry.⁵

A forensic assessment of harassment

Hill’s courageous story is one of many touched upon in the 2016 book Because of Sex.⁶ Author Gillian Thomas, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Women’s Rights Project, explores how Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made it illegal to discriminate “because of sex.”

The field of forensic psychiatry has long been attentive to themes of sexual harassment and discrimination. The American Academy of Psychiatry and Law has a robust list of landmark cases thought to be especially important and significant for forensic psychiatry.⁷ This list includes cases brought forth by tenacious, yet ordinary women who used the law to advocate, and some have taken their fight all the way to the Supreme Court. Let’s consider 2 such cases:

Meritor Savings Bank, FSB v Vinson (1986).⁸ This was a U.S. labor law case. Michelle Vinson rose through the ranks at Meritor Savings Bank, only to be fired for excessive sick leave. She filed a Title VII suit against the bank. Vinson alleged that the bank was liable for sexual harassment perpetrated by its employee and vice president, Sidney Taylor. Vinson claimed that there had been 40 to 50 sexual encounters over 4 years, ranging from fondling to indecent exposure to rape. Vinson asserted that she never reported these events for fear of losing her job. The Supreme Court, in a 9-to-0 decision, recognized sexual harassment as a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Continue to: Harris v Forklift Systems, Inc. (1993)

Sexual harassment and medicine

References

A forensic assessment of harassment

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