Females in male dominate industries usually fear for many things including their job, their safety and their reputation. This is especially true in the sports world. Females are often judged harsher, their opinions disrespected/dismissed/disregarded, and many may face sexual harassment.
So, when this Washington Football team story came out in the Washington Post it wasn’t surprising; it was disturbing but not surprising at all. Especially since we heard similar stories in 2018 in The New York Post. Owner Dan Snyder has not been accused of participating in the sexual harassment of his female employees, but there have been allegations of him belittling and embarrassing employees for his own delight. After the 2018 story came out there was an investigation into the allegations, but business carried as usual on as evidenced by this recent story.
There were 15 former female employees willing to share their story of what some of them called a miserable experience. The experiences included requests to wear low-cut blouses, verbal abuse, scandalous texts and a frequently used staircase to look up their skirts. There were also times it was suggested that the women flirt with some of their wealthy sponsors. Some may wonder why they stayed and dealt with the abuse; it was because they feared for their jobs and they were told that 1000 people were waiting to take their job. It is the same reason many people stay at a place of employment where they may be treated unfairly or outright harassed.
What will come of this story? Some have called for Dan Snyder’s job; like how people called for Donald Sterling’s job as LA Clippers owner after his racist comments. There was a story in 2018 and clearly no change after that. Will this story finally do it? 2020 has been a trying year and a year for change; will that be true for the Washington Football team?
