Practical steps for workplaces | Sharmili Majmudar

Solving #MeToo

This interview was first recorded in February 2020. The world was a very different place then from the one we face in June 2020, at the time of its release. First coronavirus, then worldwide peaceful protests in response to the murder of George Floyd by an on-duty cop, have caused seismic global convulsions that are still reverberating. Because none of that had happened yet, it wasn't directly addressed in this conversation.

Solving #MeToo stands with the Black Lives Matter protesters. Not only that, it is a fundamental part of our mission to seek out solutions to workplace sexual harassment and assault that work for ALL women, not just straight white affluent women. We do that by looking at the problems (and possible solutions) from a diversity of perspectives, as well as actively seeking out a diversity of voices to speak.

Near the top of today's show, we invite you to listen to the trailer for The So-Called Oreos Podcast, a terrific project from 4 young Women of Color - Kia, Janae, Rachel and Amari. Their show addresses everything from career advancement to feminism to dating through the lens of being so-called oreos (black on the outside, white on the inside). https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/so-called-oreos/id1462012568

Today's episode of Solving MeToo features Sharmili Majmudar, the EVP of policy and organizational impact at Women Employed, an almost 50 year old organization widely recognized for its innovative work to improve women's economic status and remove barriers to economic equity.

As in most episodes, we tackled the big philosophical questions this podcast seeks to address; and the back and forth that we had about restorative justice was really illuminating and thought provoking.

We went on to discuss what companies can and should be doing to provide safer and more inclusive workplaces for all their employees. Here are a number of the resources referenced in the conversation:

The recommendations to Uber, compiled by Eric Holder and the law firm Covington & Burling https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/13/eric-holder-uber-report-full-text.html

EEOC Promising Practices Guide for Preventing Harassment, from Nov 2017: https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/promising-practices-preventing-harassment

"Men agree that gender diversity is important on boards - but they're sick of hearing about it," by Emma Hinchliffe for Fortune, Oct 8, 2019 https://fortune.com/2019/10/08/pwc-gender-diversity-boards-men-2019/

So if you're the leader of a company or organization, we offered you the spectrum of accountability that you need to create, as well as the outcomes you should be expecting from your employee education.

Spoiler: it's not just about checking a box to protect yourself from legal liability.