TOPLINE: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court <a href="https://www.pacourts.us/assets/opinions/Supreme/out/J-100-2020mo%20-%20104821740139246918.pdf?cb=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">overturned</a> <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/06/23/bill-cosby-granted-appeal-in-sexual-assault-case/?sh=251327f76228">Bill Cosby&#8217;s</a> sexual assault conviction on Wednesday, paving the way for the 83-year-old to be released from prison after serving more than two years of a three- to ten-year sentence.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h3>



The court said that a promise a previous prosecutor had made not to prosecute Cosby in order to compel him to testify in a civil lawsuit meant he couldn’t legally be charged in the sexual assault case.



In 2018, Cosby was convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his Pennsylvania estate in 2004, leading to a sentence in September 2018 of three to ten years in prison.



But in 2005, then Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor determined the case against Cosby was unwinnable, leading to an agreement that Cosby would not be charged—but he would be deposed for a civil suit brought by Constand.



That deposition was used years later to charge Cosby just days before the statute of limitations for sexual assault was set to expire, leading to a 2017 mistrial after jurors deadlocked.



Cosby was tried again in 2018, and was convicted after prosecutors called several women who’d made similar claims of drugging and sexual assault to testify—which did not happen in the 2017 trial.



The Supreme Court also ruled that allowing the accusers’ testimony was inappropriate, finding it served as more of a character attack than affirming a pattern of criminal behavior.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h3>



“Denying the defendant the benefit of that decision is an affront to fundamental fairness,” the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said of the 2005 agreement. “Particularly when it results in a criminal prosecution that was foregone for more than a decade.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h3>



Cosby’s publicist, Andrew Wyatt, will&nbsp;<a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/bill-cosby-released-prison-conviction-vacated/story?id=78582000" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a>&nbsp;pick him up from the state prison in Skippack Township on Wednesday afternoon.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h3>



Before the accusations surfaced, Cosby had a public image as a wholesome comedian and was often referred to as “America’s Dad.” His 1984–92 television series,&nbsp;The Cosby Show,&nbsp;was considered a landmark in television as the first highly popular show to depict a stable and successful Black family. Cosby also created the beloved character “Fat Albert” from his years as a comic and launched an animated series aimed at preschoolers called&nbsp;Little Bill&nbsp;in 1999. His shows were largely pulled from television after the sexual assault allegations became public.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h3>



Castor—the DA who made the agreement with Cosby—served as a member of President Donald Trump’s defense team during his second impeachment trial in 2020. His opening statement was widely&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/the-strangest-lines-from-bruce-castors-48-minute-open/2021/02/09/5069e0e2-ecd1-4327-8842-8179f5f35a5f_video.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">considered</a>&nbsp;a rambling and bizarre defense.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h3>



A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2018/04/26/hannibal-buress-unwittingly-reignited-the-bill-cosby-firestorm-heres-how-he-dealt-with-the-aftermath/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">moment</a>&nbsp;credited with bringing what had been longstanding—but not widely known—allegations against Cosby into the spotlight came in 2014, when comedian Hannibal Buress mentioned them as part of a joke during a stand-up show at a Philadelphia theater. Buress said he had used the bit for about six months, but a video of the 2014 show widely spread online, leading many to learn of the allegations against Cosby for the first time.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h3>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/06/23/bill-cosby-granted-appeal-in-sexual-assault-case/?sh=251327f76228">Bill Cosby Granted Appeal In Sexual Assault Case</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2018/04/26/hannibal-buress-unwittingly-reignited-the-bill-cosby-firestorm-heres-how-he-dealt-with-the-aftermath/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hannibal Buress unwittingly reignited the Bill Cosby firestorm. Here’s how he dealt with the aftermath.</a> (The Washington Post)



By Nicholas Reimann, Forbes Staff

Sentencing Begins In Bill Cosby Trial

Bill Cosby’s Prison Sentence Overturned

Former Google employee Jennifer Blakely has written a scathing blog post with allegations about how her affair with chief legal officer David Drummond unfolded.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



A former member of Google&#8217;s legal team who says she had a child with the company&#8217;s chief legal officer, David Drummond, has written a scathing blog post about the way that their relationship unfolded within the search engine giant, including that he issued &#8220;terrifying threats&#8221; to take custody of their child after initially refusing to pay child support.



In a Medium post, Jennifer Blakely says that she was inspired to detail her experience after an explosive New York Times story last fall put a spotlight on how the company shielded top executives from harassment claims and sparked massive employee protests.



“Looking back, I see how standards that I was willing to indulge early on became institutionalized behavior as Google’s world prominence grew and its executives grew more powerful,” Blakely writes. 



READ MORE |<a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/current-affairs/2019/02/28/google-facebook-twitter-fail-to-live-up-to-fake-news-pledge/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" Google, Facebook, Twitter Fail To Live Up To Fake News Pledge (opens in a new tab)"> Google, Facebook, Twitter Fail To Live Up To Fake News Pledge</a>



“Women that I worked with at Google who have spoken to me since the New York Times article have told me how offended they were by the blatant womanizing and philandering that became common practice among some (but certainly not all) executives, starting at the very top.” 



While her relationship with the married Drummond was included in the Times story and first reported byThe Information in November 2017, this is the first time Blakely has written about the experience herself.



Drummond is one of several current and former Google executives who has reportedly had relationships with employees or extramarital affairs, including Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin, and Andy Rubin. 



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Calling Out Sexual Harassment (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2018/01/17/calling-sexual-harrassment/" target="_blank">Calling Out Sexual Harassment</a>



Blakely alleges that after their relationship ended, Drummond had another relationship with a subordinate, which is against Google&#8217;s workplace policy. He is still employed by Google and made more than $47 million last year. 



Blakely says that she started working in Google’s legal department under Drummond in 2001 and that after he told her that he was estranged from his wife, they began a relationship in 2004. She says the two had a child together in 2007 and that Google’s human resources department then told her that one of them had to leave the department. 



She moved to sales, an area where she had no experience, and subsequently struggled with her work. Blakely alleges that after she ultimately left the company at Drummond&#8217;s urging in 2008, but that while they were living together in Palo Alto, he broke off their relationship via text message.



“‘Hell’ does not begin to capture my life since that day,” she writes. “I’ve spent the last 11 years taking on one of the most powerful, ruthless lawyers in the world. From that fateful night forward, David did things&nbsp;exclusively&nbsp;on his terms.”&nbsp;



She alleges that Drummond initially refused to see their son or pay child support, and then fought against her in a custody battle. While she says they ultimately reached a settlement and he began paying child support, she writes that &#8220;months or years&#8221; would go by when he wouldn&#8217;t see their son. In 2014, Drummond allegedly showed her an article about Eric Schmidt&#8217;s reported history of extramarital affairs during an argument, implying that the executive&#8217;s position granted him impunity.



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Young women in Soweto, South Africa, say healthy living is hard. Here’s why (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2019/06/07/young-women-in-soweto-south-africa-say-healthy-living-is-hard-heres-why/" target="_blank">Young women in Soweto, South Africa, say healthy living is hard. Here’s why</a>



&#8220;His &#8216;personal life&#8217; (which apparently didn’t include his son) was off limits and since I&nbsp;was no longer his &#8216;personal life&#8217; it was time for me to shut up, fall in line and stop bothering him with the nuisances or demands of raising a child,&#8221; Blakely writes.



Blakely&#8217;s story is the latest in a string of public posts from former Google employees highlighting issues with the company&#8217;s culture and policies (or their lack of enforcement). 



One of the women who helped organize last fall&#8217;s protests, Claire Stapelton, recently wrote about her experience with retaliation, another employee detailed the disappointing way the company’s human resources department dealt with her harassment reports, and former senior engineer Liz Fong-Jones posted about &#8220;grave concerns&#8221; with the company&#8217;s decision making in general. 



The outspokenness of Google employees exemplifies — and has helped spur — a broader activism in the tech sector that has seen workers speaking out against their employer&#8217;s internal policies and business decisions.



Blakely&#8217;s post also taps into the larger #MeToo movement which has drawn attention to sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace across industries.



&#8220;Until truth is willing to speak to power and is heard, there’s not going to be the sea change necessary to bring equality to the workplace,&#8221; she writes.



Neither Google nor Drummond immediately responded to a request for comment.&nbsp;



This story is developing.



-Jillian D&#8217;Onfro; Forbes

960×0

Ex-Google Staffer Says After Split With Chief Legal Officer David Drummond: ‘Hell Does Not Begin To Capture My Life’

Online platforms have become an important site for political and social engagement. On the one hand they have been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/special-report/2014/11/07/technology-democracy-social-media/">praised</a>&nbsp;for their progressive characteristics. This is because they offer great organising potential, enhance political accountability and disrupt old media practices that tend to exclude less powerful voices from important social and political discussions.



On the other hand, they have invited notes of&nbsp;cautioun. This is because new media platforms embolden and even midwife bullies, ethnic jingoists, and nationalist radicals who are a threat to social cohesion.



Both points of view have merit. New media platforms can be powerful forces for democracy and also a space for dangerous, sectarian and divisive ideas. A number of governments seem to be exploiting these fears in a bid to control these platforms.



These attempts are likely to become a lot more commonplace across Africa. Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Gambia have already passed laws that target social media users specifically. Some of these laws&nbsp;criminalise free speech online, while others have made the use of social media too&nbsp;expensive for users.



Nevertheless, new media platforms are increasingly being used. Their importance on the political landscape can’t be over-emphasised. This is because they have allowed people excluded from public communication to articulate their fears and desires in a way that wasn’t previously possible. The widespread use of applications such as Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp has been particularly instrumental in including a broad range of users in public discussions.



Rather than rely on the mainstream press to cover important political stories, citizens are able to discuss issues in the digital space. When their stories go viral the mainstream media then begins to cover them as important news items.



Twitter in particular has become a&nbsp;useful political tool&nbsp;for many. And Twitter’s standard vernaculars such as hashtags and memes have also been creatively appropriated to reflect local inflections. Humour, local languages, and idioms abound.



The fact that participants are also able to “tag” their leaders further means that authority is confronted directly. And a poor person living in an informal settlement is now able to confront the head of state with just as much authority as anyone else. These small victories matter.



These platforms have also enabled users to link local issues with international concerns to give them global currency and legitimacy. In Kenya for example, an anti-rape campaign which coalesced around #JusticeForKemunto could be seamlessly linked to the [#MeToo movement], a similar rebuke and articulation of anger against sexual violence against women.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Government control</h4>



The shift from legacy media has not been accidental.&nbsp;<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-african-governments-use-advertising-as-a-weapon-against-media-freedom-75702">A number of African governments still exert enormous control</a>&nbsp;over the media sector. The is because the state remains the single largest advertiser in the media in sub-Saharan Africa, and so can influence coverage and content.



In some countries, presidents and high-level politicians even&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/corporate/Kenyatta-business-empire-goes-into-expansion-drive/539550-2069704-liwltz/index.html">own media </a>houses.



This is why the digital space is so important. The emergence of a relatively new structure of communication – which is amorphous, unrestrained, and largely unaffected by state control – has meant there are new ways of&nbsp;holding governments to account.



But their popularity has drawn negative reactions from some governments.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Cracking down</h4>



Some are now&nbsp;employing digitally savvy state operatives&nbsp;to counter opposition discourses online.



Others have gone further by enforcing regulations to control online discourse through punitive laws and taxation.



In Tanzania for example, digital content producers – including bloggers – are&nbsp;required to get yearly licences&nbsp;which cost $900 dollars. In Uganda, data bundles are now much more expensive with a&nbsp;$0.05 levy charged per day. And Zambia plans to introduce&nbsp;similar measures.



Other countries have been a lot more brazen in their efforts to clamp down on free online speech. Cameroon, Egypt, and Ethiopia, for example, have regularly&nbsp;shut down the internet. Users considered too critical of the government are routinely arrested,&nbsp;threatened or even jailed.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Fake news</h4>



This is not to say that new media platforms are entirely without problems. Social media has been used to create and disseminate fake news. This has contributed to a dangerous regime of misinformation that has undermined democratic processes in a number of African countries.



This was the case during&nbsp;Kenya’s 2017 general elections&nbsp;when the ruling Jubilee party&nbsp;employed Cambridge Analytica, a UK-based public relations company, to boost its electoral prospects. The company was later accused of populating social media and using bots to create and circulate fake news.



Similarly, in South Africa, both the ruling African National Congress and the opposition Democratic Alliance were reported to have&nbsp;used social media to spread fake news&nbsp;to besmirch opponents during municipal elections.



These trends reflect the fact that fake news, misinformation and disinformation have infected the continent’s body politic, which is a dangerous development.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Future threats</h4>



It’s however safe to say that new media platforms are now firmly part of Africa’s public culture and any attempt to stop, frustrate or undermine their significance in public life is bound to fail.



However, the creative use to which they are put must be constructive and progressive. For example, in countries where collective political organisation and expression is increasingly being undermined by the state – such as Tanzania – instances of self-expression through new media form important pockets of resistance. These pockets, when viewed collectively, can help focus attention on state repression and excesses.



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INDIA-US-INTERNET-FACEBOOK

How New Media Platforms Have Become Powerful Across Africa

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has inched up slightly in the eyes of women’s groups who said on Wednesday he has delivered on some promises to make the global organization a feminist institution but faces a major backlash and resistance.



The Feminist U.N. Campaign, a coalition of women’s rights groups, advocates and U.N. staff, gave him a grade of B-, up from the C+ it gave him a year ago.



The coalition launched its report card after the secretary-general said he would be a feminist leader when he took office two years ago.



In that time, the #MeToo campaign against sexual harassment and assault has become a global movement.



Guterres has promoted women’s rights and equality publicly, sought gender parity in leadership and rolled out efforts against sexual harassment and gender-based violence, the report said.



But an internal backlash and bureaucracy threaten his progress. His efforts to make structural changes have met “considerable resistance” from staff and member states that resist women’s rights, it said.



Lyric Thompson, an author of the report and a director at the Washington-based International Center for Research on Women, said she thinks Guterres has “a genuine intent and interest in being a champion” of women’s rights.



“The question is can he do everything in his power to be a feminist leader who enables that transformation and who makes it the new normal?” she said to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.



The U.N. is “years away” from being a feminist institution, and attitudes of immunity and privilege operate to scuttle equality efforts, she said.



Just last week, a U.N. survey showed one third of its staff and contractors experienced sexual harassment in the past two years.



More than 30,000 people answered the survey, complaining of offensive jokes, remarks and sexual stories and of being touched in ways that made them uncomfortable.



The U.N. has tried to increase transparency and strengthen how it deals with such accusations over the past few years after a string of sexual exploitation and abuse accusations against U.N. peacekeepers in Africa.



The head of the U.N. agency for HIV and AIDS is stepping down in June, six months before his term ends, after an independent panel said his “defective leadership” tolerated “a culture of harassment, including sexual harassment, bullying, and abuse of power.”



The secretary-general’s office said it was pleased that the women’s groups saw improvement in Guterres’ handling of gender issues and agreed that more needs to be dome.



“At the same time, we believe the secretary-general has achieved considerable progress within the complex U.N. system at achieving real reforms to make the U.N. a better workplace for women and men alike,” his office said.



Guterres, the former prime minister of Portugal, was sworn in December 2016 after a campaign in which many countries urged selection of a woman. The U.N. has not been headed by a woman since its creation in 1945. -Reuters



&#8211; Ellen Wulfhorst

UN Headquarters As President Trump Weighs Withdrawing From Iran Nuclear Deal

Fight for Gender Equality at UN Faces Tough Internal Resistance, Report Says

While Saudi Arabia allowed women to drive this year and Ethiopia appointed its first female president, in other countries in 2018 women were punished for being raped or wanting control of their reproductive rights.



Here are some gains and losses for women around the world in the past year:



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">GAINS</h5>



1. Ireland in May voted to repeal its strict abortion laws in a landslide victory. Nearly half of an estimated 56 million abortions conducted each year are unsafe, leading to the deaths of at least 22,800 women, according to a global March report by the Guttmacher Institute.



2. Saudi Arabia allowed women to drive for the first time in June. But dozens of activists who campaigned for the right to drive and the end of male guardianship were detained soon after the ban was lifted.



3. Ethiopia elected its first female president Sahle-Work Zewde in October, and appointed Meaza Ashenafi to be its first female supreme court president a month later. Ethiopia became the third country in Africa &#8211; after Rwanda and Seychelles &#8211; to have its cabinet split equally between men and women.



4. Iceland in January become the first country to make it illegal to pay men more than women, introducing fines on any company or government agency with over 25 staff without a government certificate demonstrating pay equality.



5. The #MeToo movement, sparked by revelations of sexual misconduct in Hollywood, swept through workplaces worldwide in 2018, spawning investigations and toppling hundreds of high-profile men from positions of power. In parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia, however, the campaign has struggled to gain momentum.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">LOSSES</h5>



1. Argentina in August rejected a move to legalize abortion. Uruguay and Cuba are the only Latin American countries that now have broadly legalized abortion.



2. U.S. President Donald Trump in May issued a proposal that would effectively stop giving government funds to subsidize birth control and abortions. The so-called global gag rule has put more than $8 billion of annual funding at risk, from clinics for HIV-affected sex workers in Ethiopia to programs aimed at curbing teen pregnancy in remote Uganda, campaigners have warned.



3. Kenyan lawmakers in November blocked a push to give one in three parliamentary seats to women.



4. In December, on the sixth anniversary of a fatal gang rape in New Delhi that prompted global outrage, a security guard was arrested after the rape a three-year-old girl, accused of luring her with sweets.



5. A 19-year-old Sudanese woman, Noura Hussein, who was a child bride, was sentenced to death in May when she killed her husband after he tried to rape her. Hussein’s sentence was overturned after global outrage, but she was still sentenced to five years in jail. -Reuters



&#8211; Lin Taylor

gettyimages-1055765760-594×594

The Fight for Rights: Five Gains and Five Losses for Women in 2018

For as long as women have been in the workforce, tolerating sexual harassment has been their cost of earning a living alongside men. Today, it’s a silent epidemic affecting half of the population in a society that has been conditioned to assume ‘that’s just how the world works’. For decades, this misogynist pathology has allowed powerful men to use women as sexual cannon fodder. But the world can no longer ignore this issue; women can no longer remain silent.
The allegations against movie producer Harvey Weinstein sparked a global conversation about the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace, and the culture of silence when it comes to reporting it. Weinstein covered up 30 years of crimes such as demands for sex in return for roles, indecent exposure and rape, with settlements, non-disclosure agreements and blacklisting anyone who tried to report him. As it stands, over 60 women, including A-list actresses Lupita Nyong’o and Angelina Jolie have come forward to add their names to the list of Weinstein’s victims.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2018/01/08/dark-side-social-media/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Dark Side Of Social Media</a>
The presence of sexual harassment in the film industry is not surprising. It’s part of an age-old custom known as the ‘casting couch’, where Hollywood powerbrokers demand sexual favors from aspiring actresses in return for roles.
Aliki Saragas from the South African advocacy group SWIFT (Sisters Working In Film and Television) says sexual harassment and abuse of women remain one of the biggest struggles in the industry, and the Weinstein scandal only works to highlight what has been an ongoing struggle for women in film and entertainment worldwide. One can be forgiven for thinking the industry has evolved over the years and the casting couch is just a relic from Hollywood’s golden age, but its tactics appear to have lived on in the system created by men like Weinstein.
Courtnae Paul, a dancer and choreographer in the South African entertainment industry, said she had her first casting couch experience at the age of 12 in a studio, where an older, unnamed producer tried to kiss her.
Johannesburg-based scriptwriter Lisa Mncube said that after she reported her sexual abuse, instead of receiving comfort she was treated as “dirty and mischievous”.
The casting couch may be exclusive to this industry, but the idea that women have to endure unwanted sexual advances for career success exists in every field. Sexual harassment is endemic in all workplaces. It’s in the White House and the army, in the media and tech industry, in academia, corporate boardrooms and every institution where there is a power imbalance. A case in point is the financial sector, where men hold the majority of leadership roles.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2017/12/08/karlie-kloss-codings-supermodel/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Karlie Kloss &#8211; Coding&#8217;s Supermodel</a>
Anusha Naidoo, who has a senior position in South Africa’s corporate finance sector, says this abuse of power limits women’s opportunities for growth.
“If I’m in an uncomfortable situation, I’m told to get over it or ‘toughen up’ if I want to progress in this field,” she says.
Naidoo recalls an encounter she raised with her superior, which he dismissed as her being too sensitive.
“This is why women in male-dominated industries don’t report their issues, because we fear the stigma might hurt our careers in the long run.”
Johannesburg-based financial planner Samiksha Budhram says men in the financial industry treat the workplace as a ‘boys club’, passing crude and callous remarks about women among themselves, sometimes in the presence of other women.
“The fact that men have the freedom to harass a woman even when she isn’t in the same room is a cruel privilege,” Budhram says. “It’s as if we are invisible.”
<div id="attachment_35005" style="width: 262px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35005" class=" wp-image-35005" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Harvey-Weinstein-226x300.jpg" alt="Harvey Weinstein #MeToo" width="252" height="335" />Harvey Weinstein (Photo by Getty Images)</div>
The Weinstein scandal has emboldened over 300,000 women worldwide to share their stories of sexual harassment and gender-based violence on social media using the hashtag #MeToo.
What’s important about this thread is that it gives a voice to acts that are public, but silenced by convention.
“Why were you dressed like that? Why did you go there? Why were you there alone? You could have avoided it.”
Because most women have already heard this before, they stay silent fearing no one will believe them.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2017/12/06/gaslighting-surely-happened/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Gaslighting &#8211; Surely, This Has Happened To You Too</a>
Sadly, women’s rights are largely marginalized in South Africa. According to Crime Stats SA, there were 51,895 sexual offences reported in South Africa in 2016, just over 142 per day.
SWIFT ran a survey of its own in January this year, outlining gender disparity in the workplace. Of the women surveyed, 23.7% indicated that they had been unwillingly touched in the workplace and 65% have witnessed sexual harassment in the workplace. 71% said they did not have a support structure to report their cases and feel human resources departments don’t care about employees, but rather protect the companies’ interests. Moreover, the majority of these women said there would be no repercussions if the perpetrator was reported because men in the industry protect one another, confirming sexual harassment to be a larger, systemic problem.
This is why Lee-Anne Bac, a director at Grant Thornton Johannesburg, feels there is an urgent need to employ more women in positions of power in the workplace. A Women in Business report released by Grant Thornton early this year shows women in leadership roles have dropped from 27% in 2016 to 23% in 2017, and less than a quarter of businesses surveyed had no women in senior management positions.
“Women are fighting from a position of lack of power, and until the balance is tilted, it will remain a difficult influence change,” Bac says, adding that Africa’s strong patriarchal culture contributes to these difficulties.
But to change a patriarchal culture that has existed for centuries isn’t up to women alone. Sexual harassment is not just a women’s issue, it’s a human issue.
“If there is to be an end to this epidemic, men have to become allies with women and not bystanders,” says Melvin Pather, a lecturer at the University of Cape Town who offers his perspective on how men can help. “If you as a man are in a position to do something, your silence makes you complicit,” he says.
The events that have occurred over the past few months form a watershed moment in how society deals with sexual harassment and assault. All men have a responsibility to lead by example and aim for a culture of zero tolerance and accountability. Once women feel they have a safe platform to voice their issues, more of them will blow the whistle on sexual harassment when and where it happens, and it won’t take decades for powerful men like Weinstein to be held accountable for their crimes. &#8211; Written by Cadine Pillay

Tag: #MeToo

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Bill Cosby’s Prison Sentence Overturned

Ex-Google Staffer Says After Split With Chief Legal Officer David Drummond: ‘Hell Does Not Begin To Capture My Life’

How New Media Platforms Have Become Powerful Across Africa

Fight for Gender Equality at UN Faces Tough Internal Resistance, Report Says

The Fight for Rights: Five Gains and Five Losses for Women in 2018

Calling Out Sexual Harassment