A Look at Sexual Harassment: Part 3

Copyright Sandy Long

In this series, we have seen where perhaps the problems come from, but what are the problems? A little more history…Back in the day, there was some very real violence against women drivers, not violence because they were women, but because they were women truck drivers. Usually nice men were so incensed that women had the audacity to take a man’s job from him that these men sometimes snapped and would try to force a woman off the road, would actually slam into them bodily when passing thru a hallway or would sabotage the woman’s equipment. Thankfully, these types then as now were a very small few in number, but it was scary when one would run across one of these types because there was no guarding one’s self against them.

True sexual harassment was rampant both in and out of the office. I am not talking about this namby pamby crap called sexual harassment today…’oh, he called me honey’ stuff. A lot of trucking companies that hired students back then had no system either for choosing a co-driver/lead seat. For the lead seats, it came down in many cases to who was the prettiest or sadly, the most likely was to put out. Some people in position of power would tell a female driver, “you want to go solo…ok, give me a bj and you can” or “you want a new truck/good load? Ok, meet me at the bar after work and we will go across to the motel.” (You might wonder if I am just telling you stories that I have just heard…nope, happened to me personally or I overheard the conversation.)

Try to get someone to listen to your complaint of harassment when 99% of everyone thought that because you wanted to/did drive truck, you were a whore or at the very least, an evil woman….good luck! If you were very lucky, someone at the office would take a statement from you to add to the thousands they already had filed away.

One other concept about sexual harassment. When sexual harassment first became recognized as a problem in the workplace, a person who had power over the employee’s employment, salary or career advancement who asked for sexual favors for that employee’s advancement was sexually harassing them and had broken the law. In other words, some one who was sexually harassing you might say, “If you want this job, you will have to do me”. Since those early days and simplistic and realistic views of what constituted sexual harassment, it has expanded to include everything from a male/female calling another employee honey or baby to a co-worker who might find you attractive and asking you out for dinner. It has gotten actually silly in some aspects in my opinion.

Ok, enough of history…

Both sexual harassment and discrimination on the company level are much more subtle now days if not gone at most companies. Company officials know that there are now laws in place and precedence set about sexual harassment…and the same goes for openly discriminating against someone. Does this mean that some companies do not practice it? No, of course not…people are people after all.

Companies who do not want to hire women now may tell them that they cannot get them home often enough or at all. Some may use not allowing pets after hearing a woman has a pet… (Yeah, they did not think I had figured that one out.) Some may use the…’we do not have a trainer available’ or the ‘we do not have a truck available’ story. One cannot prove them wrong, so is it discrimination or the truth…does not matter at this point, you cannot go to work for them and do you really want to?

Another discrimination problem might be that the company does not think that a woman can run as strongly as a man can or at least will have to take off/slow down for 4 or 5 days a month. Therefore, they do not load a woman as hard/fast as they do a male driver. I do not think this is a very real problem, though I have in the past experienced it…until they have gotten to know me.

The worst problems on the company level now seem to appear when a woman is trying to report unfair practices by someone in either the office or the truck. Often they are not listened to or nothing is done. I think that some of this goes back to the miss-conception that women should be at home. I also think most of it is caused by too many women making false accusations, over-blowing a situation or not understanding the nature and scope of the job and being in over their heads but not willing to accept it and go home. Therefore, the office personnel in charge of taking these reports and/or investigating them take them with a grain of salt. (Oh my, I bet I have ticked some of you off now haven’t I. Ahhh well!) Having worked in personnel myself, I fully understand how this can occur…the problem is that the women who are having a very real problem often are caught up in the office apathy towards sexual harassment or discrimination complaints.

There have been some women who have claimed to be sexually harassed if they are raped. This would depend on who does it, a trainer/co-driver/company employee or a stranger. This is not to say that the only danger of being raped comes from people you know or are on the truck with. Though I think that psychopathic rapists are few and very far between working as truckers, yes, I do suppose that there are one or two of them around….I doubt many succeed as truckers. Being raped though by a stranger or anyone else and is in no way connected with sexual harassment, it is a criminal act by it‘s self and a risk all women have to face.

Some men think that they have to ask a woman for sex at least. A male friend described this to me as the ’shotgun theory’. “Ask enough times and someone will accept,” he said. In addition, some men think that by openly asking for sex, it lets the woman know that the person is interested in them as a potential partner. Sorry guys, you are thinking totally wrong here!

Most of the stories I have heard in the last few years are pretty tame…’oh, well, he hinted about wanting me to sleep with him.’ “He sexually harassed me…he called me honey all of the time!’ Other complaints I have heard are about trainers who yell at the woman trainee, or who do not do their jobs properly as trainers, or who have bad personal habits; there is a vast difference between someone being a bully or a jerk or sexually harassing someone.

To me, and this is only my opinion, if you are of the mindset that every man is a creep and going to sexually harass you, or that a company is going to discriminate against you, you will no doubt find a way to prove yourself right…even if you are wrong. With the sexual harassment laws written the way they are, they do not lay out exactly what is or is not sexual harassment. The wise woman or in some cases, man, chooses to develop a fine sense of what is truly harassment and discrimination and what is not and has to develop a somewhat thicker skin. The final part of this series will help you do that.

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