A heightened atmosphere of sexuality existed in my first place of employment, a large corporate law firm, in Washington, D.C.
It was firm where a majority of law partners and associates were men and all support positions, the secretaries, law clerks, paralegals, receptionists were women. Sadly, the one single woman in a position of power was the hiring manager, yet deliberate in hiring women who met the most important of criteria of being young and attractive. In my twenties, she hired me as a receptionist. At the time I was young and naive and soon became aware of the extra-marital affairs going on between some of the secretaries and lawyers, which was common. While I was working at the receptionist desk, the much older and powerful director and managing partners of the firm came up and asked me to tell them if I thought “bald men were sexy?” Like most men their age, they both had receding hair lines exhibiting male pattern baldness. Feeling like I could lose my job if I said “no,” I was able to gather my wits and respond by saying “I plead the fifth.” They, in their positions of power, chuckled about my quick wit and seemed satisfied with my response. While attending a holiday party that year with my boyfriend at the time, the same managing partner came up behind me and slide his champaign glass down my bare shoulder. I knew I couldn’t go to our hiring manager to complain. After all, he was a senior partner at the firm. It was also the early 1990s when sexual harassment in the workplace was rarely talked about and not usually believed.
I’m sharing this now because this and other forms of sexual harassment that I experienced as a young woman, like the catcalls and being groped in public, was normalized by other women, many of whom were in positions of power themselves. Each form of harassment contributed to being self-conscious about my own body for years. There’s a need to need share these experiences so that perhaps men and women realize this shouldn’t be the norm and things will eventually change.
