吃瓜大本营

In the wake of bombshell reports by the and detailing three decades of sexual misconduct by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, the revelations . So do the questions: How did such flagrant misconduct stay an 鈥渙pen secret鈥� for so long? Just how many women were harmed? And how do we make sure that such an egregious abuse of power never happens again?

Sexual harassment that is 鈥渟evere or pervasive鈥� was deemed by the Supreme Court to be illegal sex discrimination , when Mechelle Vinson, a bank employee in Washington, D.C., challenged her manager鈥檚 three-year campaign of abuse, including rape. And it鈥檚 been nearly a quarter-century since the court clarified that conduct becomes , even if it never gets physical.

So it shouldn鈥檛 be news to anyone that arriving at a business meeting in a bathrobe and asking for a massage crosses the line. Yet here we are again. , , the 鈥� each new sexual harassment scandal prompts an outpouring of stories to remind us that, whatever the law might say about such conduct, culture follows different rules.

As these and other scandals show, that culture can be toxic in fields where women are in the minority, especially in leadership roles: entertainment, media, and the military, not to mention , , and science, technology, engineering, and math () fields. Indeed, Weinstein was enabled by an industry in which the top executives at film studios, , are on average 80 percent male 鈥� resulting in rampant discrimination in behind-the-camera hiring decisions, as the ACLU has successfully argued to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

It鈥檚 time to get to work on making antidiscrimination law鈥檚 promise a reality. Here鈥檚 how.

Know the warning signs and be vigilant. Last year, the EEOC Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace issued a identifying 12 鈥渞isk factors for harassment.鈥� Among them are 鈥渨orkplaces with 鈥榟igh value鈥� employees鈥� 鈥� stars who receive hands-off treatment when it comes to workplace rules 鈥� along with 鈥渉omogeneous workforces鈥� and 鈥渨orkplaces with significant power disparities.鈥� Sound familiar? (Needless to say, if it is true, , that Weinstein鈥檚 employment contract contemplated the Weinstein Company making payouts to victims, the company wasn鈥檛 just risking, but assuming, that abuse would occur.) Employers are wise to remain vigilant to worrying trends 鈥� like why are the so high? 鈥� and to not shrink from .

Set the tone from the top 鈥� and show you mean it. Most businesses today claim 鈥渮ero tolerance鈥� for harassment, and some may even have an anti-harassment policy. But these are worthless without . Indeed, companies that have managed to build businesses worth billions are curiously helpless when it comes to tackling harassment. Often, they wait for scandal to strike, then conduct an aggressive investigation and take decisive action against wrongdoers. For example, Fox hired , as the ; Uber hired . Instead, company leaders should state their intolerance of harassment loudly, often, and 鈥� and when they are put on notice of a problem, must act promptly and decisively.

Men: Be allies in deed, not just word. More than 80 percent of sexual harassment charges filed with the EEOC by women. Put bluntly, nothing will change if they are the only ones monitoring our work environments. Along with vocal male leadership, it鈥檚 also critical that every male ally in the rank and file be, in the words of , 鈥渁n intentional exemplar and fierce watchdog for the behavior of other men.鈥�

Make it safe to come forward. Study after study tells us what we already know: Fear of retaliation or other adverse action . Indeed, found roughly 90 percent of people who say they have been harassed never filed a formal complaint. No wonder harassment scandals follow a predictable arc. A woman or two speak up, then another, and another, until the tally is in the double digits. Employers must not let those numbers multiply in silence. Rather they must make plain,, that each person who speaks up is safe.

As history has shown, dislodging the cultural roots of sexual harassment will take years, even generations. It is possible, but we mustn鈥檛 wait until the next big scandal to relearn what women have been telling us for decades: Harassment happens in virtually every workplace. Employers need to deal with it. Now.