Many women work in the advertising field in California and around the country. A study indicates that a majority of women who work in the industry have been sexually harassed while they were working on the job.
According to a report released by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, more than half of the approximately 400 women the organization surveyed reported being sexually harassed at work. A third of the women reported that they had been passed over for promotions because of what they perceived to be due to bias. Those who were surveyed were primarily in leadership roles, with 43 percent having management positions, 33 percent being in middle management and 24 percent having other professional roles.
Earlier in 2016, several examples of gender discrimination in the advertising industry were reported by the media. In one case, an executive with Saatchi and Saatchi stated that young people simply don’t try hard enough when he was asked why very few women had leadership roles, causing a backlash. In another, the former CEO of JWT was sued for making inappropriate jokes about rape and using sexual slurs. The report by 4A demonstrates that the problem is widespread.
When people are victims of sex discrimination and harassment while they are working, they may want to talk to an employment law attorney. There are strict statutory deadlines within which a person must file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after an act of sex discrimination has occurred. An attorney may be able to advise the client about how to complete the in-house complaint process at the client’s job. If the employer does nothing or retaliates for the worker’s complaining, the attorney may help the client with gathering the evidence that will be needed to be submitted along with the EEOC complaint.
