Name: Hanako Gibersztajn

Social Justice Group: 2021-2022, Street and Workplace Harassment

Date of Fieldwork: March 3, 2022

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Glen A. Kendall with McLoughlin, O’Hara, Wagner & Kendall LLP

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :

My group mates and I met with Glen Kendall on Thursday, March 3rd. He kindly gave us yet another perspective of a lawyer who has had to deal with sexual harassment and assault in a workplace environment. He helped us gain even more information on our topic, information that can only be learned from firsthand experience.

Mr. Kendall discussed many topics that related to sexual harassment, such as the power imbalance that often comes into play. The most common instance of harassment or assault in the workplace is an older, more senior employee harassing a younger, more junior employee. This puts the victim in a difficult position, causing them to stay silent about their experience due to fear of being demoted or even fired. Another thing we discussed is the two main types of sexual harassment. The first one is blatant harassment: unwanted touching or comments, unsolicited photos and videos such as non-consensual pornography, etc. The second type is what he referred to as a “quid-pro-quo.” This is when the offender asks for a sexual and/or romantic relation with the victim in exchange for some sort of promotion or raise. This information was extremely helpful to us and we will be sure to use it in the future.