In China, a 28-yer-old woman has won the first sexual harassment lawsuit since the country passed the Chinese Women’s Rights Protection Law back in 2005.
The woman, surnamed Luo, suffered repeated groping from her new boss at the Japanese-owned company Moriroku (Guangzhou) Plastics Company Limited. She complained to the institution officials, even producing photographs of her boss in action at a party. All she requested was an apology and a promise that the company would work to prevent such incidents from happening again. Instead, the fired her.
Luo reported to the China Daily, “They fired me under the excuse of skipping duties without valid reasons….I still live in a terrible psychological shadow after sexual harassment. I have been turned down for several jobs since the case was brought to court.”
The court ordered her former boss to pay 3,000 yuan ($440) in compensation and demanded the company issue an apology letter three weeks ago.
But you know those Chinese and their human rights abuses against women….tsk, tsk. We are so more evolved in the U.S.–NOT!
This is much like every other story I heard since SHS came into being: institutions trying to get around discrimination law by firing the complainants using some lame or trumped up charge about her performance. Many of these are published at the stories area of SHS, there are certainly too many to list here. For me, the professor-stalkers’ particularly lame excuse for their most recent conduct–including phone tapping and repeated burglary–is that I’m ADD and “not focused.” (Earlier, when I would not pursue any of them sexually, in retaliation they spread the blatant lie that I was cheating in school.)
Moreover, the same blackballing is also going on in the U.S., with people often unable to find new jobs after they are fired in retaliation for harassment complaints. And you are really up-a-creek if you come from a small community. I know of one couple who both worked at the company where the wife was harassed. They were literally run out of town after the boss’s conduct came to light.
The U.S. is as violent, discriminatory, and sexist as any other country that we love to point our fingers and sniff at. Will the people of the United States ever grow up enough to have the strength and maturity to see the truth about themselves? Let’s hope so.
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