Federal Government, Sexual Harassment, Women's Issues

The Pink Ghetto: Terrible Tales Of Sexual Harassment In The Federal Government

Women working as attorneys in the federal government — including the Department of Justice — must endure sexual harassment, sometimes for years on end, without receiving any real recompense.

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sexual harassment bossWelcome back to The Pink Ghetto, a series where we take a look at some of the most appalling stories from one of the most sexist industries in the world: the legal profession. Today, we’ll take a look at the sexual harassment that women working as attorneys in the federal government — including the Department of Justice — must endure, sometimes for years on end, without receiving any real recompense for their harassers’ boorish behavior. These are real emails that we’ve received from real readers.

When you see things like this happening, say something. Together, we can inspire the change necessary to stop this disturbing behavior from being so prevalent in the law.

My first job out of law school was with a federal government agency. One of the cases I was assigned to received a lot of press and notoriety, and because it was considered high profile, I regularly met with several top officials within the agency. One day, I was meeting with the second-in-command of the agency and about 15 of his staff. At the start of the meeting, he sat next to me, put his arm around me (grazing my breast) and announced to the room, “We are lucky to have such a gorgeous little lady helping us today.” He proceeded to call me “sweet pea” for the rest of the meeting. I was mortified. I spoke to HR, but they told me that practically speaking, they couldn’t do anything because he was sleeping with the General Counsel (i.e., my boss’s boss). I’d like to say I did something noble like quit and/or filed a lawsuit but the truth of the matter is that I was 26 and desperate for the job. Plus, I was afraid the GC would tank my career, so I sucked it up and avoided my boss as much as I could until I (eventually) found job with another agency.

I was working as a summer clerk in one of the sections of the Criminal Division at the Department of Justice in D.C. The chief of my section is a total douche. The DOJ has very strict rules on the type of work clerks are assigned. It has to be legal, and it cannot be administrative in any way.

My chief would always come and tell me he had a “special job” for me. He would want me to go through his credit card statement and see why the DOJ had not paid his balance. Thankfully, the male attorneys in my section told me to ignore him. However, shit got really weird during the retirement event our section had for one of our attorneys. This particular attorney had always been so nice to me that I decided to go. My section chief decided to invite his really good buddy, the chief of another Criminal Division section. So here we are at a local bar a few blocks from the office, two sections from the DOJ’s Criminal Division. I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who was clerking in the other chief’s section. Midway through my conversation, the chief of the other section starts winking at me, from the other side of the room (it was a small room) and walking my way. Once he got to were I was sitting, he proceeded by grabbing my hand, holding it and massaging it. All whilst my friend watched speechless. To make matters more uncomfortable, whenever I had a meeting in which he was present, he would always make improper commentary to me and in front of my section chief, who obviously said nothing.

When a few of the female attorneys in my section found out about what happened, one of them insisted I report him. Another female attorney explained that if I did that, I could very well be committing career suicide before I even graduated law school. All three of the female attorneys agreed that as unfortunate as the situation was, doing something would potentially hurt me in the long run.

I am a female attorney with the federal government. During my first day of employment, my supervisor came in during the afternoon, walked around the desk, stood over me, and started telling how nice I looked. After a year of behavior like this, I tried to set up a confidential meeting with his boss. I got caught — the boss drove off after telling my supervisor of my attempt to schedule a meeting — and my supervisor tried to get me fired. About two years later, another female new hire had a mentor who reported the supervisor. Within three years, they were both resigned.

I spent five years asking for a transfer out of the office. Each year, my transfer “disappeared” due to “lack of interest” along with details and other opportunities.

Eventually, I found another opening posted online for the same job but a different location. A couple of years after I transferred, I told my new supervisor of the problems. He laughed so hard… until he discovered that one of his other employees was sexually harassing females in the office to the level of sexual assault. After I sent an email to upper management, he investigated and assured management that everything was okay. He was so mad that he refused to speak with me. Then, he discovered more harassment by more men and more victims. After the better part of a year, upper management sent an executive to investigate. On the second day, I was told to report back to the executive within one hour, and I had the right to bring an attorney and/or a union representative. When I returned, the executive told me that the harasser claimed that my breasts touched him once when I leaned over to put something in the boss’s inbox when I was acting for my supervisor. Because of the zero-tolerance policy, management immediately decided, within one hour, to conduct a formal investigation against me. The harasser got more than 30 days’ warning and time to hire an attorney and get a union rep.

Despite three female attorneys providing testimony and one male attorney witnessing the harassment, nothing was done. About three years later, the harasser retired with a full pension. My supervisor never spoke to me again. When I tried to complain about the hostilities, I was told that there were no financial damages since I was a federal employee with the government pay scale. Management never closed the sexual harassment complaint made against me. With that black mark against me, I can never be promoted into a supervisory position.

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Do you have a law school or law firm story you’d like to see appear in The Pink Ghetto? Please email me with “The Pink Ghetto” in the subject line (or find me on Twitter: @StaciZaretsky). You will be kept anonymous. Submissions are always welcome!

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