Pennsylvania Senate slow to react in the wake of #MeToo
HARRISBURG — Just over a year ago, two women accused the top security officer in the state Senate of sexually harassing them, sending offensive texts or engaging in lewd comments. Within weeks, he had resigned.
Since then, both women have filed federal lawsuits against the Senate, claiming the chamber has permitted a culture of discrimination, harassment and retaliation. One of the two — the second highest-ranking Senate security officer — has seen her duties restricted, and was even given a week’s suspension without pay recently because she let her husband, also a state employee, park in her state-issued parking spot.
The sexual harassment case involving the Senate’s security force was just one of several such scandals to envelop the Capitol in the wake of the #MeToo movement, a nationwide reckoning over how women are treated in the workforce that spawned a push to enact stronger protections for victims of harassment.
Yet Pennsylvania’s legislature — reeling from #MeToo allegations against three lawmakers — has not taken a floor vote on a flood of bills introduced since the start of 2018 to combat sexual harassment. One of the only measures that did pass was a resolution to create a task force to study the problem. The task force, according to legislative aides, doesn’t even have members yet.
Read more: https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-state/2018/12/22/pennsylvania-Senate-slow-to-react-MeToo-sexual-harassment-legislation-bills/stories/201812230162
