Dr. Dougherty (or "Prof. D") proved to be an amazing speaker and had a lot of insightful information to provide us regarding inappropriate behavior in the workplace. Towards the beginning of her presentation, she had the audience list organizations/people that are known for past inappropriate/sexual predatory scandals. The list included doctors from both Michigan State and USC, Harvey Weinstein, Fox News, the Catholic Church, and other groups linked to this type of behavior. She then talked about how this behavior has persisted for so long due to it being normalized. Bystanders have kept quiet, and the predators have been seen as "special" so they don't face consequences.
Prof. D then led an interesting discussion regarding the difference between espoused values vs. enacted values. Espoused values are values that are explicitly stated (possibly from an organization's website or code of ethics). She presented some of USC's espoused values, which include free inquiry, "Trojan Family Values" (caring and respect for one another, appreciation of diversity, team spirit, strong alumni network, commitment to service), and informed risk-taking within a culture of targeted experimentation. We had a brief conversation about that last one, and no one really knew what it meant. The enacted values are the values that are actually exhibited. We then compared which values at USC we thought were only espoused, only enacted, and both espoused and enacted (claimed and demonstrated).
Next, we discussed the topic of the gender binary. Part of this included us filling out a Bem sex-role inventory. We classified a bunch of attributes based on ourselves, how they pertain to women in general, and how they pertain to men in general. Prof. D concluded that society views women as weak, gullible, overly emotional, and childlike; society views men as strong, leaders, and rational; women view themselves as more masculine; and women view other women as more feminine. Obviously, these perceptions are problematic and the stigma must be fixed.
Finally, we talked about how we can help fix the predatory culture that invades the workplace. We brainstormed as an audience how we should be enacting certain behaviors, such as holding people accountable, listening to people. communicating issues, practicing transparency, and owning up to mistakes. We also identified a recurring, problematic theme of how a lot of scandals involve money payments (both for sexual predators and non-sexual scandals). I definitely learned a lot about the issue of predatory behavior and also learned how prevalent this behavior truly is. Pictured below you can find some classmates and me before the lecture with our handouts.
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