Federal sexual harassment investigations are incredibly slow: 'They push you so hard to give up'

Me Too protesters.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

About 1 in 5 women and 1 in 10 men who work for a large federal agency say they have been sexually harassed on the job. And if they wish to formally accuse their harasser and pursue some sort of consequences, they must make their claim quickly and then settle in for a long, difficult adjudication process that will likely stretch on for several years.

In one case highlighted by The Washington Post, a Justice Department attorney named Christy McCormick spent seven years securing a recommendation from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for her harassment complaint against two male supervisors. The EEOC found in her favor, but nine years after the harassment happened, she has yet to receive back pay or damages. "I almost gave up numerous times," she said of the process. "They push you so hard to give up."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.