How to Agree in More than Theory : Three excellent court rulings show the way to real progress in sexual equality
To make ideas effective, they must be fired off into action. And yet that’s sometimes no easier to do now than it was 50 years ago when writer Virginia Woolf first said it. Consider the idea of equal access and opportunity for women. It’s a noble idea that few Americans would quibble with--in theory. Yet three recent court cases vividly illustrate how noble ideas are fought down to the hangnails when the application of those noble thoughts threatens to shake things up.
1. THE “REASONABLE WOMAN” STANDARD: In a ruling in favor of a sexual harassment case, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco adopted for the first time a standard of what would be considered sexual harassment by a “reasonable woman.” A “reasonable man” standard has typically been used, but “we believe that a sex-blind reasonable person standard tends to be male-biased and tends to systematically ignore the experiences of women,” the court wrote. Government worker Kerry Ellison had taken the case to the higher court after lower courts and her employer had dismissed her complaint against a co-worker, who was writing her unsolicited “love” notes.
2. THE “NUDE WOMAN” STANDARD: In Jacksonville, Fla., a federal district judge ruled that the posting of pictures of nude and partly nude women is a form of sexual harrassment.
The judge ruled that a shipyard where Lois Robinson worked promoted a “visual assault on the sensibilities of female workers” through pin-ups and close-up pictures of women’s genitals posted on walls. While it is true that women were able to apply for jobs and work at the shipyard, the judge said, the highly sexualized nature of that workplace was akin to hanging a sign declaring “Men Only.”
3. THE “EATING CLUB” STANDARD: And in the genteel halls of Princeton, women must be admitted to the only remaining all-male eating club. The U.S. Supreme Court, without comment, let stand a ruling that women must be admitted this year.
And so, for some government workers, shipyard workers and college students, the comfort of doing things the way they had always been done became more important than whatever lip service they paid to equality for women.
Justice prevailed in each of these cases because the courts wisely determined that lofty ideas need to really mean something: They have to be fired off into action.