Harassment

Re Arthur Marx’s April 5 letter, saying that “any woman who has achieved the exalted rank of general in the U.S. Army ought to have the gumption to ward off a little groping by a fellow officer”: The evidence is that the general in question, Claudia Kennedy, showed plenty of gumption and did ward off her harasser.

It’s not that women aren’t able to deal with sexual harassment; they can and do deal with it every day and still do their jobs very well. The point is, though, that they shouldn’t have to deal with it--they should be treated as professionals who are there to do a job (which is just how men expect to be treated in the workplace), not as sources of sexual entertainment for their colleagues.

TRUDY RING

Burbank