Michigan political culture has history of sexual harassment, now hopes for change

LANSING, MI - More than a decade ago, Deb Shaughnessy was a mom going through a divorce and working in the legislature. She was at a work event, she said, when then-Sen. David Jaye commented about how she'd lost weight and it had all gone to her butt. It was in front of other staff members, and it wasn't appropriate.

"I actually met with someone from Civil Rights and they felt that I had a case. But I just, I didn't want attention drawn to myself. Especially when you're a staffer, the pressure is on you not to be a troublemaker, you know?" Shaughnessy said.

But with allegations of sexual harassment coming out in the political sphere last week - including some against Michigan's U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit - she's remembering this experience.

The political scenes both in Lansing and Washington, D.C. are places where everything from off-color remarks to sexual harassment can thrive, women say. As allegations of untoward actions rock industries ranging from Hollywood to Capitol Hill, some Michigan political players are looking for changes in the halls of the Michigan Capitol.

Shaughnessy, who said her bosses were supportive, didn't pursue the complaint. But less than a year after it happened, she spoke publicly about it as the Senate considered whether to expel Jaye. He was expelled from the Senate in 2001 after multiple drunk driving arrests, and could not be reached for comment on this article.

Shaughnessy spoke up and doesn't regret it. And years later, she thinks the conversation is still worth having.

"You've got to have the conversation, and you're got to have it more often than we're having it. And I think that's a first step, is to talk about it more," Shaughnessy said.

Pointing to the problem

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, dragged a piece of the problem into the sunlight by talking this month about sexual harassment she says she experienced during her earlier political career. In an interview with CNN's Alisyn Camerota, Dingell said a prominent political figure tried to put his hand up her skirt at an event in Washington, D.C.

"The hand kept going up my leg, I took it off," she said. "A woman member was at my table, recognized what was happening and said, 'Switch places.' You know, we watch out for each other."

She didn't name the political figure, or others she'd had run-ins with, but said the culture needed to change.

"I would still pay a price if I were to name some of them," she said. "Let this be a watershed moment in changing the culture, and men understanding it's not OK."

At the Michigan capitol in 2012, two Democratic women drew attention to their censure on the House floor after speaking on a heavily debated bill making changes to Michigan law around abortion. Republicans censured the women for failing to maintain the decorum of the chamber.

It quickly turned into a political issue, with Republicans of both sexes fighting back against Democrats who claimed the censure was for their use of the word "vagina." But it also turned into an issue for women who saw it as emblematic of a wider problem. It culminated in playwright Eve Ensler attending a performance of her 'Vagina Monolouges' on the capitol steps.

Former Rep. Barb Byrum, a Democrat, was one of the two representatives who were censured. The experience was a big one for her, but it piled on to the other things she'd experienced. A political opponent drawing attention to the fact that she hadn't taken her husband's last name. The catcalls that have caused her to change her running routes.

"It's the unspoken and often spoken sexism. To my core, I believe it is all over. I believe that it has been brought to light in the political sphere but it is everywhere," Byrum said.

A lot of the behavior women describe isn't as direct as a man's hand on a woman's leg uninvited. Some of it's quieter - a comment that makes the only woman in the room feel uncomfortable, or belittles a woman in the name of a joke. And it's this quieter behavior that's easy to tuck into private corners of the capitol, or behind a closed office door. It's easy to hide.

A problem in political culture Sen. Margaret O'Brien, R-Portage, one of four women in the Michigan Senate, said she's never had someone intentionally set out to make her uncomfortable.

"I'm very fortunate that my experiences were not, there was no ill intent. And I have a great work environment. What I'm reading about other people's experiences, I'm just in complete shock," O'Brien said.

But she has run into the joke gone bad, or the comment that crossed the line. In one memorable instance she later came back and addressed it with the colleague who had said it. She knew the comment hadn't been intended to demean her, and it was still a difficult conversation to have. But they had it, and have a good relationship now. O'Brien previously worked in real estate and social work, and found that both of those professions had more clearly-drawn lines.

"When I was in the private sector, there were a lot of very clear lines. You did your job, and then you went home," O'Brien said.

The legislature, by contrast, is working long hours. Sessions start at 10 a.m. and have lasted into the next morning when the body has contentious issues on its plate. Plus, O'Brien said, it's full of people who passionately believe in and fight for their districts and their ideals.

"Sometimes I think the lines get a little blurry because you become a family when you go through long session hours. You go through a lot together. That's where this job is very unique. From time to time, most of us I'd say have gotten death threats. You have a bond with people because you have a very rare work environment," O'Brien said.

Sometimes, she said, that can lead to people being comfortable saying what they're thinking.

Shaughnessy served as a staffer, a lawmaker and a lobbyist. Being in all three of those positions, she thinks a lot of sexual harassment and intimidation comes down to politicians feeling entitled.

"It is so deeply inbred, I think, in that culture. And not just Lansing, everywhere where you have elected officials. Everybody caters to them," Shaughnessy said.

People address lawmakers formally as "representative" or "senator" all the time, and they're constantly in a position of having power, she said. And in some cases it's as if that sense of entitlement stretches into sexual entitlement.

The challenge, Shaughnessy said, is striking the balance between treating lawmakers respectfully but also creating an environment where people can speak up against unacceptable behavior.

Strength in numbers Part of what sticks with Byrum about her censorship is the comments male representatives made infantilizing her and former Rep. Lisa Brown. She remembers their actions being described as a temper tantrum, and someone calling for a time-out, and questions if some of those statements would have been made if more women were in the legislature to serve as a check on her male colleagues.

"I think because the majority of the legislature is men, there isn't the awareness of the inherent sexism of some comments," Byrum said.

Michigan's legislature is made up of 148 members. Of those, 37, or 25 percent, are women. According to 2016 census estimates, Michigan's population is 50.8 percent female.

Beth Kelly, a feminist who works with SMG strategies to empower and elect Democratic women, said the lack of women can contribute to some cultural issues.

"When you isolate someone, they don't have anyone to talk to. In the Michigan legislature, there are some committees that have one or zero women on them. It sets themselves up for this bad behavior we're seeing," Kelly said.

Nationally, there are indications that more women are readying themselves for political runs.

Striving for change

Doug Simon, director of the House Business Office, said there was a standard training new employees went through that covered sexual harassment.

"Every employee and member is required to go through a training session which is entitled 'preventing harassment in the workplace' and that training covers all forms of harassment, which includes sexual harassment," he said.

And the process for handling a complaint is routing it through the nonpartisan House Business Office.

Neither the House or Senate business offices are subject to the Freedom of Information Act, making data on sexual harassment complaints hard to obtain.

Rep. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit, is chair of the Progressive Women's Caucus. This fall, the group formed a task force of Democratic members and staff that has been working to develop internal strategies to address sexual harassment in and around the state capitol.

"At the end of the day, sexual assault and sexual harassment aren't about political party. We all have to come together to address this issue that exists in many workplaces, especially where laws affecting women and girls are made - our capitols," Chang said in a statement.

Kelly pointed out that sexually harassing behavior isn't new, and it isn't limited to the political realm. But what is new is how people talk about it. She's seeing a shift away from trying to determine somebody's intent with a remark to focusing on how it made the other person feel. There's a recognition that even if a comment was intended as a joke, it has the potential to make a woman very uncomfortable. We can't discount that.

"I think it's bringing up an important conversation around intent versus impact," Kelly said. In Lansing the problem is one that is hard to quantify, with or without business office data.

O'Brien said she didn't observe sexually harassing behavior, but she can imagine that some people may not feel comfortable bringing it forward.

"I think at the end of the day, as close as we get to our staff, we have to remember this is a professional work environment and we have to make it a comfortable place for them," O'Brien said.

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