Leadership

When Good Men Ask: But Where’s The Line?

For every woman who has been asked: "Can I call a colleague 'dear'? Can I tell her she looks good? Can I open a door for her? Where is the line?"

By Jamila Rizvi

Leadership

For every woman who has been asked: "Can I call a colleague 'dear'? Can I tell her she looks good? Can I open a door for her? Where is the line?"

By Jamila Rizvi

Following the initial blanket media coverage of Hollywood’s #MeToo moment, the conversation threatened to rebound in multiple, unexpected directions. Like an AFL footy, the bounce was hard to predict. We wondered who would be next; partially concerned for the victims but mostly just sucked in by a perverse form of voyeurism.

The “who next” line of inquiry quickly gave way to a tsunami of opinion pieces asking, “What counts and what doesn’t?” Public chatter became increasingly confused by accusations that moved beyond the broadly accepted definition of sexual assault, to include a variety of – not criminal but – inappropriate and sexist workplace behaviours.