How it Began…

As a woman in a STEM career, I experienced sexual harassment by my male coworker for nearly two and a half years before I could admit these words to myself — “Kendall, you are being sexually harassed”. I knew that he was being inappropriate. My coworkers and I complained about him all the time. Yet, I let myself suffer, mentally, emotionally, and physically, before I decided to speak up. After I reported it to my supervisor, he began to retaliate against me.

Since this, I have learned that:

• I live in a society that actively protects the status quo.

• Systems continually fail to hold sexual offenders  accountable by remaining faceless.

• Sometimes your only option is to play the game — the game of formal complaints, investigations, and lawsuits. If you don’t, the system wins by default. 

• The lack of transparency in the sexual harassment process benefits the system.

• Information is power.

So, as I write this, I have one goal: to inform. To teach others what I have learned for their personal benefit, as well as the collective benefit of all those experiencing sexual harassment, retaliation, and discrimination.

Because this sh*t is getting old.