On Sunday, November 26, leading Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers announced that he would be stepping down following sexual harassment accusations. Conyers has served as Michigan’s representative since 1965. He has confirmed the issue of a $27,000 settlement to a former employee who claimed she was fired because of her refusal to give into sexual advances, but he has denied the reasoning behind it. According to Conyers, “‘many of [the allegations] were raised by documents reportedly paid for by a partisan alt-right blogger’” and despite his decision to step down, he has no intention of leaving Congress altogether. Rather, he feels as though remaining on the committee during the investigation would undermine the work of fellow Democrats.
Nancy Pelosi has become actively involved in the event as well. The surfaced accusations have put party leaders in a troubled position and Pelosi has made sure to remain neutral or relatively distant from the event. After some backlash from her initial comment holding Conyers as an “icon”, she has since taken a firmer stance, stating “‘no matter how great an individual’s legacy, it is not a license for harassment’”. Although she is far from buying into the accusations against Conyers, Pelosi has been put in a unique position and must remain cognizant of the other side’s argument.
Not only do these allegations present a publicity problem for the party and Capitol Hill as a whole, but the turn of events poses the question of replacement and protocol in a peculiar situation such as this. A replacement has not been confirmed yet and standard protocol of next senior member doesn’t necessarily stand because Conyers stepped down mid-term.
These allegations come at a very troubling time for all of Capitol Hill. Recently, there has been a long line of victims coming forward and accusing members of Congress. These events have seemingly revived old cases as well, with former accusers such as Anita Hill being approached and asked for their opinion on the matter. Just a few weeks ago, the Senate and House have made moves to change how sexual harassment complaints are handled, largely as a result of the #metoocongress campaign by a number of Congress members. A directive was even issued requiring all Senate members and staffers to watch a training video on sexual harassment. Pushes to further address the issue of how sexual harassment allegations are handled were gaining steam, and will certainly gain even more momentum following the recent decision of Conyers and future House Ethics Committee investigation.
- Considering how much momentum sexual harassment allegations have gained recently, do you think the accusations against Conyers will finally push for actual changes? Why or why not.
- What is Capitol Hill’s next move following the stepping down of Conyers?
- Pelosi commented that all these events are unfolding nearly 100 years after women gained the right to vote and this unfolding is a “wonderful thing”. Do you agree that something very transformative is in the midst of happening? Why or why not.
3. I think, and I hope, that this new wave of allegations indicates a cultural shift in our nation. This level of people being revealed is unprecedented in the history of America. It truly shows how far we have come as a nation in our attitudes towards gender equality. While the world, and certainly still our nation, still has much progress to be made, there is some comfort to be found in what is happening. For the first time victims en masse feel comfortable opening up about what they have experienced. There can be a harmful practice of disbelief or lack of concern when people come out about someone in the public light committing such crimes, but that seems to be changing. This point seems to be proven by the fact that the recent wave of condemnation is including cases in which the allegations had been public in the past but it seemed that people didn't care. This windfall of allegations certainly seem to point to a public shift in opinion, towards the side of the victim.
ReplyDelete3. The situation has devolved into who's the victim today and then we all come out and say its terrible that person was victimized and then we set no standard by which we can determine whether someone is a victim or not until they proclaim themselves a victim, at which point we say their a victim. If we were to find out all these scandals from a third-party source and not the victim, then we would have had to decide as a society is this something okay or not. If the victim declares that she is offended then the action is bad. If the victim declares that she was not offended then it would've been fine. Action is not subjective when it comes to societal standards. It has turned into a routine where something is not harassment so long as the individual is not offended, but it is harassment if an individual is offended.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, the Conyers allegations could very well be and just as likely not be the final push towards drawing some lines in order to enforce those lines. This can mark the beginning of a transformation in which society collectively decides what sort of behavior we are willing to accept.
1) I think that these accusations against Conyers will and will not evolve into actual change. As more and more people come out saying that they have been sexually assaulted or harassed, other women who haven't come out yet, will feel safe and may be more likely to accuse other men. All of that is good change but the fact that these accusations are coming in the world of politics creates problems. Politicians will certainly go after sexual predators of the other party, but hold back when one is revealed to be in their own party. This partisanship will prevent many men from getting what they deserve after sexually abusing women.
ReplyDeleteCongress will make new moves to investigate the ethics of Congressional staff and members, but I don't think this will serve much of a purpose, and will not bring about a lot of change. However, it is important that these Congressmen are actually stepping down. They establish a healthy precedent that sexual misconduct is met with negative consequences.
ReplyDelete1. Maybe not, these people are in great points of power after all. In fact, the only "change" i have actually seen is Dan Johnson, who wasn't exactly a positive change. Overall, these people in capitol hill are not going to get arrested for their crimes, despite multiple victims coming out about this. Even our own President, Donald Trump, has some sexual assault claims under him yet no one seems to truly care. I guess all we can do is hope it advances to the point where action is eventually taken place.
ReplyDelete1. Although I would like to believe that there could be serious change involved with sexual accusations, it's hard to believe that sexual assault will stop. However, that being said, there are certain ways that Congress could better control it as well as determine serious consequences that would make an impact, even though I don't believe, and I wish I could, that Captiol Hill members will be prosecuted and arrested for their actions, which unfortunately, will not set a large precedent within Congress. However, with this many allegations and victims coming forward, I hope that something is done to prevent and address the issues that occurred, and moving forward that there is another step (a better one) that Congress can implement, other than firing people, that will help to serve the offenders the punishment that they deserve.
ReplyDelete1. Despite such a large amount of allegations coming out recently, I don't believe that change will come from this. These congressmen already have so much power that it is difficult to prosecute them. However, it is good that they are stepping down because it is showing that these types of actions should be looked down upon. I do hope that changes will come and action is taken against these people.
ReplyDelete1. I honestly doubt that Conyers would push for actual changes, even though sexual assault allegations have gained momentum. People have talked about sexist and harassment issues for a while, and there has been relatively little change. I do, however, think that the increased awareness on sexual harassment could allow room for slow change, but probably not anything major and sudden.
ReplyDelete