Could COVID-19 lead to more sexual harassment?

May 14, 2020

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Coronavirus is feminine according to the Académie Française, Google workers say the company is rolling back diversity and inclusion programs, and Anita Hill connects coronavirus safety precautions in entertainment to safety from sexual harassment. Have a solid Thursday.

– Safety first. I don’t know about you, but hearing from Anita Hill always makes makes me feel a little better about the world. Maybe it’s the calm and analytical way she approaches her subject (she is a lawyer, after all), her sly sense of humor, or just the fact that she’s survived and thrived through so much. Whatever the reason, when I see her byline, I click.

In her latest, an op-ed in Variety , Hill writes about Hollywood’s response to the coronavirus. As the entertainment industry ponders coming back to work, it’s considering new safety measures, including “the presence of masks, hand sanitizer and thermometers, along with boxed meals, single-use makeup and delayed crowd filming.” Hill’s on board with such changes, but there’s more to be done, she writes: “There is an important opportunity to redefine what ‘safe’ working conditions mean for workers in Hollywood.”

Doing so would mean thinking more holistically, and addressing issues of sexual harassment, racism, and ageism as well as physical health. Hill makes a number of concrete suggestions for how Hollywood might embrace this broader idea of worker safety as it reshapes its industry, including making sure there are people on set or other work locations dedicated to ensuring that anti-discrimination and harassment policies are followed, and committing to keep current diversity programs (often the first things cut during hard financial times) in place.

Hill’s focus in the op-ed is the entertainment industry, but the ideas she’s exploring resonate more broadly. How will issues of workplace sexual harassment and discrimination change as we move toward a new normal? It’s not just those in Hollywood who will likely find themselves working in more isolated settings and informal settings (think smaller groups or perhaps more one-on-ones) and who may have less frequent contact with their boss or other workplace supporters—the very people they’d turn to if something felt off.

Employers have a lot to think about right now, as they wrestle with how and when (and even if) they should bring their employees back to work. And while few would argue that keeping people as safe as possible from the virus is a top concern, that shouldn’t mean others—including harassment and discrimination—go unconsidered.

Kristen Bellstrom
kristen.bellstrom@fortune.com
@kayelbee

Today’s Broadsheet was produced by Emma Hinchliffe.

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

- Coronavirus and the chancellor. The coronavirus crisis has "thrown open" the race to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor (her original succession plan, which would have had Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer follow in her footsteps, fell apart in February). Once longshot candidate Markus Söder's virus response in Bavaria has put him back in the running. Financial Times

- So long, Sojourn. A number of current and former Googlers tell NBC News that the company has cut back on diversity and inclusion programs—including ending Sojourn, a program aimed at navigating conversations about race and inequality—in what they describe as an effort to shield the company from conservative backlash. Google disputed the allegation that the company has scaled back these efforts, and says it cancelled Sojourn because it was too difficult to scale globally. NBCNews

- Rest in power. Rep Maxine Waters revealed that her sister, Velma Moody, died of the coronavirus. Moody, 86, lived at an assisted care facility in St. Louis. "It is one of the most painful things that I've ever had to experience," Waters said. She had spoken about her sister's condition on the House floor while fighting for the coronavirus relief package. CNN

- Lasting legacy. The Supreme Court is expected to rule as soon as this week on a case that could decide whether LGBTQ workers are covered by anti-discrimination law. Aimee Stephens, the transgender woman whose firing after she came out as trans at work is at the center of the case, died at 59 on Tuesday. She was the first transgender person to have her civil rights case heard by the Supreme Court. CNN

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Apple said Wednesday that Cynthia Hogan, VP of public policy and government affairs, is leaving. Former Bridgewater CFO Nella Domenici joins the board of Change Healthcare. Wellcome Leap hired former U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency director Regina E. Dugan as CEO.

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

-Top 10. Elizabeth Warren and California Rep. Ro Khanna write about 10 worker protections—including "truly universal paid sick leave and family and medical leave"—that they believe should be included in the government's next COVID-19 aid package. CNN

- Life coach. Cynthia Usui has a specialty: helping Japanese housewives get back into the workforce. Usui coaches women on how to rebuild their careers after time away—and she worries that many of these women will lose the gains they have made in Japanese business because of the coronavirus pandemic. Financial Times

- Won't you be her neighbor? After the past two months, Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar doesn't have to "explain to people anymore why their neighbors are important." She talks about the evolving role of the neighborhood-based social network here: Wall Street Journal

- La Covid. Does coronavirus have a gender? According to the gatekeepers of the French language, it's feminine. Many in France had been referring to the virus as " le Covid;" the Académie Française has intervened to clarify that they would prefer "la Covid" because the French equivalent of "disease" would be the feminine maladie. Guardian

ON MY RADAR

Niecy Nash is the hardest working woman in Hollywood Zora

Of course Charli XCX invented the quarantine album Vulture

What it's like to have a miscarriage while in quarantine Oprah Magazine

PARTING WORDS

"I think right now that’s the way it’s supposed to be."

-Melissa DeRosa, New York's secretary to the governor, on her current lack of work-life balance