Multiple women have now come forward with stories of being harassed and assaulted by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump while working with or for him.
According to his son, if they didn’t like what happened, they should have just quit their jobs.
Talking on The Opie and Anthony Show in 2013, as reported by BuzzFeed News, Donald Trump Jr. was asked about women who complained of sexual harassment in all-male environments like men’s only golf clubs. “In the clubhouse, guys just want to be guys, they want to joke about stuff,” he said.
He went on to say that if women feel harassed by the comments men want to make, they should just leave their jobs. “I’m of the mindset, and I’ll get in trouble… If you can’t handle some of the basic stuff that’s become a problem in the workforce today, you don’t belong in the workforce,” he said. “You should go maybe teach Kindergarten. I think it’s a respectable position. You can’t be negotiating billion-dollar deals if you can’t handle, like you know.” He didn’t elaborate on what he meant by “like you know.”
He seemed baffled by the behavior that violates sexual harassment laws. “There’s a place where you have to draw the line, but today the stuff you get in trouble for… It’s like I wouldn’t even think about…” he trailed off.
Taking a job as a Kindergarten teacher would not, of course, be considered leaving the workforce. It is a real occupation, even if it is still often associated with “women’s work” and care taking.
But there’s no job a woman can take where she will be safe from sexual harassment. It happens in every industry, including female-dominated jobs like education.
And many, many women have experienced it. Nearly 60 percent of women surveyed say they have experienced sexist or offensive behavior, while 40 percent have dealt with unwanted sexual attention or coercion. If they all left the workforce, that would be a huge loss of labor that would drastically reduce the American economy, not to mention seriously roll back progress toward equality in the workplace.
Trump, Jr. went on to characterize women who make allegations of harassment as capricious gold diggers.
The hosts of the show brought up looking at nude pictures of women in the workplace and apparently brought one up on a computer screen. “I feel harassed!” Trump, Jr. joked. “This is my get rich quick scheme! I’m now suing you because I feel uncomfortable.”
“And by the way that’s what happens in the real world,” he continued. “I can play along, I can be fine, and then I can decide randomly, ‘Uh oh, you have now crossed the line.’”
Very few women bring charges over the sexual harassment they experience — only between 6 and 13 percent. And those who do are unlikely to land a big windfall. If a woman brings a federal harassment case, the most she can recover is $300,000. While some states allow for higher damages, large payouts are still unlikely: The median sexual harassment settlement is just $30,000.
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