Herman Cain Was Right: More Men Claiming Sexual Harassment

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Herman Cain generated more than a little mockery at his Tuesday press conference when he gave the public a lesson about the danger of female-on-male sexual harassment. But it turns out he might be onto something.

“And I might add, it’s not just men who potentially sexually harass women,” he said. “I’ve also seen situations where women have attempted to sexually harass men. It’s very serious.”

A look at the stats from the US Equal Opportunity Employment Commission shows that he’s not entirely off base. 16.4% of sexual harassment charges in 2010 were filed by men, a number that’s been on the rise in recent years. In 1997 it was just 11.6%. It’s unclear how many of the cases were filed against women or men, however.

The Cain campaign has personal experience in this area: communications director JD Gordon once publicly accused a reporter of sexually harassing him while he was a spokesman at Guantanamo Bay. The news organization in question investigated the claim and decided it had no merit.

Of course, Cain’s digression still falls under the broad category of “Things That Do Not Affect Whether Herman Cain Sexually Harassed Women In The 1990s,” but hey, now we all know a little more about harassment statistics.

So quit the jokes, guys.

Latest Election 2012
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: