Sexual 'pirates' prowled I.M.F. for women

[seabeyond]

Some women avoid wearing skirts for fear of attracting unwanted attention. Others trade whispered tips about overly forward bosses. A 2008 internal review found few restraints on the conduct of senior managers, concluding that “the absence of public ethics scandals seems to be more a consequence of luck than good planning and action.”

*

Interviews and documents paint a picture of the fund as an institution whose sexual norms and customs are markedly different from those of Washington, leaving its female employees vulnerable to harassment. The laws of the United States do not apply inside its walls, and until earlier this month the I.M.F.’s own rules contained an unusual provision that some experts and former officials say has encouraged managers to pursue the women who work for them: “Intimate personal relationships between supervisors and subordinates do not, in themselves, constitute harassment.”

*

'He wasn't punished'
In 2007, officials at the fund declined to investigate a complaint by an administrative assistant who had slept with her supervisor, and who charged that he had given her poor performance reviews to pressure her to continue the relationship. Officials told the woman that the supervisor planned to retire soon, and therefore there was no point in investigating the charges, according to findings by the I.M.F.’s internal court.

*

“Culturally, there are a lot of people thrown together,” said Susan Schadler, who spent 32 years at the fund, rising to deputy director of the European department before leaving in 2007. “There’s a lot of scope for misunderstanding, misreading signals. I think that’s a particular vulnerability for the fund.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43105592/ns/business-consumer_news/

[malaise]

1. Not just them - check all the international

organizations and don't forget those perverts in the Diplomatic Corps either.
Fuckers must be running scared for now.

[seabeyond]

2. "Fuckers must be running scared for now." lol , i dont know about that. nt

[zazen]

3. IMF=Mad Men=college/workplace as I remember it in 80s

Thank God this isn't the norm in North American business now thanks to a lot of feminist sweat and advocacy, but in my teens and through the early 90s I was routinely harrassed and I knew few young women who weren't.

Thinking back on it, going into a job interview felt like walking into a bar or any nighttime social setting. You knew you'd be hit on, that there were predators everywhere, and you just hoped you could navigate your way through it to find the people who didn't reduce you to your body or who didn't hate you for it. It was just life.

The Anita Hill hearings really opened up mainstream discussion about what before most people thought was a trivial, boys-will-be-boys culture.

[SpiralHawk]

10. "Now, don't bring up Anita Hill." - Clarence 'Republicon Family Values' Thomas (R)

"Move along. There is nothing (smirk) to see here."

- Clarence 'Republicon Family Values' Thomas (R)

[sufrommich]

4. It might be 2011 in real years, but at the IMF it's 1957. nt

[mopinko]

5. why are our daughters still fighting this shit?

we made it perfectly fucking clear, didn't we?

[seabeyond]

6. huge step forward.... 10 small steps back. and we women and girls are allowing

embracing and helping.

[mopinko]

11. well at least i raised 3 hard headed women.

fuck with them at your peril.

[seabeyond]

12. this is what i am seeing

i was so concerned, but what i am seeing if a parent is aware and puts in the time to educate, teach, listen and learn, we can have both the boys and girls not fall for this shit

i tell my boys to look for that hard headed woman, it will serve them well. as in, make for a happier life.

[mopinko]

14. my boys are pretty good, too.

one that is settled in has a spunky girlfriend that i like a lot.
the other, well, i am hoping. at this point i think he will take any kind of girl he can find, but i think it would take a strong one to stay with him!

[WatsonT]

7. So you're saying it was a conspiracy?

That the Americans set this poor guy up?

:sarcasm:

[seabeyond]

13. lol, ya

that would be what i am sayin. ah ha

[Lars39]

8. I want to know how a company.....and that's basically what the IMF is,

managed to get diplomatic immunity. They're not an embassy.
And who's going to take that immunity away from them?

[DBoon]

9. the hubris of power

individually they do to their employees what as an organization they do to whole countries

It is part of their culture to be unaccountable