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Dr. Gerda Govine served as a co-producer and
co-writer
with Charlotte Collins for the video ...
"Economic
Violence - Life Interrupted:
Sexual Harassment and the Downward Spiral
of the Working Women"
Filmmakers
Gerda Govine-Ituarte, Ed.D., Friends Chair/Project Producer
Charlotte
Blackmon Collins, M.A., Project Producer/Director
Sponsored by . . .
the Friends of the Pasadena Commission on the Status of Women and the City
of Pasadena Commission on the Status of Women
Inspiration for the Project
"No one has ever explained the higher rate of unemployment and job turnover
among women ..." -Equal Value: An Ethical Approach to Economics and
Sex by Carol S. Robb
Purpose
This 28-minute video production, produced in 2002, was designed as an
educational/training tool to be used in organizational and classroom
programs on sexual harassment and sex discrimination. The video is being shown at Women's Studies and other academic conferences where women
are
largely in attendance.
Audience
This video program is aimed at current and future working women,
inclusive of all ages, ethnicity, socio-economic and organizational
situation and levels.
Message
-
The program
carries the message that the economic/financial costs of sexual harassment
and sex discrimination in the workplace are not "temporary".
-
Rather, the
costs have a long-term effect on a woman's lifetime economic growth and
contribute to a downward spiral of her economic/financial stability, with
inter-generational implications.
-
The program
aims to highlight the link between sexual harassment and the cycle of
downward mobility, unemployment (or under-employment) and poverty among
women.
Desired
Outcome Following Viewing
We hope this program will demonstrate to women viewers ...
...that
putting up with sexual harassment opens the door to a lifetime downward
economic spiral.
...that
patriarchal systems are invested in understating, and thus attempting to
conceal, the costs to the victim.
...that the
employed woman must inform herself about her employers' sexual harassment
policies.
...that she
must know the formal procedures for filing grievances, and
...that she
must understand the cost to her lifetime economic stability of failing to
take early and appropriate action.
Design
of the Video Project
This video does not provide the details of the harassment the women
have been subjected to.
The video
project itself is made up of interviews with the following people:
-
Two women
who have suffered a range of economic losses due to sex discrimination and
sexual harassment in their work environments.
-
Jackie
Shelton is 43 and African American; she worked as a technician in the
electronics assembly industry for eight years; she tried to use internal
company remedies to gain relief but finally filed a legal case, lost and
is appealing her case.
-
Ellen
Snortland is 48 and Caucasian. Ellen simply walked away from her promising
career as a network television director in the entertainment industry.
-
Christina
Fuentes, a financial planner, speaks on the short term and long-term
economic/financial effects of sexual harassment and sex discrimination at
work.
-
Joe C.
Hopkins, a sexual harassment and discrimination attorney, speaks on the
economic costs of pursuing legal remedies; the inadequacy of monetary
judgments in the woman's favor that fail to compensate her fully for
economic and emotional losses; the economic/financial costs of losing the
case, such as having to pay defendant's legal fees.
About
the Filmmakers
Gerda
Govine-Ituarte, Ed.D., above left, has designed educational and
training programs for schools, colleges and other public and private
organizations through her consulting firm. She is a writer, political and
community activist and past chair of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce. She
currently chairs the Friends of the Pasadena Commission on the Status of
Women. She is also an expert witness in sexual harassment and discrimination
legal cases.
Charlotte Blackmon Collins, above right, has an M.A. in Critical
Studies of Film & Television and teaches writing at the University of
California, Irvine. She has produced educational and training videos for 20
years. One of her projects is in the Smithsonian Institution in Women's
History Archives. She is currently working on a series of video projects on
women's access to the economy, of which this is the first.
To order or see more details about the video:
www.pasadenafriendsofcsw.org
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