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(CNN)An innocent mistake. That's what management of Uber Technologies Inc. reportedly told engineer Susan J. Fowler when she complained in 2015 that her manager was sexually harassing her.
When women assume the risk of going public, it can lead to policy changes. Twenty years ago, a group of female brokers and sales assistants in the Garden City, New York, branch of Smith Barney sued that firm in a sexual harassment and gender discrimination case that became known as the "Boom-Boom Room" suit, named for a party room in the branch's basement. After initially labeling it an "isolated incident" -- sound familiar? -- Smith Barney faced a cascade of similar harassment allegations from branches all over the United States.
Smith Barney paid $150 million in arbitrations and settlements in that case amid rousing talk of real change for women on Wall Street.
But the policy changes too often lack real staying power. Once the Boom-Boom Room story was no longer making headlines, the old discriminatory policies began to seep back in. By 2005, another lawsuit against Smith Barney was citing discrimination against female brokers. That one settled for $33 million in 2008. And through it all, some harassers held on to their jobs. A male broker who'd attacked a female colleague in Smith Barney's Walnut Creek, California, office in 1990 was at the firm for another 24 years, according to regulatory records.
At the same time, scholars at the Institute for Women's Policy Research in Washington found that in 2015, women in the securities industry were earning 52 cents for every dollar men made. So much for lasting change, or progress toward equality.
Is there any solution given a system that favors the employer and the harasser? Yes -- and Fowler is Exhibit A. She said on Twitter Sunday night that her revelations led to such a flood of reactions that it shut down her Twitter and Gmail apps. Many of the supporters who stampeded her accounts with "attagirls" took to social media to say they'd deleted their Uber accounts and suggested others do the same. It took no time for the hashtag #deleteuber -- which also swelled in response to Uber's decision to turn off surge pricing during the Taxi Worker's alliance participation in an anti-travel ban protest at JFK -- to begin trending on Twitter.
In other words, money talks and the Internet helps to amplify its voice. Employers have stripped us of many of our rights. But not even an Ivy League band of big-ticket lawyers can figure out a way to stop us taking our business elsewhere when we're sickened by a company's behavior.
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