“Marketplace” anchor O’Leary on sexual harassment from sources

Lizzie O’Leary, the “Marketplace Weekend” anchor, writes for The Cut about the sexual harassment she and her colleagues have experienced while reporting stories.

O’Leary writes, “Over the course of my career, I have shrugged off things that horrify me now. I learned to push through the routine humiliation. As an ambitious woman, I often ran an internal calculation about how much ‘trouble’ I was willing to make. Should I fight about the story I want to do or the unwelcome remark about my legs? Time and time again, I went with the former. If I hadn’t, I don’t know if I would have been as successful. I’m not ashamed about wanting a career, but I can’t look back at some of my actions without wincing.

“Now, in a senior position, I look at my brilliant younger colleagues, and I never want them to endure what for years I told myself was ‘gray stuff.’ Ignoring it, as I’d learned to do, only lets it fester and continue.

“Earlier this year, I drove back from an interview with two younger female colleagues. A man we interviewed had touched one of their arms, repeatedly, even when asked to stop. We had to suck it up and finish the day. But I also felt a deep obligation to protect her. It was just like so many things that had happened to me, and I didn’t do enough to stop it. So, driving back to our hotel on a snowy rural highway, we talked. I told them about harassment in my career, from sources and from colleagues. I told them what happened that day was unacceptable. And we gamed out different responses and ways to handle things. None of the options was to ignore it.”

Read more here.