The Personal is Political: why effective sexual harassment policies elude parliaments and parties in a post-#MeToo world

Starting in 2017, the #MeToo movement came to prominence, highlighting widespread sexual harassment and abuse of women in the workplace. Survivors in the entertainment industry were the first to speak out, but the scandal quickly spread beyond it, including to the world of politics. In response, parliaments and political parties implemented new policies to tackle the issue. The UK parliament, for example, adopted a new Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme in the wake of its ‘pestminster’ scandal. However, continued media reporting of accusations of sexual harassment and assault has served to highlight the limitations of existing policies. It also underscores the unique challenges associated with the regulation of the conduct of elected representatives and members of political parties. Such challenges include overlapping lines of accountability, the status of MPs as direct employers, and, critically, an external and uninvolved party with an interest in sexual harassment accusations – the electorate. These factors combine to undermine key aspects of effective sexual harassment policy such as confidentiality and the implementation of effective sanctions. This paper assesses the limitations of standard organisational responses to sexual harassment in politics. First, drawing on organisational theory, it outlines the distinct features of parliaments and political parties when compared with public and for-profit organisations. These make the adoption of effective HR policies particularly challenging. Using the cases of the UK and the Republic of Ireland, the paper then compares sexual harassment policies across organisational types, highlighting areas of divergence from best practice by parliamentary and political party codes of conduct. Finally, using three cases of sexual harassment in Scotland, England, and Ireland, it illustrates the way in which the addition of the electorate as an interested but uninvolved party serves to undermine core principles of effective sexual harassment policy. For example, media reporting of accusations is done in the public interest. However, by undermining confidentiality such reporting can negatively impact both the complainant and the respondent. It can also undermine fairness if political parties’ concerns with reputation management curtail investigations and provoke disproportionate sanction. Conversely, failure to report such accusations risks voters casting their ballots with incomplete information.