“that CEA leadership knowingly enabled sexual harassment”
For what it’s worth, I personally don’t believe leadership “knowingly” enabled sexual harassment and, importantly, the appeal report comes to that same conclusion. The investigator specifically reported he did not see any evidence that the managers “believed” there was sexual harassment occurring and turned a blind eye. But rather, that they did not identify it and did not take reasonable steps to prevent it, as required in the UK under the Worker Protection Act and their own policies (a point you seem to keep avoiding). I do not mean to lead anyone to a different conclusion, and I’m not currently concerned that I have in my post. I do believe they enabled harassment through negligence and ignorance, which is different.
“Frances’s post drives readers toward several conclusions: that this incident reflects systemic misogyny in EA, that CEA leadership knowingly enabled sexual harassment, that the conduct is comparable to the predatory behavior described in the 2023 Time article, and that leadership changes may be warranted.”
I don’t think you’re representing my post very accurately. Further, I am not the comments nor can I control every conclusion readers come to. I think it would be both reasonable to want a leadership change after reading this and reasonable not to. Everyone has a different perspective on what they’d like to see from CEA and its leadership. I’d like to gently point out that the question here should never be, “is leadership bad and evil?” On a personal level, I basically like leadership. The frame here is: we are discussing a nonprofit funded by philanthropic dollars meant to represent a community that is literally about altruism.
“The organization eventually provided meaningful remediation including an apology Frances herself describes as genuine, payment for her legal representation, no confidentiality clause, and personnel changes.”
Let me be very clear: it took enormous effort on my part to achieve this. It is standard for organisation’s to pay for legal representation when attempting to pursue a settlement. In the UK, I wouldn’t have been able to sign the settlement without representation, so that was a necessary step. It was in the organisation’s best interest to settle, because the alternative is that I bring an employment tribunal claim. I do respect their willingness to forego a confidentiality clause, but again, this may not have been purely selfless. I was unwilling to sign a settlement agreement unless they obliged. You can imagine, it would be worse to have no claim waiver and no confidentiality (i.e. I can bring a claim still) than to have a claim waiver with no confidentiality (i.e. I cannot bring a claim).
“Beyond that, any attempt by CEA to provide exculpatory context would be read as attacking a victim of sexual harassment.”
If I have been at all factually incorrect or misleading, I would strongly encourage CEA to say so. Leadership is very welcome to email me to run statements by me if they are concerned about the reputational risk of correcting me. And then, they can say, “we are issuing x corrections, we have Frances’ full support,” or whatever it may be. Personally, I feel I have been very careful and accurate. I quote the appeal report directly for this very reason.
“Riley acted with predatory intent”
I never discuss Riley’s intent, nor will I. But I will point out, he was unwilling to apologise. I find your framing of “clumsiness” incongruent with this. If the sexual harassment was “clumsy,” he could simply say, “I apologise for the sexual harassment and the impact it had, which was unintentional.” He could do so while still standing by whatever else he deemed necessary in the document. And yet, he declined to do that and continues to refuse (to my best understanding, unless he secretly really wants to apologise but has somehow found himself unable and CEA has somehow failed to inform me of this fact).
For what it’s worth, I personally don’t believe leadership “knowingly” enabled sexual harassment and, importantly, the appeal report comes to that same conclusion. The investigator specifically reported he did not see any evidence that the managers “believed” there was sexual harassment occurring and turned a blind eye. But rather, that they did not identify it and did not take reasonable steps to prevent it, as required in the UK under the Worker Protection Act and their own policies (a point you seem to keep avoiding). I do not mean to lead anyone to a different conclusion, and I’m not currently concerned that I have in my post. I do believe they enabled harassment through negligence and ignorance, which is different.
I don’t think you’re representing my post very accurately. Further, I am not the comments nor can I control every conclusion readers come to. I think it would be both reasonable to want a leadership change after reading this and reasonable not to. Everyone has a different perspective on what they’d like to see from CEA and its leadership. I’d like to gently point out that the question here should never be, “is leadership bad and evil?” On a personal level, I basically like leadership. The frame here is: we are discussing a nonprofit funded by philanthropic dollars meant to represent a community that is literally about altruism.
Let me be very clear: it took enormous effort on my part to achieve this. It is standard for organisation’s to pay for legal representation when attempting to pursue a settlement. In the UK, I wouldn’t have been able to sign the settlement without representation, so that was a necessary step. It was in the organisation’s best interest to settle, because the alternative is that I bring an employment tribunal claim. I do respect their willingness to forego a confidentiality clause, but again, this may not have been purely selfless. I was unwilling to sign a settlement agreement unless they obliged. You can imagine, it would be worse to have no claim waiver and no confidentiality (i.e. I can bring a claim still) than to have a claim waiver with no confidentiality (i.e. I cannot bring a claim).
If I have been at all factually incorrect or misleading, I would strongly encourage CEA to say so. Leadership is very welcome to email me to run statements by me if they are concerned about the reputational risk of correcting me. And then, they can say, “we are issuing x corrections, we have Frances’ full support,” or whatever it may be. Personally, I feel I have been very careful and accurate. I quote the appeal report directly for this very reason.
I never discuss Riley’s intent, nor will I. But I will point out, he was unwilling to apologise. I find your framing of “clumsiness” incongruent with this. If the sexual harassment was “clumsy,” he could simply say, “I apologise for the sexual harassment and the impact it had, which was unintentional.” He could do so while still standing by whatever else he deemed necessary in the document. And yet, he declined to do that and continues to refuse (to my best understanding, unless he secretly really wants to apologise but has somehow found himself unable and CEA has somehow failed to inform me of this fact).