This was published 3 months ago
Opinion
The end of men like Darren Wick is coming. Here’s how I know
Jenna Price
Columnist and academicMy colleagues have been embarrassed by the revelations about the behaviour of Darren Wick, former head honcho of news at Nine. It’s the avalanche of allegations, of sexual harassment, of bullying, of ghosting, the desperate remnants of alpha maleness of it all which embarrasses the women – and a few good men – with whom I work.
So, a couple of questions. Who knew what and when? How is it remotely possible that former MD Hugh Marks claims to have known nothing? Look, I believe he believes that about himself. But then he was busy with other issues, wasn’t he?
Former Nine news chief Darren Wick.
And here’s the one I know you’re all asking yourself: how could a bunch of smart, educated, powerful women put up with this terrifying behaviour for so long?
Let me answer this for you. We are still telling women not to make trouble, not to complain, just in case it ruins our careers. We are still telling women to be compliant and courteous. It hasn’t worked in my case, but then I’ve had to pay for that. The truth is, our careers are set to be ruined whether we comply or whether we don’t. If we try to tell our bosses what’s going on, we are sent on our way. Or, in the interim, we are all told to go to human resources, the place where the hopes, dreams and ambitions of many a woman have gone to die.
It is true of at least the media that the power of women at work has soared over the decades since I started my journalism cadetship at The Sydney Morning Herald in 1982, but it is also true that the power of men remains ascendant. It’s true in both industries I’ve worked in – media and universities – despite the heavily feminised workforce. It’s true of nearly every sector I’ve written about, from finance to the arts to the law.
Powerful men can choose to behave ethically and well. Unfortunately, they can also behave like bulldozers. For these men, it’s ultimately rewarding because they build a kingdom in which they are both admired and feared. Woe betide anyone unfortunate enough to be in their paths.
We are set to be saved. All set to be saved. But it will take time. This is where we are now. I’d like to believe that Nine management on the TV side acted out of a desire to protect the woman brave enough to make the complaint. But really, the government made them do it.
The end of these men is coming through legislation. And it’s accelerating because of the alleged behaviour of men like Wick. Men like Peter Fray and Chris Dore. Men like Mark Forbes. Men like the pathetic child of journalism royalty who used his connections to protect his behaviour. Men like the former ABC child genius who was forced to leave before it all came undone. Now Adrian Foo, Nine’s former publicity boss of Stan, is in the queue.
It’s true that not all the men named here behaved in the same way. Some were accused of being workplace jerks, rather than workplace predators. And none of them wielded a casting couch in the way Harvey Weinstein did. Let me tell you about the former chief of staff conducting parallel relationships with two infant journalists, each of whom thought they were “the one”. Only one got the job she wanted at the end. The other was “managed out”.
As I have suggested on many, many occasions, we should have workplace bonk bans. Sure, shag who you want on your own time but when you are doing it with a person who is professionally beneath you, it brings all manner of trouble. And the chances are that on many of these occasions, women say yes because they fear what will happen to their careers if they say no. Do not criticise women who are silent. They fear they have no choice.
What happened at Nine happens in every sector in Australia. In finance (think AMP’s Boe Pahari), in mining, in the law (think Dyson Heydon). There are cases after cases with decisions made in favour of the women complainants. But it takes more than guts to bring a complaint. It takes time, money and more resilience than most of us have.
But here is what’s about to happen. As Karen O’Connell, longtime researcher and now professor of law at UTS says, we are set to enter a new world: “We will have had a complete paradigm shift in Australia because of the introduction of positive duty.”
Shorter version: this is basically regulation of the kinds of behaviours we think of as sexual harassment. Employers will have to take a step back and look at their whole culture.
As I’ve said, maybe Nine acted out of decency. But my money is on Nine acting because it had no choice. The law says employers have a positive duty to protect staff.
In the past, we have had to rely on individuals to speak up. In the case of Boe Pahari, it’s hard to feel anything but grief when thinking about the career of Julia Szlakowski, the woman who made the complaint about AMP’s rainmaker. It’s hard to feel anything but grief when thinking about the career of young journalist Amy Taeuber, who made a complaint about a colleague and got sacked for her trouble. There’s a long list of women who are less famous but just as hurt, whose careers are in tatters because they dared to say something.
The law backs this. As O’Connell says, the future for men looks like this. Men will need to have a set of skills and a set of values that their employers need them to meet. And men will not be permitted to succeed unless they know how to treat people equally.
All I would say to the Hugh Markses of this world is, maybe listen to the women. No, you don’t have to believe every complaint which comes to you, but you do need to have open hearts and open minds. And that’s the only way to protect women at work.
Jenna Price is a visiting fellow at the Australian National University, and a regular columnist.