The True Cost Of Unreported Sexual Harassment

The culture that discouraged Christine Blasey Ford from alleging sexual assault punishes women throughout their careers

- Rebecca Greenfield and Janet Paskin

Almost exactly a year after revelations about movie mogul Harvey Weinstein kick-started the #MeToo movement, another hashtag is taking off: #WhyIDidntReport. This one refers to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that District of Columbia Circuit Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers, some 35 years ago.

The vast majority of people who experience rape, sexual assault, or sexual harassment—which are all illegal, for the record—don’t make an official complaint. Blasey Ford didn’t either, until Kavanaugh was nominated for a seat on the United States Supreme Court. The hashtag started trending after President Donald Trump took to Twitter to defend his nominee, saying that “if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says” he was certain charges would have been filed.

As with #MeToo, women responded with their personal stories of staying silent. Some of their reasons included: “Because I thought it wasn’t rape if you were dating,” “because I thought everyone would say it was my fault,” “because I didn’t want my mom to know I was drinking,” “because he was in my friend group.”

Women with higher profiles chose more public venues to come forward. Cookbook author and Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi wrote in the New York Times that she’d been raped by a boyfriend when she was 16 and feared being cast out by her family if they knew. Rosario Marin, Treasurer of the U.S. under President George W. Bush, wrote on