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WASHINGTON (AP) — Barbara Myers started work as an apprentice electrician in 1995, and over the years she learned to shoot back sexual banter on the job site as much as she had to take it from some of her coworkers.
Those days, she says, are starting to change.
“I have worked over the last several years, actually, to really be much more circumspect in my conversation,” Myers said. “And so, basically, I don’t talk about things like that. And I know a lot of the guys are the same way.”
Myers is among the roughly one-third of American workers who say they’ve changed how they act at work in the past year, as the #MeToo movement has focused the nation’s attention on sexual misconduct and highlighted issues of racial and ethnic diversity at the same time, according to a new poll of Americans who are full- or part-time employees.
The survey, conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in collaboration with the software company SAP, also found that about a third of all working adults say they have talked about sexual misconduct in the workplace with coworkers in the past year.
“I have worked construction. And I grew up during that time period, where banter of that type was much more free,” Myers said. “I have had to watch what I say. ... If I find that it would be offensive to a woman, I know that there are men that are just as sensitive.”
The poll finds American workers view the #MeToo movement more favorably than unfavorably, 45% versus 27%. Half of women had a favorable opinion, compared with 4 in 10 men; just over 3 in 10 men view the movement unfavorably.
Those who say they have been subjected to workplace sexual misconduct are especially likely to view the movement favorably, compared with of those who say they have not been victims of misconduct, 60% versus 42%.
About half of working adults think things will change for the better for working women in general as a result of the recent high-profile sexual misconduct cases. And as a result of recent focus on issues of racial and ethnic diversity, about 4 in 10 working adults think change for the better is likely for African Americans, while about a third say the same for workers of Hispanic origin.
Still, the poll found that few Americans expect positive change will come to their own workplace or for them personally. Count ShaeTiaunna Green, 26, a cashier from Wyoming, Michigan, among them.
Green, who is African American and a lesbian, said she’s hoping for positive change, but she’s not optimistic.
Still, she said she has thrived in diverse workplaces, so when she applied for her current job at a supermarket last year, she made sure it was diverse and had inclusive policies. The poll finds that diversity and inclusion policies are much more important to black and Hispanic workers than to white workers and are slightly more important to women than to men.
“I wanted to make sure that was an aspect, and so that I knew that everyone had an equal opportunity and I wouldn’t be excluded from certain opportunities,” she said.
About 4 in 10 working Americans say their employer has established new training on harassment in the workplace, instituted new policies about harassment or introduced new training on workplace diversity in the last two years. Most of those who say their workplace has made any of those changes think it’s had a positive impact.
Jason Phillips, 49, works for Seattle and said employees receive ongoing diversity training that he believes has had a positive effect on his workplace, allowing people to advance their understanding of issues of race and equity.
“We’re all on a different point in that spectrum,” he said. “And so, it provides everyone all these different opportunities to advance their awareness wherever they are on that spectrum.”
In assessing their own workplaces, about 4 in 10 working adults say white people and men experience more advantages compared with others, while about half don’t think they are more or less advantaged, according to the poll.
Robin Knight, a 58-year-old dental technician from Brooklyn, said that when it comes to pay, men often have the advantage, even though she thinks in her female-dominated field, women often have an edge in getting hired.
“For some reason, if a man is writing a check, he’ll write more to his own counterpart than to us, and I don’t know why,” she said.
The poll also shows that people who supervise at least one employee are more likely than non-supervisors to say they’ve talked with coworkers about sexual misconduct in the workplace in the last year, 41% to 23%, and that they’ve changed how they interact with coworkers, 38% to 27%.
Tom Eisenhauer, 65, of Pocatello, Idaho, manages apartment complexes and oversees 25 to 30 people. His workers often must handle difficult situations with tenants, and he said women in the industry can face harassment and discrimination from tenants and coworkers. Hispanic workers are often pigeonholed by others, with people assuming they are janitors or pool cleaners.
“They have to disprove the stereotype, even to somebody like me who’s more liberal,” said Eisenhauer, who is white.
He added: “All the horrible traps that we fall into, you know, we all do it. I’m as guilty as anybody.”
—The AP-NORC Center survey of full- and part-time employees was conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research with funding from SAP. It was conducted July 25-30 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points. Respondents were first selected randomly using address-based sampling methods and later were interviewed online or by phone.

The battle between Gov. John Bel Edwards and Republican challenger Eddie Rispone for Ralph Abraham’s voters came to Morgan City on Thursday.

Rispone met and posed for pictures with a room full of supporters, then blasted Democrat Edwards as a tax and spend liberal over seafood appetizers at the Atchafalaya Café.

Edwards, running for reelection as an increasingly rare Democratic state officeholder, was the top vote-getter in the Oct. 12 primary statewide with 47% of the vote and in St. Mary with 40%.

But together, Baton Rouge businessman Rispone’s 27% and Republican U.S. Rep. Abraham’s 24% were enough to keep Edwards from claiming a majority. It also gives Republicans hope Rispone can unseat the Deep South’s only Democratic governor in the Nov. 16 runoff.

On Thursday, Rispone called Edwards “a liberal tax and spend politician and trial lawyer.’

“It’s time for someone who will do for Louisiana what President Trump has done for the United States,” Rispone said.

The challenger labeled Edwards a trial lawyer who supports lawsuits that hurt the oil and gas industry.

He also pointed to Louisiana’s poor ranking about the nation’s public schools.

About 130,000 children attend schools that receive D or F grades under the state’s accountability system, Rispone said.

“We are not going to solve poverty if we don’t educate these children,” he said.

He said the keys are supporting teachers, working with vocational education and expanding school choice.

Edwards has countered with charges that Rispone is espousing the policies of former Gov. Bobby Jindal, who left office with potential budget shortfalls of $1 billion or looming over the governor and the Legislature.

The Edwards campaign claims credit for putting the state budget back on solid ground, a process that involved increases in sales taxes.

Rispone said he would have looked first at the state’s overhead rather than raising more revenue.

“We need a CEO,” he told reporters after his remarks at the Atchafalaya Café. “We have a $30 billion budget, and we have a trial lawyer as governor.”

Louisiana’s economy has been stung by the same drop in oil prices that has eliminated 5,000 St. Mary jobs.

“We’re going to turn this city around,” Rispone said. “We’re going to bring the work back here. We’re going to make it happen.”

He promised again to go after legacy lawsuits.

“We’re going to eliminate all these lawsuits, that’s what we’re going to do,” Rispone said. “We’re going to put the best team together and go after it from a legal standpoint and a political standpoint.”

Rispone said Louisiana has talented people who can manufacture and ship goods all over the world.

But Rispone said Edwards is killing jobs by supporting anti-oil-and-gas lawsuits.

Both Edwards and Rispone had to fend off allegations of scandal in recent days.

Edwards has accused Rispone of having a “puppet master" in businessman Lane Grigsby.

The Associated Press reported that a Republican-financed group called Truth in Politics has attacked Edwards’ handling of sexual harassment allegations against former aide Johnny Anderson. Anderson resigned two years ago.