36. All in a Name

In the 1970s, Sandra Bundy was working hard at her job at the Department of Corrections in Washington DC. She loved her job, but just turning up to work was becoming unbearable.

Sandra’s male supervisors kept propositioning her for sex, asking her out on dates and making inappropriate comments. When she reported the problem to her boss’s boss, he tried to proposition her too. As the situation escalated, the language of sexual violence was used.

Sandra knew what she was experiencing was wrong, but she didn’t have the words to describe what she was going through, let alone try and seek justice.

In this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed delves into the history of the anti-sexual harassment movement in the US in the 1970s to understand how finding the right words can help us tackle big wrongs.

He’ll discover how culture, politics and the law intersect to bring about new ideas, and how these ideas filter down into our everyday understanding of the world.

With Sandra Bundy, philosopher Miranda Fricker, social historian Linda Hirshman, lawyer Arthur Chotin and anthropologist Alex Bentley.

Presenter: Matthew Syed Producers: Nadia Mehdi & Pippa Smith Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey Sound Design and Mix: Rob Speight Special thanks to: Luke Mullins and Ellen Rolfes Theme music by Ioana Selaru A Novel production for BBC Radio 4