Power and Sex

On Friday I wrote about infidelity, beginning with the accusations against the former head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, now under house arrest, then moving to the affairs of powerful men. If power is an aphrodisiac, I continued, and powerful men are besieged by women, it’s only because the men appear receptive to seduction.

My essay has been criticized because it began with the issue of sexual predation but then segued to the seduction of men by women. The criticism is valid, because seduction constitutes only part of the story, and probably a small part. Powerful men sometimes abuse their position with subordinates, even forcing themselves upon them, as in the case of the former president of Israel, who has been convicted of rape. More often, though, men who abuse their authority with subordinates to extract sexual favors do so not by physical force but by threats, implied or actual, of retaliation for refusal or rewards for acquiescence. The abuse of authority is not restricted to politicians, of course. Friday’s Times carried a front-page story about the culture of sexual predation at the IMF, where “alpha male economists” prey on their female subordinates, and where women feel threatened and vulnerable.

In any setting, wherever men have authority over women, the potential for sexual predation exists. Workplace rules, therefore, must not only make it explicit that such behavior is unacceptable, but management must also punish its violation. At the IMF, however, such behavior might actually have been encouraged by the rule that “intimate personal relationships between supervisors and subordinates do not, in themselves, constitute harassment.” The head of the IMF himself provided an example a few years ago, when he remained in his post after it was discovered that he had been carrying on an affair with a staffer. I can only imagine what it must be like for a woman to work in such an atmosphere.

I did not intend to trivialize the problem of men’s abuse of authority over women, and if I left that impression, I apologize.