New research has suggested that female employees at fast food restaurants operated by Andrew Puzder, Donald Trump’s nomination for labor secretary, face far higher levels of workplace sexual harassment than the industry average. According to the research conducted by Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC) United, around 66% of female workers reported sexual harassment at brands owned by CKE restaurants, run by Puzder, compared with the average of 40% across the fast food industry.

The man at the top of this particular food chain has repeatedly made sexist statements and expressed his backing for the infamous adverts that have objectified and sexualised women’s bodies to sell hamburgers for CKE restaurants chains including Carl’s Jr. “We believe in putting hot models in our commercials, because ugly ones don’t sell burgers,” Puzder said, in a 2009 press release. Last year he proudly endorsed the adverts, and stated: “I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis … I used to hear that brands take on the personality of the CEO. And I rarely thought that was true, but I think this one, in this case, it kind of did take on my personality.”



Fifty six per cent of the 564 female CKE restaurant employees surveyed reported sexual harassment from customers, including sexual remarks, being asked to have intercourse, being asked to expose their breasts and being followed outside the store. Significantly, some reported that perpetrators directly referenced the adverts. “Customers have asked why I don’t dress like the women in the commercials,” one Tennessee-based Hardee’s employee told researchers. (Elizabeth Johnson, a spokesperson for Trump’s transition team, called the report “fake news” that was “paid for by unions and special interests opposed to Andy Puzder’s nomination.”)

Andrew Puzder criticized as 'cruel and baffling' choice for labor secretary Read more

When the person at the top of a company normalises objectification, it makes it much more socially acceptable for others to treat women in a similar way. This is one of the clearest illustrations yet of the “trickle-down” effect we see when people who themselves exhibit prejudiced views are put in positions of great power. It is a phenomenon we must prepare ourselves to see a great deal more of after Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States.



The election campaign clearly emboldened prejudice. By December last year, the Southern Poverty Law Center had catalogued more than 1,000 bias-related incidents that had occurred since the election, including anti-immigrant, anti-black, anti-Muslim and anti-LGBT abuse. A local Republican politician in Connecticut was arrested for allegedly pinching a female employee’s genitals, after saying: “I love this new world, I no longer have to be politically correct.” A Georgia high-school teacher found a note on her desk telling her that her Muslim headscarf “isn’t allowed any more”. The note continued: “Why don’t you tie it around your neck & hang yourself with it”? It was signed: “America”.



Trump and Puzder are not the only members of the incoming administration to have been associated with prejudiced views. They join a proposed cabinet of mostly white men including figures such as Stephen Bannon, formerly executive chair of a far-right website that has been described as an “online haven for white nationalists”, and which hosted articles with titles such as: “Birth control makes women unattractive and crazy” and “Here’s why there ought to be a cap on women studying science”.



When powerful role models condone bigotry and discrimination, they make it much easier for hate-fuelled incidents, already so often dismissed or ignored, to be brushed under the carpet in wider society. And when men in power seem to be able to speak and act with impunity, it is much easier for others to excuse similar behaviour.



The lawyer of the Connecticut politician arrested for allegedly grabbing a woman’s genitals denied any sexual assault and said there had only been a “a playful gesture”. When a group of male diners at a New York steak house shouted “grab them by the pussies” at a group of women, restaurant staff reportedly told the women to “calm down” because these were “good guys”.



Such leadership also emboldens those who would like to walk back the civil rights and equality gains of the past decades. Self-styled “pickup artist” Daryush “Roosh V” Valizadeh (who has called to make rape legal on private property) wrote on his website, in the aftermath of Trump’s victory:



“I’m in a state of exuberance that we now have a President who rates women on a 1-10 scale in the same way that we do and evaluates women by their appearance and feminine attitude …”

“This is our moment”, he claimed. “[Trump’s] presence automatically legitimises masculine behaviours that were previously labelled sexist and misogynist.”



The only way to combat this legitimacy and normalisation is for everyday citizens to redouble their efforts to oppose such bigotry. Each one of us has the opportunity, in our actions and reactions, our choices as bystanders and our daily conversations, to speak out against prejudice. When hate-fuelled abuse is spouted on a public bus; when a biased comment is made in the workplace; when bigoted bullying happens on a university campus; the most important behaviour isn’t that of perpetrator or victim, but of the bystanders who have a vital choice to make. Would you put your head down, walk on by and say nothing? Would you silently send the message that this is the new normal? Or could you be the person who dares to stand up and make it clear that this is neither accepted nor acceptable, regardless of who is sitting in the Oval Office.



Thousands of people around the world will start by taking a stand this week, joining the Women’s March on Washington (and others around the world) on 21st January, to send the message that rhetoric and division like that espoused by Donald Trump won’t be quietly accepted or ignored.