Possible unfitting behavior toward women should not be ignored

The intent of the Women’s Caucus memo that resulted in a second confirmation hearing for Circuit Judge Michael Wilson was to address the concerns of misconduct toward women in the workplace that recently surfaced.

This is also a matter of fairness to Wilson, as he deserves an opportunity to respond to the testimony the Hawaii State Bar Association (HSBA) submitted after the first hearing.

More detailed questions about Wilson’s work history have been raised, stemming from the negative comments from HSBA which cited "work ethic concerns, a lack of professionalism in the workplace and questions concerning the propriety of conduct toward women in professional contexts, and the ability to serve at the level of Supreme Court justice."

Lawmakers will hold a hearing Saturday, 11 a.m. at the state Capitol in Room 16, to allow people with concerns to step forward.

The caucus recognizes that Wilson is highly regarded by many reputable people in our community and has done many wonderful things in his career. However, we do believe that issues and concerns related to the treatment of women in the workplace should never be ignored. We have an obligation to address these concerns.

If we did not give it a second look, we would be doing a disservice to all the work that many women have done to make sexual assault, sexual harassment and conduct toward women a public concern.

The fact is, the issue of treatment of women in the workplace is all too often dismissed, as the problem is belittled or normalized.

As female senators, we want to send the message to our society that this is a real issue that needs to be addressed. Workplace misconduct toward women is one of the most difficult and insidious issues to tackle, as most victims are in vulnerable positions and/or are afraid of retribution.

Many women don’t speak up for fear of not being taken seriously.

We also want to make sure that women are given a safe place to raise these issues during a confirmation process for any position.

Our society must continue to take issues of sexual harassment, sexual assault and conduct toward women seriously in order to keep us from becoming a society that trivializes them to a point where we accept it as the norm.

As mentioned in the memo, the Women’s Caucus also supports re-evaluating the Judicial Selection Commission (JSC) screening process for future judicial applications.

Based on inquiries, it appears that some of the performance evaluations of sitting judges may not be routinely weighed by the JSC.

We want to ensure a thorough vetting before the Senate receives the nomination for consideration.

During the legislative session, the Senate has only 30 days to consider the nominee, and therefore relies heavily on the JSC to do a good job.

Members of the Senate Women’s Caucus are: Senate President Donna Mercado Kim and Sens. Michelle Kidani, Laura Thielen, Suzanne Chun Oakland, Maile Shimabukuro, Jill Tokuda, Roz Baker and Malama Solomon.