work sexual harassment
© Officer's Choice Blue
When Kirsten Anderson submitted a memo detailing her concerns about sexual harassment at the Iowa Capitol, she expected comments about women in the office - their sex lives, breast sizes and the length of skirts worn by teenage pages - to stop.

Instead, Anderson was fired seven hours later from her job with the Iowa Republican Senate Caucus.

After four years of litigation that ended in September, the state agreed to pay $1.75 million to settle her claim, leaving taxpayers footing the bill. Her case is among the first in a recent wave of high-profile sexual harassment cases that have roiled state legislatures around the nation, highlighting the moral and financial liability states faces as claims pile up.

Since last year, at least 40 lawmakers - nearly all men - in 20 states have been publicly accused by more than 100 people of some form of sexual misconduct or harassment, a USA TODAY NETWORK analysis found.

The total, which doesn't include confidential or anonymous complaints or government staffers who have been accused of sexual misdeeds, reflects unprecedented levels of scrutiny on statehouses across the country.

Swift action has been taken against high-profile men, including Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, and others accused of sexual harassment. There have been varying degrees of punishment for lawmakers.

Two weeks ago, Kentucky House Speaker Jeff Hoover resigned from his leadership position amid growing pressure over a report that he settled a sexual harassment complaint made by a staff member.

Florida's Senate president earlier this month ordered an investigation into allegations that Sen. Jack Latvala, who is running for governor, made inappropriate comments or touched six women. Latvala has denied the claims.

Earlier this year, Rep. Mark Lovell, a freshman Tennessee lawmaker, resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment. The resignation followed last year's expulsion of former Rep. Jeremy Durham, who had inappropriate sexual contact with at least 22 women, according to an attorney general's investigation.

The ways lawmakers have handled sexual harassment and assault allegations has left some experts looking for change.

"The consequence must fit the transgression," said Jennifer A. Drobac, an Indiana University law professor and expert on sexual harassment cases. "You have to withdraw the privileges, kick them out of Congress or out of the statehouse. Take away the privileges of their employ and their health care benefits."

Debbie Dougherty, a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri who has written several reports on sexual harassment, said the latest wave of sexual harassment allegations against powerful men follows a slow but steady stream of similar accusations against officials at FOX News, Uber and the National Park Service.

"It's like a stone rolling downhill. You see some and then you see some more and then you see a lot," said Dougherty.

"The problem has been ignored and minimized for so, so many years that I think we're just seeing the tip of the iceberg."

Power unchecked

Behavior at statehouses, long dominated by male lawmakers, has been thrust into the national spotlight as employees come forward to spell out an entrenched culture of sexual harassment.

This year, both Democrats and Republicans are facing accusations of misdeeds at nearly two dozen state capitols. They include Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont and Washington.