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Gretchen Carlsonis reflecting on her major lawsuit against Fox News chairman Roger Ailes five years later, highlighting the strides made in squashing sexual harassment in the workplace.
Carlson’s speaking out and taking legal action against an industry titan helped pioneer the #MeToo movement, and five years later, she is pointing out the significant progress made.
Shespoke further about the anniversary, tellingVarietythat the “effects of the lawsuit were seismic.”
“Cultural shifts take a tremendous amount of time. But in five years, we’ve made immenseprogress. First of all, women are being believed. Perpetrators are being held accountable. They’re not able to just hide behind a denial,” Carlson, 55, said. “They’re actually in many cases being fired. And payouts to predators are stopping.”
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Listing some of the major factors that helped highlight the issue of sexual harassment, Carlson toldVarietythat journalists and social media played a big part — plus “the American public was p—-d off … they started hearing about these stories, and they were like, ‘What the hell? We haven’t solved this yet?’ "
“I mean, women knew what was happening. It comes full circle, because why didn’t the American public know about it? Because everything was going into secrecy in arbitration and NDAs,” explained Carlson, who has become an advocate for workplace equality and ending workplace sexual harassment. “When you get rid of that, you can’t hide it anymore.”
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“Obviously, it was surreal for me to watch it on the screen, my story playing out. And having these amazing actresses who decided to take on these roles. I’ve had to look at it from the positive point of view: Five years ago, this movie, the miniseries would not have been made because nobody gave a flying you-know-what about sexual harassment in the workplace,” the mother of two said.
“I can’t tell you how many people have reached out to me, saying that they saw eitherThe Loudest VoiceorBombshellor both, and they share their stories with me, they say, ‘Thank you for the courage. Thank you for kicking this whole thing off,’ " she added. “I hear from men and women.”
source: people.com
