News and Announcements

Can Tech Workers Complain About Sexual Harassment? Depends What They Signed.

Nov 9, 2017 / Media Coverage

One key obstacle to understanding the scope of sexual harassment and discrimination in Silicon Valley is the culture of employment agreements, non-disparagement clauses, and ironclad settlements that keep everything from product plans to allegations of abuse under wraps. But amid growing concern about sexual harassment in key American industries, iconic tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Uber are largely silent about legal agreements that might hamper their employees' ability to publicly discuss sexual harassment in the workplace, a position that reflects the...

The ‘Click’ Moment: How the Weinstein Scandal Unleashed a Tsunami

Nov 5, 2017 / Media Coverage

In 1991, women wore “I Believe Anita” buttons. Now they post #metoo. Social media, famous accusers and generational change add up to a profound shift. Forty years ago this month, Ms. magazine put sexual harassment on its cover for the first time. Understanding the sensitivity of the topic, the editors used puppets for the cover image — a male hand reaching into a woman’s blouse — rather than a photograph. It was banned from some supermarkets nonetheless. In 1977, the term sexual harassment had not been defined in the law and had barely entered the public lexicon. And yet, to read that Ms...

How media outlets cover their own sexual harassment scandals

Nov 2, 2017 / Media Coverage

Mike Oreskes sure isn't getting the Roger Ailes treatment. On the air, Fox News handled Ailes's resignation amid sexual harassment allegations last year like an honorable discharge, lauding the professional accomplishments of the longtime network chairman while scarcely mentioning the claims against him. But NPR's coverage of Oreskes, its senior vice president for news until his resignation on Wednesday, has been unsparing. Shortly after Oreskes stepped down, host Mary Louise Kelly grilled NPR chief executive Jarl Mohn about his decision not to remove Oreskes sooner. The public broadcaster...

How We Describe Sexual Assault: Times Journalists and Lawyers Respond

Oct 31, 2017 / Media Coverage

“Nonconsensual sex” is the language of the accused, used to hijack the conversation and sugarcoat allegations of sexual assault. Bill O’Reilly, Harvey Weinstein, Roy Price, and others have all recently denied allegations of “nonconsensual sex” in this paper ... It’s time to stop allowing the perpetrators to frame the dialogue. Words matter, choose them wisely. — Diane Tider-Johansson, in a letter to the editor The New York Times is at the forefront of a national conversation about sexual assault. In recent weeks, Times journalists have broken stories related to allegations against an ever-...

These are the most prominent allegations to surface as part of the #MeToo campaign around sexual abuse

Oct 29, 2017 / Media Coverage

As dozens of women have accused top Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault and harassment, women across many industries have been speaking out about their own experiences. Joining the #MeToo campaign, lawmakers, journalists, and athletes are telling their stories of sexual abuse and calling for change. In the aftermath of a flood of sexual assault and harassment allegations against top Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, thousands of women all over the country — and across the world — spanning diverse industries are speaking out about their experiences as victims of workplace...

How Harvey Weinstein is altering the landscape of workplace sexual harassment

Oct 27, 2017 / Media Coverage

Will Harvey Weinstein reshape the national discussion about sexual harassment at work? The scandal that rocked Hollywood and toppled the career of the famous producer has raised the discussion of workplace misconduct to a new level. Coming on the heels of other sexual harassment scandals involving high-profile men like Bill O’Reilly and Roger Ailes of Fox News, the Weinstein case is prompting a re-evaluation of how harassment is handled in the workplace. “If we can see a silver lining in this horrible situation, it has started a dialogue,” said Michelle Lee Flores, an employment litigation...

Sexual harassment ‘is a systemic cultural problem in the advertising industry’

Oct 26, 2017 / Media Coverage

The allegations of sexual harassment surrounding Harvey Weinstein have had an impact beyond the movie industry: Women in ad agencies are now telling their own stories of inappropriate behavior in the workplace with one senior executive urging them to step forward. Last week, entrepreneur and former ad industry head Cindy Gallop wrote a Facebook post. In it, she called for women in advertising to email her their experiences of sexual harassment, "to end the Harvey Weinsteins of our industry once and for all." She did so because she suspected the industry had a problem, having heard many...

Workplace harassment blights industries across board

Oct 25, 2017 / Media Coverage

Sexual harassment in the workplace is a global scourge. From sport to cuisine, from fashion to finance, here is a round-up of industries in the United States dogged by revelations in the wake of Harvey Weinstein's disgrace. - Cinema - A Norwegian actress on Wednesday joined more than 50 women who have already publicly accused Hollywood mogul Weinstein since October 5 of sexual misconduct ranging from inappropriate touching to rape, stretching back decades. Natassia Malthe told a news conference in New York that Weinstein forced himself onto her in a London hotel in 2008. "It was not...

Audio: Gretchen Carlson On Buying Silence From Harassment Victims

Oct 25, 2017 / Media Coverage

Gretchen Carlson, O&G partner Kathleen Peratis discuss Non-Disclosure Agreements and arbitration. The sexual harassment and assault revelations just keep coming. Bill O’Reilly and his stunning $32 million harassment settlement of complaints brought by a colleague at Fox News. Harvey Weinstein, and former employees begging to be allowed to speak. One breaking her nondisclosure agreement to tell all. Those agreements have kept women silent for years. Gretchen Carlson signed one with Fox. She’s with us. This hour, On Point: Nondisclosure agreements, and breaking the silence on sexual...

Working Women and the Sexual Harassment We Don't Hear About

Oct 24, 2017 / Media Coverage

Accusations against famous men like Bill O'Reilly and Harvey Weinstein have forced a national dialogue, but many victims work low-level jobs at the margins of society. What stunned me, at first, were the penises. In depositions and case filings, they kept popping up: penis-shaped calzones, chocolates, pastries, statues, dildos, soaps, magic-marker drawings. Women reported finding them in their lockers, their desk drawers, on bathroom walls. Call me a naïve lesbian, but before I started reporting on sexual harassment about 15 years ago, I had no idea men were so, um, attached to intimidating...

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