#Me Too Campaign

Me Too Campaign

Finally, the revolution many women deserve who have been subjected to sexual harassment.

They had often gotten away with it for years, and for those they harassed, it seemed as if the perpetrators would never pay any consequences. Then came the report that detailed Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assaults and harassment, and his fall from Hollywood’s heights

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A year later, even as the #MeToo movement meets a crackling backlash, it’s possible to take some stock of how the Weinstein case has changed the corridors of power. A New York Times analysis has found that, since the publishing of the exposé (followed days later by a New Yorker investigation), at least 200 prominent men have lost their jobs after public allegations of sexual harassment. A few, including Mr. Weinstein, face criminal charges. At least 920 people came forward to say that one of these men subjected them to sexual misconduct. And nearly half of the men who have been replaced were succeeded by women.

In the year preceding the Weinstein report, by contrast, fewer than 30 high-profile people made the news for resigning or being fired after public accusations of sexual misconduct. The downfall of the Fox host Bill O'Reilly in April 2017 turned out to have been just a foreshock of the changes to come.

“We’ve never seen something like this before,” said Joan Williams, a law professor who studies gender at the University of California, Hastings. “Women have always been seen as risky, because they might do something like have a baby. But men are now being seen as more risky hires.”

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Sexual harassment has hardly been erased in the workplace. Federal law still does not fully protect huge groups of women, including those who work freelance or at companies with fewer than 15 employees. New workplace policies have little effect without deeper cultural change. And as the Supreme Court confirmation battle over Brett Kavanaugh showed, Americans disagree on how people accused of sexual misconduct should be held accountable and what the standard of evidence should be.

But the analysis shows that the #MeToo movement shook, and is still shaking, power structures in society’s most visible sectors. The Times gathered cases of prominent people who lost their main jobs, significant leadership positions or major contracts, and whose ousters were publicly covered in news reports.

Forty-three percent of their replacements were women. Of those, one-third are in news media, one-quarter in government, and one-fifth in entertainment and the arts. For example, Robin Wright replaced Kevin Spacey as lead actor on “House of Cards,” Emily Nemens replaced Lorin Stein as editor of “The Paris Review,” and Tina Smith replaced Al Franken as a senator from Minnesota.

People Replacing Men Accused of Sexual Misconduct

Women are starting to gain power in organizations that have been jolted by harassment, with potentially far-reaching effects.

“I find it so interesting the number of people who come up to me and say, ‘Thank you for stepping in when someone needed to step in,’” Ms. Smith said. “That’s a lot of what women do a lot of the time, right?”

Appointing a woman does not guarantee change. Women have also harassed and covered up harassment. Some women face the glass cliff — in which women are appointed to leadership in times of organizational crisis, when the chance of failure is higher. And while the share of women who have risen to power in the wake of Mr. Weinstein’s fall is significant, women are still vastly underrepresented at the top of American institutions.

Research has repeatedly shown that women tend to lead differently. In general, they create more respectful work environments, where harassment is less likely to flourish and where women feel more comfortable reporting it. Female leaders tend to hire and promote more women; pay them more equally; and make companies more profitable. Women bring their life experiences and perspectives to decision-making, and that can help in business because women make the vast majority of purchasing decisions. In government, women have been shown to be more collaborative and bipartisan, and promote more policies supporting women, children and social welfare.

That has been true in Congress, said Ms. Smith, a Democrat. In a highly polarized Senate, women tend to be unusually collegial across party lines, she said, and the 23 female senators meet for dinner monthly.

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