Judy Woodruff:
The #Metoo retail brand contains millions of women who share stories about ill -treatment, and highlights a worrying fact in our society.
It was first used in 2007, but when actor Alyssa Milano tweeted it on Sunday night to talk about sexual harassment and assault in the aftermath of Harvey Winstein’s story, he became viral. The hashtag has been tweeting nearly a million times in just 48 hours. Facebook reported that 45 percent of its users have friends who have published #Metoo, and women wrote about their experiences about the workplace and culture, and what should change.
We explore some of these issues with Fatima Jose Griffs. She is the head of the National Center for Women’s Law. Lisa Cenical wrote about her own experience of the Daily Beast news site. It is with the Fairmont committee on women. Melissa Silverstein is the founder of the blog and the website Women and Hollywood.
Thank you all for joining us.
Lisa Cenical, I will start with you.
I had a personal experience with sexual harassment. This partly attracted you to this #Metoo campaign.
Just tell us briefly about what happened.
Lisa Cenical, member, Fairmont for Women: Certainly.
Like most women, I had a number of experiences with sexual harassment, starting from my first job, when I was 15 years old. It was really a threat and a messenger throughout my career.
The most terrible crimes were the actual attack that occurred with an executive director. Unfortunately, because of NDA – we can enter into the evils of not intertwining again – but because of it, there is not much that I can say about the specified event.
But the issue of sexual harassment and finally comes at the forefront, so many women are already aware of it from being at the recipient. I think, especially with the #Metoo campaign, it was a really great experience and an eye opening for men to achieve the spread of this issue.