Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

Time’s Up Movement Author: Anna Doering Editor: Gina Robertiello Date: 2021 From: Sexual Harassment and Misconduct: An Encyclopedia Publisher: ABC-Clio Document Type: Topic overview Pages: 4 Content Level: (Level 4)

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Time’s Up Movement The purpose of the Time’s Up Movement is to bring awareness to the sexual violence and sexual harassment that women in the workplace experience and to provide solutions to combat these concerns. The movement was conceived in the fall of 2017 after a group of Hollywood stars—including Reese Witherspoon and Halle Barry—brought attention to the inequality of women in the entertainment industry. Time’s Up was born out of the #MeToo Movement and the scandal surrounding Harvey Weinstein, an American film producer accused of sexual harassment and assault of women in the movie industry. The organization developed two main goals. First, Time’s Up aims to prevent sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace. Second, the organization hopes to diversify the workforce by increasing the number of women and women of color in leadership positions.

This movement expanded outside of its Hollywood roots when the Alianza Nacional de Campesinas (a group of low-income farmworkers) wrote a letter of allegiance supporting Time’s Up’s mission. These farmworkers recognized that

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even though they worked in vastly different conditions, they shared a common experience with the women in Hollywood. These women experience the same feelings of hurt, shame, anger, and desperation that accompany sexual violence and harassment. This union of solidarity became the foundation of the Time’s Up Movement, which formally launched on January 1, 2018.

Lisa Borders (1961–present) was initiated as the first president and CEO of Time’s Up in October 2018 after serving as the vice president of global community affairs at Coca-Cola and as the president of the Women’s National Basketball Association. Borders, considered a born politician by many scholars, received her education from Duke University. Soon after the start of the #MeToo Movement, she felt a calling to become involved in an organization that supported survivors of sexual harassment and inequality in the workplace. “I was being not just invited but encouraged—implored—to step forward and be part of this transformational change for women,” Borders said (Desta 2018). Borders saw Time’s Up as her opportunity to make a lasting impact and recognized the organization’s substantial vision for change. During her first few months as president, she began by assessing both the successes and challenges of the organization (Time’s Up 2018).

The Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund is one of the best-known and most important aspects of the organization. Its aim is to provide resources and financial support to individuals who have undergone

sexual harassment or retaliation in their workplace. Sexual harassment is defined as the “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of sexual nature” (Time’s Up 2018). Harassment can also include nonsexual comments that are offensive toward an individual’s sex in general. The fund is directed by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), an advocacy group for women’s rights directed by Sharyn Tejani (1968–present). Tejani works for the Department of Justice, and in her legal career, she specializes in issues regarding civil rights and women’s rights.

The Legal Defense Fund serves two primary purposes: support individuals that need legal assistance and fund outreach grants. As of January 2019, this fund reached more than $22 million from numerous donors, including Hollywood stars, Time’s Up’s partners, and the general public, through sources such as GoFundMe (an online platform that allows individuals to raise money for a specific cause). The money was used to provide legal resources—including access to eight hundred attorneys across the country—to more than thirty-four hundred women from all fifty states. Two-thirds of the women supported through this fund fall into the low-income category. Along with legal support, eighteen outreach grants have utilized $750,000 to create and share educational materials that teach the public about their rights as well as the resources in place to support survivors (Time’s Up 2018).

The organization and Hollywood stars gained media attention by shining light on the Time’s Up movement through the 2018 Golden Globes “blackout” and the creation of the #AskMoreOfHim campaign. During the 2018 Golden Globe Awards, celebrities wore black to stand in solidarity against sexual harassment in the workplace. This sign of unity brought attention to the magnitude of the problem. Sophia Bush (1982–present), an American actress, said that the symbolism of

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the blackout was something the media could not ignore. The organization’s prominence at the Golden Globes continued into the 2019 awards, when celebrities wore bracelets and ribbons, stating TIMESUP×2, to symbolize Time’s Up’s effort to double the number of women in leadership positions in multiple industries (Time’s Up 2018).

Another effort by the Time’s Up Movement was the initiation of the #AskMoreOfHim campaign by several male actors. David Schwimmer, Justin Baldoni, David Arquette, and Matt McGorry created the campaign to show support and solidarity with the Time’s Up Movement and encourage men to use their power in society to campaign for an end to sexual harassment. In the initial letter that started the campaign, David Arquette and David Schwimmer concurred that men play an essential role in ending sexual harassment, as men are the primary abusers in most harassment situations. These aggressors blend in with the rest of society as friends, neighbors, coworkers, elected officials, and more. Arquette and Schwimmer asserted that men must hold one another accountable for their actions to create an environment of safety and security for people of all genders and sexualities. Thirty men signed this letter in support of launching the #AskMoreOfHim campaign. They vowed to hold themselves and those around them accountable for their actions to help prevent sexual harassment for women, men, and gender nonconforming individuals alike. The campaign provides resources and strategies for men to utilize to take action in their own communities (The Representation Project 2019).

The Time’s Up Movement has been met with an outpouring of support, yet it has also received strong criticism. Critics of Time’s Up argue that it is no more than a symbolic movement that will make relatively little or no impact in the lives of the women it strives to support. One media outlet criticized the movement for being hypocritical. The news source claimed that the Time’s Up movement is merely a publicity stunt and that the women behind the movement continue to work for the rich and highly funded abusers within their industry (Clark 2018). Some Hollywood stars supported this viewpoint, claiming that the Golden Globes blackout was a symbol of “Hollywood fakery” because many of the women involved in the movement worked for Harvey Weinstein at one point or another in their

careers. Additionally, this movement failed to incorporate Weinstein’s accusers, who played a key role in the birth of the Time’s Up movement (McGrath 2018).

Anna Doering

See also: Harvey Weinstein Scandal ; #MeToo Movement ; Sexual Harassment Training ; Social Media

Further Reading Clark, Corinne. 2018. “Hollywood’s #TimesUp Movement Still Fails Young Women, Despite Buzz and Accolades.” Washington Examiner, January 2. Accessed February 12, 2019, from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/hollywoods-timesup-movement-still-fails-young-women-despite- buzz-and-accolades .

Desta, Yohana. 2018. “Lisa Borders, Time’s Up’s First President and C.E.O., Knows This Isn’t Going to Be Easy.” Vanity Fair, October 2. Accessed February 13, 2019. https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/10/lisa-borders-times-up-president-ceo .

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McGrath, Rachel. 2018. “Rose McGowan Critiques Time’s Up Movement, Singling Out Justin Timberlake.” HuffPost, January 31. Accessed February 12, 2019. https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/rose-mcgowanmes-up- justintimberlake_uk_5a71af5ae4b0a6aa4874f4d6 .

The Representation Project. 2019. “#AskMoreOfHim.” Accessed February 10, 2019. http://therepresentationproject.org/the-movement/askmoreofhim/ .

Time’s Up. 2018. “Time’s Up.” Accessed February 10, 2019. https://www.timesupnow.com/ . Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2021 ABC-CLIO, LLC Source Citation (APA 7th Edition)    Doering, A. (2021). Time’s Up Movement. In G. Robertiello (Ed.), Sexual Harassment and Misconduct:

An Encyclopedia (pp. 332-335). ABC-CLIO. https://link-gale- com.mjc.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/CX8252400144/GVRL?u=modestojc_main&sid=bookmark- GVRL&xid=7e30b3dd

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