Judy Woodruff:
The hashtag #MeToo has millions of women sharing abuse stories, highlighting a disturbing reality in our society.
It was used for the first time in 2007, but when actor Alyssa Milano tweeted him on Sunday evening to talk about harassment and sexual assault following the story of Harvey Weinstein, he became viral. The hashtag was tweeted almost a million times in just 48 hours. Facebook reported that 45% of its users have friends who posted #MeToo, as women have written about their experiences in the workplace and culture, and what should change.
We explore some of these problems with the tombs of Fatima Goss. She is president of the National Women’s Law Center. Lisa Senecal wrote on her own experience for the online information site Daily Beast. She is with the Vermont commission on women. And Melissa Silverstein is the founder of the blog and the Women and Hollywood website.
Thank you all for joining you.
Lisa Senecal, I will start with you.
You have had personal experience with sexual harassment. This is partly what attracted you to this #MeToo campaign movement.
Tell us briefly about what happened.
Lisa Senecal, Member, Vermont Commission on women: of course.
Like most women, I had a number of experiences with sexual harassment, starting with my first job, when I was 15 years old. And it was really a threat throughout my professional career.
The most blatant offense was a real assault that occurred with a male frame. Unfortunately, because of an NDA – and we can enter the ills of non -divulgations another time – but because of this, there is not much that I can say on the specific event.
But the question of sexual harassment and finally before, many women already know him of the reception. And I think, especially with the #MeToo campaign, it was really wonderful and a revealing experience for men to achieve how much it is an omnipresent problem.
