300 Hollywood Women Launch Time’s Up Initiative to Combat Sexual Harassment, Gender Imbalance
Ashley Judd, Reese Witherspoon, Shonda Rhimes and Donna Langley among the leaders of the new effort
Thom Geier | January 1, 2018 @ 7:12 AM
Last Updated: January 25, 2018 @ 5:56 PM
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More than 300 prominent women in Hollywood have launched a new initiative called Time’s Up to combat sexual harassment and gender inequity in the workplace.
The project, which began Monday with the unveiling of the new Time’s Up website, includes a $13 million legal defense fund aimed to help less-privileged women — including those in non-entertainment fields — protect themselves from sexual misconduct and the potential fallout from reporting it.
Tina Tchen, Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff, has spearheaded creation of the fund, which will connect harassment victims with lawyers. The fund, which is still soliciting donations, will be administered by the National Women’s Law Center’s Legal Network for Gender Equity.
Another working group of the leaderless Time’s Up initiative plans to lobby for legislation to penalize companies that tolerate persistent harassment, and to discourage the use of nondisclosure agreements that prevent accusers from making their experiences public.
An additional group, dubbed 5050by2020, is pushing for 50-50 gender parity in executive positions at Hollywood studios, TV networks and talent agencies.
Time’s Up has also called on Hollywood women — and male supporters — to wear black at this Sunday’s Golden Globes and other upcoming awards shows as a gesture of solidarity with individuals who have broken their silence about harassment and assault in the industry in recent months.
According to the New York Times, the group’s members include actresses Ashley Judd, Eva Longoria, America Ferrera, Natalie Portman, Rashida Jones, Emma Stone, Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon; TV showrunners Shonda Rhimes and Jill Soloway; and Universal Pictures chairwoman Donna Langley.
7 Actresses Who've Demanded Equal Pay, From Emma Stone to Viola Davis (Photos)
After Patricia Arquette's Oscar acceptance speech and Jennifer Lawrence's Lenny essay last year, more and more actresses have spoken out about pay inequality.
Patricia Arquette
Arquette delivered a moving speech about pay inequality during her 2015 Oscar acceptance speech for her role in "Boyhood," but she didn't stop there. In August 2016, she told TheWrap, "Look, inequality is in 98 percent of all industries, so I’m not surprised it’s still in Hollywood. That’s just part and parcel with what’s happening across the nation."
However, she is seeing some progress: "A lot of studios are actually really making it a priority. There’s incremental changes as far as Hollywood goes."
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Hilary Swank
In October 2016, Swank told Chelsea Handler on "Chelsea" that "Boys Don't Cry" didn't pay enough to cover her health insurance. Then she revealed that she earned only 5 percent of what one of her male counterparts earned on another movie.
"But the male hadn't had any kind of critical success, but had been in a movie where he was 'hot,"' she said. "And he got offered $10 million, and I got offered $500,000."
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Emma Stone
The "La La Land" actress told Vogue in November 2016, “We should all be treated fairly and paid fairly. I’ve been lucky enough to have equal pay to my male costars. Not ‘lucky.’ I’ve had pay equal to my male costars in the past few films. But our industry ebbs and flows in a way that’s like, ‘How much are you bringing into the box office?’"
“What are we at [nationally]? Seventy-nine cents to the dollar?” Stone continued. “It’s insane. There’s no excuse for it anymore.”
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Michelle Rodriguez
In May 2016, Rodriguez invoked the S word in discussing Hollywood's gender pay gap. "It’s like being born a slave. You know it’s like, ‘Oh, damn. Darn my luck. I wish I was born somewhere else or maybe some other way,'” the actress said. “But it is what it is.”
Robin Wright
The "House of Cards" star demanded to be paid the same as co-star Kevin Spacey and threatened to go "public" if Netflix didn't cough up the dough. "I was like, ‘I want to be paid the same as Kevin,'” Wright told media at the Rockefeller Foundation earlier this year. "There are very few films or TV shows where the male, the patriarch, and the matriarch are equal. And they are in ‘House of Cards.'”
She added, "I was like, ‘You better pay me or I’m going to go public,'” Wright said. “And they did.”
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Viola Davis
In February 2016, the "How to Get Away With Murder" actress told Mashable, "I believe in equal pay, first of all. I’m sorry, if a woman does the same job as a man, she should be paid the same amount of money. She just should. That’s just the way the world should work. What are you telling your daughter when she grows up? ‘You've got to just understand that you’re a girl. You have a vagina, so that’s not as valuable.’ What are you telling her?"
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Emmy Rossum
The star of "Shameless" nearly scuttled Showtime's plans for an eighth season when she demanded to be paid the same as series co-star William H. Macy, who plays her father on the show (a move that Macy supported). The gambit worked: She wound up getting a new deal.
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Many stars rallied against gender pay gap in Hollywood — and “Shameless” star Emmy Rossum actually won
After Patricia Arquette's Oscar acceptance speech and Jennifer Lawrence's Lenny essay last year, more and more actresses have spoken out about pay inequality.
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