TimesUp Fund Logs 3,000 Complaints Since Launch, Leaders Say at Power Women Breakfast DC (Video)
Power Women Breakfast DC featured women photographers, an Iranian feminist activist and leading activists from the TimesUp movement
Jon Levine | June 13, 2018 @ 11:08 AM
Last Updated: August 8, 2019 @ 5:17 PM
More than 3,000 women have reached out for help to combat sexual abuse or assault in the six months since the TimesUp Legal Defense Fund was launched by a group of Hollywood women, a panel of the group’s leading activists said on Wednesday.
“We’ve had 3,000 women contact us, and we’ve had over 700 attorneys join the network,” Sharyn Tejani, the executive director of the TimesUp Legal Defense Fund, said at TheWrap’s Power Women Breakfast in Washington, D.C. The lawyers offer a free consultation to those who contact the fund, which has raised over $20 million to help low-income and underprivileged women address sexual abuse, she said.
Tejane was joined on the panel by actress and TimesUp co-founder Amber Tamblyn and Democratic and TimesUp activist Hilary Rosen, who described the progress the fund has made providing services to low-income women from all professions seeking redress for harassment claims.
“A patriarchy’s worst fear was that we are all going to get into a room together and start talking,” Tamblyn said during a panel discussion moderated by Washington Post gender columnist Monica Hesse. “For me, TimesUp exists so that no woman or man ever has to say MeToo again, that’s the fundamental soul of what we’re doing.”
In a standing-room only ballroom at the W Hotel, the breakfast event also featured a panel of National Geographic photographers and explorers, including Asha Stuart, Beverly Joubert, Erika Larsen, Hannah Reyes Morales and Jess Cramp. The panel was moderated the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Susan Goldberg.
Iranian feminist and author Masih Alinejad and national security specialist Michele Flournoy also spoke passionately about women’s right in Iran.
National Geographic CEO Courteney Monroe and Senator Amy Klobuchar each made welcome remarks to the room filled with more than 100 influential women in media, film and politics.
The Power Women Breakfast series brings together influential women of entertainment, media, technology and brands in key cities to network and connect. TheWrap has built a broad power base of professional women who are decision makers and mothers, leaders and wives, innovators and activists. The franchise is now in six cities including Los Angeles, New York, Austin, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Miami.
“TimesUp really was created as an organization for empowerment for gender equity in the workplace, for changing behavior in the workplace,” Rosen said. “Every single day, I pay homage to these privileged women in the entertainment industry whose gift was really to figure out how to help low wage workers.”
On the photography panel, the women shared often-harrowing stories of their experiences living among different cultures and in some cases overcoming adversity they themselves have faced.
“I live in the South Pacific and there is a romanticized view of what that means. One in three women in the Pacific are victims of domestic violence,” said Cramp, who is a shark researcher. “That’s prevalent throughout the community. Women are not seen as strong, they’re not seen as leaders … there is a culture of shame and silence. You really have an oppressed society.”
Morales, who comes from the Philippines and focuses on human trafficking in her work, said she often faced unique struggles as a women in her home country. “In the Philippines, women who are in the sex trade are often viewed as gold diggers … but when you talk to many of them there’s a common thread that they are breadwinners,” she said.
All of the women agreed that social media was an incredibly powerful took but that it needed to be employed cautiously.
“I work as a digital nomad,” said Stuart, who has documented rural village voodoo ceremonies in Haiti and acid attack burn wards in India. “One of the things that I’ve seen in the connectivity of being able to post a video on Facebook and come back and see millions of views is incredible. Media can go all across the world in a second.”
Courteney Monroe, Power Women Breakfast D.C. – Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Iranian feminist and human rights activist Masih Alinejad talked about her battle to win the right to remove her head covering, the hijab, in her conservative religious country. Alinejad now lives in exile in the United States, but cannot leave the country because of the travel ban.
“Being a woman in Iran means that you’re not allowed to show your hair,” she said, angrily. “You’re not allowed to sing solo. You’re not allowed to ride a bicycle freely. You’re not allowed to have the custody of your child. You’re not allowed to get a passport without permission from your husband.”
“This is also coming as the law,” she said. “the law actually sees us as a disabled person.”
Alinejad, an activist and author of “The Wind in My Hair: My Fight for Freedom in Modern Iran,” has launched a social media campaign against the compulsory head covering, which has often put her on the wrong side of the nation’s ruling clerics. In addition to promoting her cause, she also had tough words for Western feminists arguing they they often did more harm then good.
“In America when I talk about compulsory hijab, I often get this question that you know this is a cultural issue. It’s not. Before the revolution we had the right to choose what we wanted to wear in Iran. Compulsion was never part of Iranian culture,” she said.
Alinejad was joined on the panel by veteran national security policy expert Michele Flournoy, a former Undersecretary of Defense during the Obama administration.
The breakfast was sponsored by National Geographic and Creative Future.
Watch video of the event below.
The Scene at TheWrap's Power Women Breakfast Washington DC (Photos)
TheWrap CEO Sharon Waxman interviews author-activist Masih Alinejad and foreign policy expert Michelle Flournoy at the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) addresses the Power Women Breakfast DC
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Political consultant Hilary Rosen, actress-activist Amber Tamblyn and TimesUp Legal Defense Fund executive director Sharyn Tejani attend the Power Women Breakfast DC
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Foreign policy expert Michele Flournoy, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), National Geographic editor-in-chief Susan Goldberg and National Geographic Global Networks CEO Courteney Monroe gather at the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
National Geographic photographers and filmmakers attend the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Kim Gillies and Cristina Killingsworth at the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Sharon Waxman, Masih Alinejad, and Michèle Flournoy, Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) attends the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Megan Swiatowski and Chanda Daniels at the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
The scene at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) opens the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Sara Keller and Kim Kahnhauser Freeman at the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Guests at the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Guests at the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
National Geographic Global Networks CEO Courteney Monroe addresses the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
National Geographic filmmakers and photographers Asha Stuart, Beverly Joubert, Erika Larsen, Hannah Reyes Morales, Jess Cramp, Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Filmmaker Asha Stuart
Conservationist Jess Cramp makes a point
National Geographic editor-in-chief Susan Goldberg and filmmaker Asha Stuart
Asha Stuart, Beverly Joubert, Erika Larsen, Hannah Reyes Morales and Jess Cramp, Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Susan Goldberg and Asha Stuart
Hannah Reyes Morales and Jess Cramp
Photographer Erika Larsen takes the mic
Asha Stuart, Beverly Joubert, Erika Larsen, Hannah Reyes Morales and Jess Cramp, Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Jess Cramp makes a point at the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Asha Stuart and conservationist-filmmaker Beverly Joubert
Another view of the National Geographic panel
Elisa Lees Munoz at the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Guests at the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Sara Keller and Kim Kahnhauser Freeman at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Carletta Hunt at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Janet Donovan at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
TheWrap CEO Sharon Waxman interviews author-activist Masih Alinejad and foreign policy expert Michèle Flournoy at the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
TheWrap CEO Sharon Waxman interviews author-activist Masih Alinejad
Author-activist Masih Alinejad and foreign policy expert Michèle Flournoy at the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
TheWrap CEO Sharon Waxman interviews author-activist Masih Alinejad and foreign policy expert Michèle Flournoy at the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Sharon Waxman and Masih Alinejad, Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Masih Alinejad makes her point at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Kendrah Polk at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Nicole Strong and Kendrah Polk at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Erin Griffin at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Michal Carr and Courteney Monroe at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Alice Weiss and Barbara Katron at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
"American Fire" author Monica Hesse addresses Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Actress Amber Tamblyn, Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Monica Hesse with TimesUp Legal Defense Fund executive director Sharyn Tejani, actress-activist Amber Tamblyn and political consultant Hilary Rosen at the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
TimesUp Legal Defense Fund executive director Sharyn Tejani and actress-activist Amber Tamblyn
TimesUp Legal Defense Fund executive director Sharyn Tejani
Amber Tamblyn and Hilary Rosen, Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Author Monica Hesse and TimesUp Legal Defense Fund executive director Sharyn Tejani
The scene at the TimesUp panel at the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Masih Alinejad and Sharon Waxman
National Geographic's Susan Goldberg and Rep. Debbie Dingell at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Masih Alinejad and Michèle Flournoy, Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Liana Bright, Murphy Shrub, Aviva Kempner and Guest at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Ashlee Lawson at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Sharon Waxman and a guest at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Penni Berbert and Tami Wahl at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Masih Alinejad and Rebecca Bustamonte at the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Rosemary Reed, Jane Barbara and Guest at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Sharon Waxman and Kim Bassett at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Selfie moment
Sharon Waxman, Masih Alinejad, and Michèle Flournoy, Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Michele Flournoy and Guest at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Rep. Debbie Dingell Susan Goldberg and Jill Cress at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Liana Bright and Guest at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Masih Alinejad and Sharon Waxman
Michele Flournoy, Alice Keating and Guest at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Tami Wahl and Alice Keating at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Michele Flournoy and Gues at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Masih Alinejad and Michele Flournoy at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
National Geographic editor-in-chief Susan Goldberg, Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Photographers and filmmakers from National Geographic attend the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Rebecca Bustamonte at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Leah Wojda and Kendrah Polk of NatGeo Partners, Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Michèle Flournoy, Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Author-activist Masih Alinejad attends Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Jane Barbara, Penni Berbert and Guest at Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
TheWrap founder Sharon Waxman attends the Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Debbie Dingell, Masih Alinejad, and Michèle Flournoy, Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Penni Berbert and Tami Wahl at Power Women Breakfast D.C
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Courteney Monroe, Power Women Breakfast D.C.
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
Photographers and fimmakers from National Geographic
Photographed by E. Brady Robinson for TheWrap
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Power Women Breakfast DC: Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Amber Tamblyn and other industry leaders gather at the W Hotel on June 13
