1
00:00:01,070 --> 00:00:04,728
"All I wanted was
a much-deserved promotion,

2
00:00:04,752 --> 00:00:06,561
and he told me to 'Get up on the desk

3
00:00:06,585 --> 00:00:08,116
and spread 'em.'"

4
00:00:09,904 --> 00:00:12,651
"All the men in my office
wrote down on a piece of paper

5
00:00:12,675 --> 00:00:15,140
the sexual favors
that I could do for them.

6
00:00:15,583 --> 00:00:18,185
All I had asked for
was an office with a window."

7
00:00:20,190 --> 00:00:23,768
"I asked for his advice about how
I could get a bill out of committee;

8
00:00:24,500 --> 00:00:27,267
he asked me if I brought my kneepads."

9
00:00:29,753 --> 00:00:31,991
Those are just a few
of the horrific stories

10
00:00:32,015 --> 00:00:34,523
that I heard from women
over the last year,

11
00:00:34,547 --> 00:00:37,726
as I've been investigating
workplace sexual harassment.

12
00:00:38,236 --> 00:00:40,385
And what I found out

13
00:00:40,409 --> 00:00:43,225
is that it's an epidemic across the world.

14
00:00:44,307 --> 00:00:47,622
It's a horrifying reality
for millions of women,

15
00:00:47,646 --> 00:00:49,760
when all they want to do every day

16
00:00:49,784 --> 00:00:51,204
is go to work.

17
00:00:52,998 --> 00:00:55,247
Sexual harassment doesn't discriminate.

18
00:00:55,886 --> 00:00:57,268
You can wear a skirt,

19
00:00:57,799 --> 00:00:59,371
hospital scrubs,

20
00:00:59,395 --> 00:01:00,683
army fatigues.

21
00:01:01,456 --> 00:01:02,976
You can be young or old,

22
00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:04,215
married or single,

23
00:01:04,239 --> 00:01:05,429
black or white.

24
00:01:05,453 --> 00:01:08,693
You can be a Republican,
a Democrat or an Independent.

25
00:01:10,577 --> 00:01:13,483
I heard from so many women:

26
00:01:14,047 --> 00:01:15,403
police officers,

27
00:01:15,427 --> 00:01:16,934
members of our military,

28
00:01:16,958 --> 00:01:18,415
financial assistants,

29
00:01:18,439 --> 00:01:21,652
actors, engineers, lawyers,

30
00:01:21,676 --> 00:01:24,737
bankers, accountants, teachers ...

31
00:01:25,485 --> 00:01:26,886
journalists.

32
00:01:29,521 --> 00:01:31,722
Sexual harassment, it turns out,

33
00:01:31,746 --> 00:01:33,633
is not about sex.

34
00:01:34,609 --> 00:01:36,945
It's about power,

35
00:01:36,969 --> 00:01:39,540
and about what somebody does to you

36
00:01:39,564 --> 00:01:42,105
to try and take away your power.

37
00:01:42,862 --> 00:01:44,471
And I'm here today

38
00:01:45,285 --> 00:01:50,209
to encourage you to know
that you can take that power back.

39
00:01:51,210 --> 00:01:54,273
(Applause)

40
00:01:55,675 --> 00:01:58,235
On July 6, 2016,

41
00:01:59,004 --> 00:02:01,330
I jumped off a cliff all by myself.

42
00:02:02,685 --> 00:02:04,945
It was the scariest moment of my life;

43
00:02:04,969 --> 00:02:06,995
an excruciating choice to make.

44
00:02:09,015 --> 00:02:11,873
I fell into an abyss all alone,

45
00:02:12,688 --> 00:02:14,749
not knowing what would be below.

46
00:02:16,373 --> 00:02:19,798
But then, something miraculous
started to happen.

47
00:02:19,822 --> 00:02:22,022
Thousands of women
started reaching out to me

48
00:02:22,046 --> 00:02:25,427
to share their own stories
of pain and agony and shame.

49
00:02:26,132 --> 00:02:28,387
They told me that I became their voice --

50
00:02:28,411 --> 00:02:29,942
they were voiceless.

51
00:02:32,293 --> 00:02:35,583
And suddenly, I realized
that even in the 21st century,

52
00:02:35,607 --> 00:02:38,102
every woman still has a story.

53
00:02:40,796 --> 00:02:42,376
Like Joyce,

54
00:02:43,125 --> 00:02:44,647
a flight attendant supervisor

55
00:02:44,671 --> 00:02:46,578
whose boss, in meetings every day,

56
00:02:46,602 --> 00:02:49,739
would tell her about the porn
that he'd watched the night before

57
00:02:49,763 --> 00:02:51,640
while drawing penises on his notepad.

58
00:02:51,664 --> 00:02:52,840
She went to complain.

59
00:02:52,864 --> 00:02:54,689
She was called "crazy" and fired.

60
00:02:55,219 --> 00:02:57,635
Like Joanne, Wall Street banker.

61
00:02:57,659 --> 00:03:01,234
Her male colleagues would call her
that vile c-word every day.

62
00:03:01,258 --> 00:03:02,419
She complained --

63
00:03:02,443 --> 00:03:03,784
labeled a troublemaker,

64
00:03:03,808 --> 00:03:06,539
never to do another
Wall Street deal again.

65
00:03:07,438 --> 00:03:10,048
Like Elizabeth, an army officer.

66
00:03:10,831 --> 00:03:14,311
Her male subordinates would wave
one-dollar bills in her face,

67
00:03:14,335 --> 00:03:16,063
and say, "Dance for me!"

68
00:03:16,456 --> 00:03:18,415
And when she went to complain to a major,

69
00:03:18,439 --> 00:03:20,983
he said, "What? Only one dollar?

70
00:03:21,007 --> 00:03:23,139
You're worth at least five or ten!"

71
00:03:26,392 --> 00:03:27,965
After reading,

72
00:03:27,989 --> 00:03:29,576
replying to all

73
00:03:30,277 --> 00:03:34,778
and crying over all of these emails,

74
00:03:34,802 --> 00:03:38,732
I realized I had so much work to do.

75
00:03:40,385 --> 00:03:42,053
Here are the startling facts:

76
00:03:42,077 --> 00:03:44,129
One in three women -- that we know of --

77
00:03:44,926 --> 00:03:47,070
have been sexually harassed
in the workplace.

78
00:03:48,636 --> 00:03:53,789
Seventy-one percent of those incidences
never get reported.

79
00:03:54,874 --> 00:03:56,024
Why?

80
00:03:56,738 --> 00:03:58,435
Because when women come forward,

81
00:03:58,459 --> 00:04:00,590
they're still called liars
and troublemakers

82
00:04:00,614 --> 00:04:02,570
and demeaned and trashed

83
00:04:02,594 --> 00:04:04,371
and demoted and blacklisted

84
00:04:04,395 --> 00:04:05,766
and fired.

85
00:04:05,790 --> 00:04:10,372
Reporting sexual harassment can be,
in many cases, career-ending.

86
00:04:11,136 --> 00:04:13,289
Of all the women that reached out to me,

87
00:04:14,001 --> 00:04:18,874
almost none are still today working
in their chosen profession,

88
00:04:18,898 --> 00:04:20,890
and that is outrageous.

89
00:04:24,036 --> 00:04:27,152
I, too, was silent in the beginning.

90
00:04:28,256 --> 00:04:32,367
It happened to me at the end
of my year as Miss America,

91
00:04:32,391 --> 00:04:35,053
when I was meeting with
a very high-ranking TV executive

92
00:04:35,077 --> 00:04:36,241
in New York City.

93
00:04:36,265 --> 00:04:38,493
I thought he was helping me
throughout the day,

94
00:04:38,517 --> 00:04:39,852
making a lot of phone calls.

95
00:04:39,876 --> 00:04:41,038
We went to dinner,

96
00:04:41,062 --> 00:04:43,985
and in the back seat of a car,
he suddenly lunged on top of me

97
00:04:44,009 --> 00:04:45,782
and stuck his tongue down my throat.

98
00:04:47,928 --> 00:04:52,356
I didn't realize that to "get
into the business" -- silly me --

99
00:04:53,608 --> 00:04:56,111
he also intended to get into my pants.

100
00:04:58,685 --> 00:04:59,930
And just a week later,

101
00:04:59,954 --> 00:05:04,532
when I was in Los Angeles
meeting with a high-ranking publicist,

102
00:05:04,556 --> 00:05:06,075
it happened again.

103
00:05:06,099 --> 00:05:07,415
Again, in a car.

104
00:05:07,439 --> 00:05:10,410
And he took my neck in his hand

105
00:05:10,434 --> 00:05:13,496
and he shoved my head
so hard into his crotch,

106
00:05:13,520 --> 00:05:15,109
I couldn't breathe.

107
00:05:21,137 --> 00:05:26,622
These are the events that suck the life
out of all of your self-confidence.

108
00:05:29,709 --> 00:05:33,866
These are the events that, until recently,

109
00:05:33,890 --> 00:05:36,271
I didn't even call assault.

110
00:05:39,455 --> 00:05:43,366
And this is why we have
so much work to do.

111
00:05:47,431 --> 00:05:49,400
After my year as Miss America,

112
00:05:49,424 --> 00:05:51,840
I continued to meet
a lot of well-known people,

113
00:05:52,899 --> 00:05:54,511
including Donald Trump.

114
00:05:56,050 --> 00:05:58,348
When this picture was taken in 1988,

115
00:05:58,372 --> 00:06:00,936
nobody could have ever predicted
where we'd be today.

116
00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:02,110
(Laughter)

117
00:06:03,239 --> 00:06:06,486
Me, fighting to end sexual
harassment in the workplace;

118
00:06:07,357 --> 00:06:09,793
he, president of the United States

119
00:06:09,817 --> 00:06:11,089
in spite of it.

120
00:06:14,266 --> 00:06:17,297
And shortly thereafter, I got
my first gig in television news

121
00:06:17,321 --> 00:06:18,474
in Richmond, Virginia.

122
00:06:18,498 --> 00:06:21,279
Check out that confident smile
with the bright pink jacket.

123
00:06:21,303 --> 00:06:22,530
Not so much the hair.

124
00:06:22,554 --> 00:06:23,704
(Laughter)

125
00:06:24,458 --> 00:06:29,169
I was working so hard to prove
that blondes have a lot of brains.

126
00:06:31,027 --> 00:06:33,660
But ironically, one of the first
stories I covered

127
00:06:33,684 --> 00:06:36,225
was the Anita Hill hearings
in Washington, DC.

128
00:06:36,663 --> 00:06:38,227
And shortly thereafter,

129
00:06:38,251 --> 00:06:41,199
I, too, was sexually harassed
in the workplace.

130
00:06:42,043 --> 00:06:44,488
I was covering a story in rural Virginia,

131
00:06:44,512 --> 00:06:46,182
and when we got back into the car,

132
00:06:46,206 --> 00:06:48,085
my cameraman started saying to me,

133
00:06:48,109 --> 00:06:50,980
wondering how much I had enjoyed
how he touched my breasts

134
00:06:51,004 --> 00:06:52,577
when he put the microphone on me.

135
00:06:52,601 --> 00:06:54,388
And it went downhill from there.

136
00:06:54,947 --> 00:06:57,291
I was bracing myself
against the passenger door --

137
00:06:57,315 --> 00:06:58,848
this was before cellphones.

138
00:06:58,872 --> 00:07:00,118
I was petrified.

139
00:07:00,142 --> 00:07:04,204
I actually envisioned myself
rolling outside of that door

140
00:07:04,228 --> 00:07:07,457
as the car was going 50 miles per hour
like I'd seen in the movies,

141
00:07:07,481 --> 00:07:09,588
and wondering how much it would hurt.

142
00:07:13,880 --> 00:07:16,862
When the story about
Harvey Weinstein came to light --

143
00:07:16,886 --> 00:07:20,305
one the most well-known
movie moguls in all of Hollywood --

144
00:07:20,329 --> 00:07:22,265
the allegations were horrific.

145
00:07:22,882 --> 00:07:24,849
But so many women came forward,

146
00:07:24,873 --> 00:07:28,497
and it made me realize
what I had done meant something.

147
00:07:29,381 --> 00:07:34,506
(Applause)

148
00:07:36,245 --> 00:07:38,274
He had such a lame excuse.

149
00:07:38,813 --> 00:07:41,194
He said he was a product
of the '60s and '70s,

150
00:07:41,218 --> 00:07:42,974
and that that was the culture then.

151
00:07:42,998 --> 00:07:44,877
Yeah, that was the culture then,

152
00:07:44,901 --> 00:07:47,798
and unfortunately, it still is.

153
00:07:47,822 --> 00:07:48,972
Why?

154
00:07:49,779 --> 00:07:51,150
Because of all the myths

155
00:07:51,174 --> 00:07:53,469
that are still associated
with sexual harassment.

156
00:07:55,004 --> 00:07:58,239
"Women should just take another job
and find another career."

157
00:07:58,263 --> 00:07:59,417
Yeah, right.

158
00:07:59,441 --> 00:08:01,608
Tell that to the single mom
working two jobs,

159
00:08:01,632 --> 00:08:03,051
trying to make ends meet,

160
00:08:03,075 --> 00:08:04,925
who's also being sexually harassed.

161
00:08:06,082 --> 00:08:07,627
"Women --

162
00:08:07,651 --> 00:08:09,422
they bring it on themselves."

163
00:08:10,005 --> 00:08:11,571
By the clothes that we wear

164
00:08:11,595 --> 00:08:13,238
and the makeup that we put on.

165
00:08:13,876 --> 00:08:17,431
Yeah, I guess those hoodies
that Uber engineers wear in Silicon Valley

166
00:08:17,455 --> 00:08:19,218
are just so provocative.

167
00:08:20,639 --> 00:08:21,939
"Women make it up."

168
00:08:22,619 --> 00:08:25,549
Yeah, because it's so fun and rewarding

169
00:08:25,573 --> 00:08:28,158
to be demeaned and taken down.

170
00:08:28,182 --> 00:08:29,422
I would know.

171
00:08:31,324 --> 00:08:35,920
"Women bring these claims
because they want to be famous and rich."

172
00:08:36,456 --> 00:08:38,267
Our own president said that.

173
00:08:40,465 --> 00:08:42,286
I bet Taylor Swift,

174
00:08:42,310 --> 00:08:46,035
one of the most well-known
and richest singers in the world,

175
00:08:46,660 --> 00:08:48,328
didn't need more money or fame

176
00:08:48,352 --> 00:08:50,557
when she came forward
with her groping case

177
00:08:50,581 --> 00:08:51,967
for one dollar.

178
00:08:52,688 --> 00:08:54,771
And I'm so glad she did.

179
00:08:57,018 --> 00:08:58,726
Breaking news:

180
00:08:58,750 --> 00:09:03,310
"The Untold Story About Women
and Sexual Harassment in the Workplace."

181
00:09:04,667 --> 00:09:07,498
Women just want a safe, welcoming

182
00:09:07,522 --> 00:09:10,032
and harass-free environment.

183
00:09:10,056 --> 00:09:11,257
That's it.

184
00:09:12,180 --> 00:09:16,967
(Applause)

185
00:09:18,405 --> 00:09:21,476
So how do we go about
getting our power back?

186
00:09:21,500 --> 00:09:23,022
I have three solutions.

187
00:09:23,667 --> 00:09:24,817
Number one:

188
00:09:25,219 --> 00:09:29,460
we need to turn bystanders
and enablers into allies.

189
00:09:29,880 --> 00:09:32,918
Ninety-eight percent of United States
corporations right now

190
00:09:32,942 --> 00:09:35,065
have sexual harassment training policies.

191
00:09:35,089 --> 00:09:38,418
Seventy percent have prevention programs.

192
00:09:38,900 --> 00:09:41,079
But still, overwhelmingly,

193
00:09:41,103 --> 00:09:44,349
bystanders and witnesses
don't come forward.

194
00:09:45,225 --> 00:09:46,377
In 2016,

195
00:09:46,401 --> 00:09:50,335
the Harvard Business Review
called it the "bystander effect."

196
00:09:51,760 --> 00:09:54,686
And yet -- remember 9/11.

197
00:09:55,227 --> 00:09:57,780
Millions of times we've heard,

198
00:09:57,804 --> 00:09:59,208
"If you see something,

199
00:09:59,232 --> 00:10:00,620
say something."

200
00:10:01,845 --> 00:10:05,691
Imagine how impactful that would be
if we carried that through

201
00:10:05,715 --> 00:10:08,754
to bystanders in the workplace
regarding sexual harassment --

202
00:10:09,933 --> 00:10:13,322
to recognize and interrupt
these incidences;

203
00:10:14,397 --> 00:10:17,699
to confront the perpetrators
to their face;

204
00:10:18,700 --> 00:10:21,511
to help and protect the victims.

205
00:10:22,279 --> 00:10:24,272
This is my shout-out to men:

206
00:10:24,715 --> 00:10:26,935
we need you in this fight.

207
00:10:27,560 --> 00:10:29,185
And to women, too --

208
00:10:29,209 --> 00:10:32,005
enablers-to-allies.

209
00:10:32,499 --> 00:10:33,855
Number two:

210
00:10:33,879 --> 00:10:35,294
change the laws.

211
00:10:37,029 --> 00:10:38,467
How many of you out there know

212
00:10:38,491 --> 00:10:40,910
whether or not you have
a forced arbitration clause

213
00:10:40,934 --> 00:10:42,832
in your employment contract?

214
00:10:44,095 --> 00:10:45,245
Not a lot of hands.

215
00:10:45,269 --> 00:10:46,997
And if you don't know, you should,

216
00:10:47,021 --> 00:10:48,251
and here's why.

217
00:10:49,096 --> 00:10:50,352
"TIME Magazine" calls it,

218
00:10:50,376 --> 00:10:52,015
right there on the screen,

219
00:10:52,039 --> 00:10:55,394
"The teeny tiny little print in contracts

220
00:10:55,418 --> 00:10:58,801
that keeps sexual
harassment claims unheard."

221
00:10:59,646 --> 00:11:01,015
Here's what it is.

222
00:11:01,039 --> 00:11:03,833
Forced arbitration takes away
your Seventh Amendment right

223
00:11:03,857 --> 00:11:05,278
to an open jury process.

224
00:11:05,850 --> 00:11:07,000
It's secret.

225
00:11:08,105 --> 00:11:10,400
You don't get the same
witnesses or depositions.

226
00:11:10,424 --> 00:11:13,269
In many cases, the company
picks the arbitrator for you.

227
00:11:13,855 --> 00:11:16,331
There are no appeals,

228
00:11:16,355 --> 00:11:19,157
and only 20 percent of the time
does the employee win.

229
00:11:19,927 --> 00:11:21,559
But again, it's secret,

230
00:11:21,583 --> 00:11:24,529
so nobody ever knows what happened to you.

231
00:11:25,732 --> 00:11:27,748
This is why I've been
working so diligently

232
00:11:27,772 --> 00:11:29,404
on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC

233
00:11:29,428 --> 00:11:30,580
to change the laws.

234
00:11:30,604 --> 00:11:32,420
And here's what I tell the senators:

235
00:11:32,444 --> 00:11:34,440
sexual harassment is apolitical.

236
00:11:34,464 --> 00:11:36,043
Before somebody harasses you,

237
00:11:36,067 --> 00:11:39,801
they don't ask you if you're
a Republican or Democrat first.

238
00:11:39,825 --> 00:11:41,119
They just do it.

239
00:11:41,143 --> 00:11:43,585
And this is why we should all care.

240
00:11:44,385 --> 00:11:45,535
Number three:

241
00:11:45,940 --> 00:11:47,090
be fierce.

242
00:11:47,666 --> 00:11:50,269
It starts when we stand tall

243
00:11:50,293 --> 00:11:52,255
and we build that self-confidence.

244
00:11:52,279 --> 00:11:54,077
And we stand up and we speak up,

245
00:11:54,101 --> 00:11:56,479
and we tell the world what happened to us.

246
00:11:57,932 --> 00:11:59,933
I know it's scary,

247
00:11:59,957 --> 00:12:01,737
but let's do it for our kids.

248
00:12:02,102 --> 00:12:04,956
Let's stop this for the next generations.

249
00:12:06,777 --> 00:12:09,498
I know that I did it for my children.

250
00:12:10,835 --> 00:12:13,045
They were paramount in my decision-making

251
00:12:13,069 --> 00:12:15,277
about whether or not I would come forward.

252
00:12:15,623 --> 00:12:16,917
My beautiful children,

253
00:12:16,941 --> 00:12:18,704
my 12-year-old son, Christian,

254
00:12:18,728 --> 00:12:20,894
my 14-year-old daughter, Kaia.

255
00:12:20,918 --> 00:12:22,985
And boy, did I underestimate them.

256
00:12:24,164 --> 00:12:25,740
The first day of school last year

257
00:12:25,764 --> 00:12:28,177
happened to be the day
my resolution was announced,

258
00:12:28,201 --> 00:12:30,462
and I was so anxious
about what they would face.

259
00:12:30,486 --> 00:12:32,699
My daughter came home
from school and she said,

260
00:12:32,723 --> 00:12:36,101
"Mommy, so many people asked me
what happened to you over the summer."

261
00:12:36,125 --> 00:12:37,746
Then she looked at me in the eyes

262
00:12:37,770 --> 00:12:39,267
and she said, "And mommy,

263
00:12:39,291 --> 00:12:40,817
I was so proud

264
00:12:41,794 --> 00:12:44,354
to say that you were my mom."

265
00:12:46,749 --> 00:12:48,009
And two weeks later,

266
00:12:48,033 --> 00:12:51,987
when she finally found the courage
to stand up to two kids

267
00:12:52,011 --> 00:12:54,059
who had been making her life miserable,

268
00:12:54,083 --> 00:12:55,698
she came home to me and she said,

269
00:12:55,722 --> 00:12:59,170
"Mommy, I found the courage to do it

270
00:12:59,917 --> 00:13:02,489
because I saw you do it."

271
00:13:04,870 --> 00:13:11,052
(Applause)

272
00:13:12,487 --> 00:13:16,384
You see, giving the gift
of courage is contagious.

273
00:13:18,394 --> 00:13:21,733
And I hope that my journey
has inspired you,

274
00:13:21,757 --> 00:13:24,520
because right now, it's the tipping point.

275
00:13:24,922 --> 00:13:27,234
We are watching history happen.

276
00:13:27,258 --> 00:13:29,662
More and more women
are coming forward and saying,

277
00:13:29,686 --> 00:13:31,460
"Enough is enough."

278
00:13:34,036 --> 00:13:37,742
(Applause)

279
00:13:39,412 --> 00:13:42,050
Here's my one last plea to companies.

280
00:13:42,558 --> 00:13:47,003
Let's hire back all those women
whose careers were lost

281
00:13:47,027 --> 00:13:49,036
because of some random jerk.

282
00:13:50,117 --> 00:13:52,172
Because here's what I know about women:

283
00:13:53,116 --> 00:13:57,273
we will not longer be underestimated,
intimidated or set back;

284
00:13:57,881 --> 00:14:01,233
we will not be silenced
by the ways of the establishment

285
00:14:01,257 --> 00:14:03,185
or the relics of the past.

286
00:14:03,209 --> 00:14:04,359
No.

287
00:14:04,819 --> 00:14:07,442
We will stand up and speak up,

288
00:14:08,214 --> 00:14:09,942
and have our voices heard.

289
00:14:10,778 --> 00:14:14,517
We will be the women we were meant to be.

290
00:14:15,957 --> 00:14:17,914
And above all,

291
00:14:17,938 --> 00:14:21,539
we will always be fierce.

292
00:14:22,196 --> 00:14:23,370
Thank you.

293
00:14:23,701 --> 00:14:28,626
(Applause)