Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson attends the signing of the “Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021
In 2016, former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson sued the network’s CEO, Roger Ailes, for sexual harassment in what was one of the largest public legal battles of its kind. It also set in motion an even larger and more purposeful movement in its aftermath.
“When I jumped off the cliff I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen to me, nor did anyone else — only that it was going to be really bad,” Carlson says. “It really was all of the survivors out there who became my safety net. And at the time, I didn’t have a clue about how pervasive the problem was, but they really lifted me up during the dark days.”
Ten months later, in April 2017, former Fox News host and commentator Julie Roginsky also filed a lawsuit against Ailes, Fox News and the network’s producer Bill Shine, alleging sexual harassment and retaliation. After Carlson and Roginsky settled their lawsuits in 2016 and 2017, respectively, the two women then co-founded Lift Our Voices, a non-profit organization that advocates for workers’ rights, in 2019.
Roginsky, who has since dedicated her entire career to advocacy with the non-profit, says that despite the physical and emotional toll of her own legal battle, she knew that there was still work to be done.
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