Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson said she wants to change the workplace dynamic that allows harassers to continue their careers while accusers lose their own.
Carlson has become a leading voice on workplace harassment issues after she accused former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes of sexual harassment. In July, she filed a lawsuit against the now-deceased political operative, claiming Ailes attempted to solicit sex from her. She declined, and lost her job nine months later.
“Why should women be stripped of the American dream?” Carlson asked Thursday at a CNN town hall event on sexual harassment. “And we watch predators fall, and the next week we talk about about ‘Where will they land again with their job?’”
Earlier this month, Carlson wrote a powerful essay detailing her thoughts on sexual violence. “This is not a partisan issue, it’s a cultural one,” she said.
“Boorish behavior transcends ideology and political lines, despite the fact that there are many who seek to blame Democrats for Harvey Weinstein’s behavior or Republicans for Bill O’Reilly’s,” she wrote. “It is not liberal to ask for a workplace where you are not fondled or groped. It’s not conservative to expect to meet with a man without having him dangle his hotel key or ask you to sit on his lap while he has an erection.”
The former anchor told CNN she wants to see predators fired, and those brave enough to come forward keep their jobs.
“Let’s go out and find all those American women who work just as hard as all the rest of us for the American dream who had it taken away from them because they had the courage to come forward and blow the whistle on somebody else,” Carlson said. “Forget about whether the predators are coming back into the workplace.”