Time’s Up is officially one year old. Since it kicked off on New Year’s Day 2018, the movement to make workplaces safer and more equitable for women and other underrepresented communities has raised millions for its Legal Defense Fund, helped over 3,800 people from all 50 states, and organized protests in and out of Hollywood. “Together, we actually moved the resistant needle on the world receiving our voice,” the organization recalls in its new Dear Sisters letter. “Suddenly, finally, there was acknowledgment and a willingness to believe women’s accounts of unthinkable crimes against them. And new standards of accountability were brought into focus, even for powerful men who had long seemed untouchable.”
Time’s Up has accomplished a great deal in its first year — more than many believed possible. And, if the new Dear Sisters letter is any indication, it will top itself in 2019. Yesterday, the org announced the launch of Time’s Upx2, a campaign aiming to double the number of women in leadership and in other spaces where they are underrepresented.
“We learned a lot in 2018,” the letter explains. “First, there is safety in numbers. Second, there is strength in numbers. And finally, everything will change when we have more women, especially women of color and women from other traditionally underrepresented groups, making decisions. Period.”
In honor of Time’s Up’s first anniversary, CNN spoke to several prominent Time’s Up activists and leaders about all the group has accomplished and its goals for the upcoming year.
“The [original] ‘Dear Sisters’ letter and the lead-up to last year’s Golden Globes stand out to me as incredible and unprecedented moments,” said “Black-ish” star Tracee Ellis Ross. “Being a part of this hard-working group of women who were willing to lean in to each other, roll up our sleeves, and lead the charge was life changing. We were a motley band of nimble, organized, and tireless ladies. We took control of the narrative, redefined how we relate to one another, and we all got to feel how much we are on the same team. I experienced shared power in a way that I didn’t know was possible.”
From Shonda Rhimes’ perspective, the movement comes down to finally holding abusers accountable. “Accountability looks like these cases finally going to trial,” the “Grey’s Anatomy” creator stressed. “Accountability looks like not getting a nine-figure golden parachute on your way out the door after a number of sexual harassment complaints. Accountability looks like Terry Crews refusing to be shamed. Also, accountability looks like survivors being heard and being believed. Accountability looks like men taking responsibility for changing the damaged culture they have benefited from. Accountability looks like a day when women of all kinds are treated equally and believed equally no matter what the circumstance of the assault or harassment.”
Check out a video recapping Time’s Up’s first year below. An interactive timeline of its milestones so far can be found over on CNN. You can get involved in Time’s Up and Time’s Upx2 on the org’s website.
