#MeToo One Year Later: How Time's Up's Message Still Resonates
*By Max Godnick*
It's been one year to the day since The New York Times published its [Pulitzer Prize-winning exposé](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/us/harvey-weinstein-harassment-allegations.html) detailing allegations of sexual harassment against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
And in that time, the #MeToo movement that sprang from those claims has become much more than a hashtag. Its influence has stretched into nearly every industry ー and it's even inspired the creation of another cause, Time's Up.
That organization was [launched](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/01/movies/times-up-hollywood-women-sexual-harassment.html) by over 300 powerful women in entertainment who called for equal pay, anti-harassment legislation, and the creation of a multi-million dollar legal defense fund.
"There's never been an effort like this before," Sharyn Tejani, the director of the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund, said Friday in an interview on Cheddar.
Tejani credits the Weinstein allegations with creating necessary momentum and shifting international focus to harassment in the workplace. The accusations also allowed Time's Up to grow as powerful as it is today.
"I've been doing civil rights work and women's rights work for 20 years," she said. "If you had told me at any point in that time that we would have an organization like this one that's focused on low-wage workers and focused on sex harassment, I would have told you that's simply impossible."
The Time's Up Legal Defense Fund is focused on four key missions: matching victims of sexual discrimination in the workplace with attorneys, funding cases, helping victims find public relations and media assistance, and educating workers about their rights.
Since its founding, the fund has fielded requests from 3,557 workers from all 50 states. It has amassed a network of 782 attorneys and has committed to funding 51 cases so far.
Tejani described some of the cases Time's Up has taken on, including one of a 15-year-old McDonald's employee who was harassed while working her first-ever job and that of a retail worker whose sexual harassment increased after she became pregnant.
"They're heart-rending, and they're so important," Tejani said of her clients' stories.
Despite its founding under the stewardship of Hollywood A-listers like Reese Witherspoon and Salma Hayek, the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund is focused on fighting for the rights of a much less celebrated sector of the workforce: low-wage workers.
Tejani said that the demographic is uniquely vulnerable to harassment, which can cause depression, PTSD, and lead to a fear of going to work.
The few who do come forward are often punished by their employers ー losing shifts, having their pay cut, being pushed off projects, or simply getting fired.
"We're really pleased that we're reaching the people that we hoped we'd be reaching," Tejani said.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-times-up-legal-defense-fund-looks-back-at-one-year-of-metoo).
A new report from ProPublica and the Washington Post found that Facebook Groups played a major role in the spread of misinformation linked to the January 6 insurrection with more than 650,000 posts claiming that Joe Biden's election victory was illegitimate.
Millions of Americans with young children have relied on the child tax credit since the federal government began issuing checks in July 2021. The last round of payments was sent out just before the Christmas holiday — at the same time as the omicron variant surged. Leah Hamilton, associate professor of social work at Appalachian State University, joined Cheddar to discuss what the end to the tax credit means as the U.S. sees the end of many relief programs and its highest number of COVID cases since the start of the pandemic. "It'll become harder for families to meet their basic needs, increasing national childhood poverty rates and the proportion of families who have difficulty putting food on the table, maintaining stable housing, and paying their bills," Hamilton said. She also pointed to research that the credit as a long-term investment in children offsets claims that it contributes to macroeconomic impacts like inflation.
U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over the week-end, just days after he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The call comes as Washington prepares to meet with Moscow on January 10, as tensions mount over Russia's military build up near its border with Ukraine. Cheddar News speaks with Mustafa Tameez, a former advisor to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, about the issue.
Several Silicon Valley insiders are being accused of contorting a 1990s-era tax break to avoid taxes on millions of dollars of investment profits. The tax break is known as the qualified small business stock exemption, and it allows early investors in certain companies to avoid half of the taxes on up to $10 million in capital gains. A piece recently published in the New York Times says venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz replicated the tax exemption by giving shares of companies to friends and family, who would otherwise face a 23.8% capital gains bill. The CEO of Roblox is also accused of replicating the tax break for his family members at least 12 times. Although the loophole known as 'stacking' is considered to be legal, the Times piece implies that the exemption has been manipulated for the ultra-wealthy to become more wealthy. Greycroft co-founder and Chairman Emeritus Alan Patricof joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Chris Sommerfeldt, City Hall reporter for the New York Daily News, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he discusses both the wins and losses of Bill de Blasio's eight years as New York City Mayor.
The push to regulate the gig worker economy is gaining steam as the share of workers who participate in freelancing through businesses like Uber and Lyft have also exponentially grown during the pandemic. Employment attorney Mark Kluger, founding partner at Kluger Healey, LLC, joined Cheddar to break down how the battle to reclassify gig workers will continue in the new year, and why the issue continues to generate conflict. "More and more workers are using gig work as their primary source of income and as a result of that they are not like employees in the sense that they don't have benefits like health insurance," Kluger noted.
2021 saw markets continue to be impacted by the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic -most recently in the form of the Omicron variant- in addition to the global supply chain shortage, and increased inflation. But it wasn't all bad news, as crypto soared throughout the year, and meme stocks continued to have a moment. With the year coming to a close, investors are keeping an eye out to see if they should expect more of the same in the new year. Chris Vecchio, Senior Analyst, at DailyFX tells us what market trends to be on the watch for in 2022.
