NEW YORK – The Golden Globes carpet usually glitters with pastel-hued crystal-encrusted dresses, but in January 2018 things were different: the prom dresses were black, and the key accessory of the night was a lapel pin that read ‘Time’s Up’. On stage, Oprah Winfrey got the guests going with a warning to powerful offenders: “Your time is up!”
Five years later, Time’s Up – the now embattled anti-harassment organization founded in the early days of with fanfare the #MeToo Reckoning Against Sexual Misconduct — ceases operations, at least in the current form.
One year later Promise of a ‘big reset’ after a scandal involving its leaders then-gov. Andrew Cuomo Amid allegations of sexual harassment, the group tells The Associated Press that Time’s Up is shifting remaining funds to the independently managed Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund and ceasing other operations.
The decision, which CEO Gabrielle Sulzberger said will take effect by the end of January, caps a turbulent time for an organization that made a splashy public appearance on Jan. 1, 2018, when newspaper advertisements published an open letter sent by hundreds of prominent Hollywood figures was signed movie stars, producers and agents.
Following the highly visible show of support days later at the Globes, GoFundMe raised $24 million in donations, large and small, towards the nascent Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund. In the months that followed, the rest of Time’s Up was formed, promising a houseclean in an industry rocked by the startling allegations against mogul Harvey Weinstein.
By January 2023, Time’s Up was looking very different after doing a radical house clean of its own — sparked by a malicious internal report — with only one emergency crew and three remaining board members. The remaining funds now total about $1.7 million, Sulzberger said; the millions from the early donations have already flowed into the legal fund.
“It wasn’t an easy decision, but the board agreed it was the right decision and the most impactful way to move forward,” Sulzberger told AP.
She and the rest of the board members – Colleen DeCourcy and Ashley Judd, the actor and one of Weinstein’s most powerful early accusers – will resign as Time’s Up Now and the Time’s Up Foundation, the two groups that formed what is commonly known as Time’s Up, are shut down.
“Quite simply, the Legal Defense Fund truly reflects who we were, not just when we started out, but really at our core,” Sulzberger said. “We really just decided that at the end of the day we need to go back to our roots. (The Fund) was the first initiative we created and funded and remains at the heart of everything we championed.”
The fund is managed by the National Center for Women’s Rights in Washington and provides legal and administrative assistance to workers, most of whom identify as low-income and 40% as people of color. Time’s Up Now and the Time’s Up Foundation had focused on policy and advocacy work.
Uma Iyer, vice president of marketing and communications at the Legal Center, says the fund has helped connect more than 4,700 workers with legal services and funded or committed 350 cases out of just over 500 applications.
Labor and civil rights attorney Debra Katz, who has long been among the country’s most prominent attorneys handling sexual harassment cases, called the fund a crucial resource for survivors and their advocates.
“They understand these issues, and they’ve always been totally survivor-centric and respectful of survivors,” Katz said of the National Women’s Law Center, with which she has worked for decades.
But Katz, who represented Cuomo’s lead prosecutor, Charlotte Bennett, was highly critical of the organization Time’s Up, particularly former CEO Tina Tchen and former CEO Roberta Kaplan, who were involved with the Cuomo administration. Both resigned in August 2021 amid turmoil over revelations after which they had given advice Cuomo has been accused of misconduct and that Tchen initially stopped other Time’s Up executives from commenting publicly on accuser Lindsey Boylan’s allegations.
“You can’t channel back to corporations and corporations and think you’ve provided strategic advice when you’re also suing those corporations for serious wrongdoing,” Katz said. “They tried. It only erodes the trust of the survivors.”
Current Time’s Up executives go out of their way to point out that the organization has been instrumental in fighting for legislation to increase worker protections, including Extended statute of limitations for rape in 15 states, and work towards achieving it Pay equity in women’s football. The group also worked on issues affecting working families affected by COVID-19, such as: B. Emergency due to illness.
“I have two grown daughters and the kind of issues I faced as a young woman in the workplace, I think Time’s Up made a huge difference in moving that needle,” Sulzberger said.
Despite early fundraising success, Time’s Up was plagued from the start by issues that have often been accused of being too aligned with Hollywood’s rich and powerful — a Theme of the early #MeToo movement overall. The group also had leadership problems. In February 2019, CEO Lisa Borders resigned because of sexual harassment allegations against her son. A little over two years later, Tchen and Kaplan left.
The organization announced its “reset” in November 2021 and released a report, prepared by an outside consultant, listing numerous shortcomings. Among them: confusion about purpose and mission, ineffective internal and external communications, an appearance of being politically partisan and overly involved with Hollywood.
Part of the problem, the report said, was how quickly the organization grew, becoming “like a jet plane into a rocket ship overnight.”
The workforce was reduced to an emergency staffing, and the few remaining board members spent a year listening to the group’s many stakeholders before making a decision, according to Sulzberger.
Katz said it would be wrong to see the struggles of Time’s Up – or any other organization – as a sign of the weakness of the entire #MeToo movement. On the contrary, she said, it shows the resilience of the movement.
“As movements progress and mature, they go through phases. But if anything, it shows the power of this movement, as victims of sexual violence came forward and said, “We will not condone this (conflict) within our organization,” Katz said. “It shows the power of individuals who demand clarity in their organizations and leaders.”
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