Timeline: Sexual Harassment Allegations and the Workplace

Kathy Gurchiek | March 7, 2018

The reports of sexual harassment started dribbling out like water from a leaky faucet:

Roger Ailes was forced out as chairman and chief executive at Fox News in July 2016 amid allegations of sexual misconduct. 

Drip.

Susan Fowler, a former engineer at Uber, leveled accusations against the company in a February 2017 blog post—that quickly went viral—about sexual harassment and the company’s failure to take action.

Drip.

Fox News co-president Bill Shine resigned following accusations he covered up colleagues’ harassing behavior.

Drip.

The drip became a torrent in October after the New York Times published its investigation of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and accusations of his sexual harassment of several Hollywood actresses, including Annabella Sciorra, Ashley Judd and Salma Hayek. 

Suddenly, stories about sexual harassment were everywhere. Movie stars such as Gwyneth Paltrow came forward. Actress Alyssa Milano revitalized the #MeToo movement to encourage sexual abuse victims to speak out. Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg weighed in with her own experience of sexual harassment as a law student. Marches and social media interactions amplified the conversation. 

Today, HR and business leaders are trying to fix the problem that is damaging organizations and hurting the people who work for them. 

Take a look at the timeline below to see how this important issue has evolved, leading to a raised consciousness among employers about the importance of face-to-face training, the C-suite modeling appropriate behavior, and tools to prevent this behavior and protect employees who are—or could be—targets.