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Statement from the President and Board of TIME’S UP:

“At TIME’S UP, our fundamental mission has always been to empower women. Empower us to demand safe workplaces, childcare support, pay equity and the dignity of respect and equality while achieving one’s career. We started this organization to help accelerate change. Most of our board members and a significant portion of our staff are also survivors of sexual harassment or sexual assault.

We’ve worked to hold power accountable in board rooms, in the halls of government, and in organizations big and small, and we have felt uniquely capable of doing so because many of us have worked in those very institutions. We have never felt co-opted by that experience, only informed by it to try new strategies. And we are proud of that work and the change we have achieved. Yet, we recognize that this work has sometimes resulted in a lack of trust from the broader survivor community we serve and to which we also belong. We are looking within.

In the meantime:

1. We hold ourselves accountable. The events of the last week have made it clear that our process should be evaluated and we intend to do just that. We need more transparency about our vision of change-making, and we need a more inclusive process to engage the broader survivor community, many of whom have spent years doing the noble work of fighting for women. We admire those who have been on this front line for years by choice or by their own story. As an entire organization we are going to take time and evaluate how we best do this collectively or as individuals. We are working with our team on how we show up in this next phase of this work. We will seek engagement with survivor communities, allies and critics alike. And we will share our intentions.
2. Robbie Kaplan, board co-chair, has stepped down from the board. We and she agree that is the right and appropriate thing to do.
3. Our staff does incredible work and contributes to change every day. So we are counting on our sisters and allies not to lose sight of the broader work or let a man’s treachery overshadow it in any way. We do not ask for a pass. We ask for perspective.
4. The TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund, which is housed and administered by the National Women’s Law Center, operates as a totally separate entity from TIME’S UP and will continue its vital work to connect those who have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace with legal or PR assistance. While the operations of TIME’S UP and the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund are separate, there is nothing we are all prouder of than starting this fund and raising the resources to help thousands of abuse and harassment survivors with this tangible and individual help when such assistance had never before existed.”

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TIME’S UP Foundation