#MeToo’s First Year Ends With More Than 425 Accused

By Riley Griffin, Hannah Recht and Jeff Green

October 5, 2018

The headlines alone are dizzying. Since the New York Times reported allegations of serial predation by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein a year ago, at least 425 prominent people across industries have been publicly accused of sexual misconduct, a broad range of behavior that spans from serial rape to lewd comments and abuse of power.

That’s more than one newly reported person facing accusations each day, on average, for the last 12 months.

Hundreds of alleged bad actors—the vast majority men—were fired, resigned or faced other professional consequences. Some have apologized for specific actions or acknowledged vague, hypothetical offenses in more general ways. Others have held firmly to their jobs, their offices, their star power. Many have denied any wrongdoing or questioned the motives of their accusers.

After Weinstein, the Flurry of #MeToo Headlines Haven’t Stopped

When each individual’s allegations were first reported in media, by week

Note: headlines are grouped by week, which may cross month lines.

This tally of 429 people is a conservative accounting. The data, compiled by Bloomberg, are limited to publicly reported allegations of sex-related bad behavior in national, state and local media, trade publications and the public record. The data omit alleged instances of broader gender discrimination, non-sexual bullying and racial insensitivity, though the #MeToo movement has lowered tolerance for all kinds of crass and damaging behaviors.

A broader data set kept by crisis consultant Davia Temin puts the number of alleged bad actors at more than 800. “All of this matters because it shows the socialization and acceptance of reporting these kinds of instances,” said Temin, who has tasked two staff members with keeping track. “Numbers matter. They really do. I’m not going to stop.”

This is, of course, far from the first time women have spoken up about sexual harassment. Anita Hill described being sexually harassed by then-nominee Clarence Thomas at his Supreme Court confirmation hearing 27 years ago next week, and that painful scene recurred last week, when Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testified to Congress that the sexual assault allegations against him were a “calculated and orchestrated political hit.”

Encouraging women to describe their experiences and say “me too” dates to a 2007 campaign created by Tarana Burke, a Brooklyn, New York-based advocate for gender equity. Weinstein wasn’t even the first powerful man to face consequences a decade later. Earlier in 2017, embattled Uber Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick resigned following a female engineer’s detailed description of a workplace culture where sexual harassment was all too common.

Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly left the network in April after several years of harassment allegations and settlements with accusers, one for a whopping $32 million. Weinstein and O’Reilly denied wrongdoing. Kalanick has apologized for his behavior at the company.

In October, the dam broke. Days after Ashley Judd, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and other actors accused Weinstein of decades of sexual assault and harassment cosseted by his power in Hollywood, actress Alyssa Milano posted on Twitter a call for women to share their own stories of sexual harassment and to tag them #MeToo. The next day, 609,000 posts carried that hashtag, according to Meltwater, which tracks social media impact.

The ebb and flow of the hashtag on Twitter can be read like an EKG for the heartbeat of the story. So far, Meltwater found, the tag has appeared in almost 14 million public tweets. People also used it millions of times on Facebook, Instagram and other platforms around the world.

The hashtag campaign created an opportunity for women in smaller, less-well-covered industries to speak up, find each other and effect change. Sexual harassment, it turned out, was not unique to the casting couch or the C-suite. Allegations by library workers, academics, classical musicians and union organizers quickly shifted from social media to the national spotlight, sometimes by way of trade publications, blogs and college newspapers.

The examination of past abuses has even extended to the world of children’s books. “Industry by industry, somebody takes some initiative and starts gathering the stories,” said Anne Ursu, author of several adult and middle-grade novels. In February, she wrote a post on Medium that catalogued almost 100 allegations of harassment in children’s publishing. Within days, three prominent young-adult novelists had been publicly accused.

“That’s the only way this can really happen,” Urso said. “I just hope that this isn’t a moment, it’s a movement, and other people keep pushing for this.”

The journalists covering the story weren’t spared. A whisper list of so-called “Sh*tty Media Men” led to the suspension and firing of reporters, editors and pundits. In total, Bloomberg identified almost 50 people who work in media publicly accused of sexual misconduct in the past year. More than half of them have been fired or left their jobs. The 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature was suspended because of a harassment scandal.

Outside Hollywood and the media, one of the largest clusters of harassment allegations has centered around government and policy workers. At the national level, Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, and representatives John Conyers (Democrat of Michigan), Blake Farenthold (Republican of Texas) and Trent Franks (Republican of Arizona) resigned in the face of harassment allegations. Meanwhile, legislation that would have prevented members of Congress from using taxpayer money for sexual harassment settlements passed the House, only to stall in the Senate.

At the state level, at least 59 state senators and representatives have been accused of misconduct, according to Bloomberg data. While executives and directors in the private sector can quickly address allegations against an employee, elected officials answer to the voters. Among the lawmakers facing allegations, some resigned and a few were expelled by their colleagues, but 35 remain in office through at least the end of this year.

State Representatives and Senators Accused of Sexual Misconduct in Past Year

Left office
Remains in office
👆 Hover for more info

Accountability looks different in politics than it does in business. “The public might be outraged, demanding swift actions when sexual harassment charges are brought forward against someone with political connections,” said Hannah-Hanh D. Nguyen, an associate professor of management at The Shidler College of Business at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “But our public servants are long-term employees with job security.”

By contrast, corporations have to answer to their shareholders, and public indiscretions can be costly. Companies experience significant wealth deterioration and reduced operating margins after executive bad behavior comes to light, according to the Journal of Financial Economics. A Stanford University study of CEO offenses related to bad sexual affairs, lying, and financial chicanery, found that news coverage of the misdeeds lasted an average of five years.

These are good reasons to prevent misbehavior before it happens—or to keep it quiet when it does. The finance industry, long a bastion of machismo, experienced far fewer public accusations of sexual misconduct. The most likely explanation, industry critics say, is that Wall Street is particularly skilled at keeping unhappy employees of any gender from airing grievances publicly.

“This system is not designed for there ever to be public disclosure,” said Cara Greene, a partner with law firm Outten & Golden, who has represented women in financial services in cases against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp., among others. “Women in finance are designed to be silenced.”

The incentives can be economic, cultural and legal. Financial firms often use non-disclosure clauses in employment agreements that discourage workers from talking publicly about what happens at work. Those agreements also require many disputes to be resolved in arbitration, which is private and more secretive than court. Firms can also pay generous settlements or award substantial severance, if that’s what it takes to silence allegations of abuse.

That doesn’t mean Wall Street men are untouchable. In the past year, accusations of egregious behavior on trading floors and inside investment banking offices have leaked out, though not about the industry’s most powerful people. Bloomberg has identified 25 people in finance prominent enough to warrant media coverage, 15 of whom publicly acknowledged or denied the accusations against them and were made to account for their behavior.

“That’s a very low estimate,” said Greene, adding that she’s personally aware of many cases of sexual harassment that never rose to public attention. “It’s the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these behaviors in the industry.”

Select Finance Employees Accused of Sexual Misconduct in Past Year

Left company
Remains at company
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Gavin Baker

Portfolio Manager, Fidelity Investments

Nigel Coe

Managing Director, Morgan Stanley

Bill De Leon

Managing Director of Portfolio Risk Managment, Pacific Investment Management Co. LLC

Blair Fleming

U.S. Investment Banking Chief, Royal Bank of Canada

Stefan Glaenzer

Co-Founder, Passion Capital

Francis Lively

Head of Real Estate, Wafra Investment Advisory Group Inc.

Omeed Malik

Managing Director, Bank of America Corp.

Daniel Michalow

Partner, D. E. Shaw & Co.

Shervin Pishevar

Co-Founder, Sherpa Capital, Hyperloop One

Howard Rubin

MBS Portfolio Manager, Soros Fund Management LLC

John Sauter

Head of Real Estate, Iconiq Capital LLC

Jiang Zuo

Investment Manager, IDG Capital

Greg Jensen

Co-Chief Investment Officer, Bridgewater Associates

Michael Ladge

Financial Adviser, Morgan Stanley

Jess Ravich

Managing Director, TCW Group Inc.

Many people who told their #MeToo stories in the past year detailed experiences going back years, if not decades. Some had made official reports, but many hadn’t: According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, three out of four people who experienced harassment in the workplace never even talked to a supervisor, manager or union rep. The Justice Department estimates that two out of three sexual assaults go unreported.

Even when people have come forward, it’s been rare for powerful people to face professional consequences or public censure for using sex to intimidate employees or coworkers. For many, the past year has brought a reckoning, forcing accountability where social shame, non-disclosure agreements and sealed settlements had previously kept victims silent.

“Sexual harassment is about power—it’s about how you treat your workers and what you think you can get away with,” said Sharyn Tejani, director of the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund, which was created by some of the women who alleged abuse by Weinstein, and others. “We’ve gotten intakes from every state in the country and every industry you can think of.”

Photograph of protesters holding signs and banners against sexual asault during protest march — A #MeToo march through Hollywood, California, on Nov. 12, 2017.

Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

The 429 people in Bloomberg’s data set are facing more than 1,700 separate allegations of harassment and misconduct. But this database tracks only allegations that have played out in the public eye. Most workers, particularly those in low-wage industries, are unlikely to see their complaints echoed on Twitter or the front page of a newspaper. TIME’S UP focuses on this large, unnoticed extension of #MeToo: Tejani said the group has received some 3,500 referrals from farm workers and fast-food, retail and other industry employees.

Some structural reforms have taken root in the past year. Unions have successfully backed legislation to protect entertainment industry employees in California and hotel housekeepers and janitors in Chicago. State legislatures have enacted 17 bills designed to curb bad behavior; an additional 12 bills are pending, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Contracts that set the terms of employment and of financial transactions are now more likely to establish consequences for sexual harassment or other bad behavior. Awareness of the problem has prompted even employers such as the Milwaukee County library system to adopt education and prevention campaigns.

The events of the past year have also prompted a backlash, especially among people for whom the sheer volume of allegations looks like unchecked chaos. President Donald Trump, himself accused of several instances of sexual harassment and misconduct, said Tuesday that it’s “a very scary time for young men in America, where you can be guilty of something you may not be guilty of.”

Photograph of patrons watching Kavanaugh hearing on a television at a bar — Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee plays on a television at the Billy Goat Tavern in Chicago.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Trump has remained steadfast in supporting his Supreme Court nominee. Last week, Brett Kavanaugh strongly denied allegations that, while in high school, he sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford. The Senate could vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation as early as Saturday, Oct. 6—a high-stakes beginning to the second year of #MeToo.

After Weinstein, the Flurry of #MeToo Headlines Haven’t Stopped

When each individual’s allegations were first reported in media, by week

#MeToo on Twitter

Daily mentions, based on Meltwater data

People Accused of Sexual Misconduct in Media Coverage, by Industry

State Representatives and Senators Accused of Sexual Misconduct in Past Year

Select Finance Employees Accused of Sexual Misconduct in Past Year