What Does Accountability Look Like?

As a survivor and advocate for gender equality and harassment-free workplaces, this has been a challenging news cycle…to say the least. But amidst the turbulence, our team here at the Purple Campaign has been working hard to implement stronger corporate policies, establish better laws, and empower people to create lasting change in their workplaces and communities.

Last month, New York Attorney General Letitia James released a 165-page report summarizing her investigation into the sexual harassment allegations against then-Governor Andrew Cuomo. On the one hand, this marked an important step forward in our fight for better policies and procedures — as I told the Washington Post in March, we’ve seen the absence of such an independent investigation be a disservice to survivors in the past.

At the same time, however, the report was a reminder of just how much work we have left to do. Not only did it describe a clear pattern of sexual harassment and other misconduct that violated both New York’s internal workplace policies and existing public anti-harassment laws, but it also revealed that leaders from allied non-profit organizations were involved in efforts to retaliate against the courageous women who came forward to share their stories.

This is a critical inflection point for all of us who care about this issue: we can either allow this moment to set back the important progress we’ve made, or we can redouble our efforts to prevent workplace harassment, and, critically, ensure that employees and survivors everywhere can trust that they will be protected from retaliation when they come forward.

That’s why I’m so proud of the work our team at the Purple Campaign has been doing over the past few weeks to keep advancing our mission. Over the summer, we worked with members of Congress to introduce the Judicial Accountability Act of 2021, a bill to ensure the more than 30,000 employees of the Federal Judiciary have strong statutory rights and protections against discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, and other forms of workplace misconduct.

As Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) and I explained in a joint Op-Ed we published in Roll Call last month, despite its role as the key institution responsible for interpreting, enforcing, and applying anti-harassment laws to every other employer in the United States, the Federal Judiciary to this day has deprived its employees of basic statutory protections.

While Congress advances this important legislation, we’re also working to address the problem in the courts. On August 26, together with the National Women’s Law Center, Legal Momentum, Wilkie Farr & Gallagher, and 42 other civil rights organizations, we filed an Amicus Brief in the Fourth Circuit on behalf of Jane Roe, a former public defender who was subjected to pervasive sexual harassment and related retaliation in her job, and urged the Court to recognize Roe’s right to a harassment-free workplace under the U.S. Constitution.

As the Washington Post explained in their coverage of the brief, the Roe case has “drawn broad attention from civil rights organizations” like ours because it highlights the “inadequate process and ineffective protection against harassment” that currently exists in the federal judiciary.

I for one remain more committed than ever to the work we’ve been doing together, and hope you’ll join me in making clear that recent events only serve to highlight the importance of our mission here at the Purple Campaign. If you’d like to support our work, please consider making a donation or get in touch with our team to learn more about how you can get involved.

As always, I’m so grateful to you for joining us in our effort to address workplace harassment by implementing stronger corporate policies, establishing better laws, and empowering people to create lasting change in their own workplaces and communities.

#PledgePurple,

Ally Coll
Purple Campaign President

If you’re in the D.C. area, join us next week for a #MeToo Meet Up on Tuesday, September 14th at 5:30pm at Shaw’s Tavern, co-hosted by our partners at Safe Bars and Defend Yourself. Find our more information and RSVP on our website.