Gretchen Carlson: ‘We Need a Woman in the White House’
Nothing excites a media blog like television reporters writing one-off pieces for subscription magazines, right? Like Katy Tur wrote about her life on the campaign trail for Marie Claire and Megyn Kelly wrote about her love for Don Lemon in Variety, CNN’s Carol Costello has now taken her turn writing for Good Housekeeping.
She interviewed and wrote about another cable news mainstay, Gretchen Carlson, who had plenty to say about safety in the workplace and women’s role in politics and beyond. Both of them gushed about the interview online:
Anchor to anchor I interviewed @GretchenCarlson for @goodhousemag – a must read for women in the workplace. https://t.co/YhY4A6eI0C
— Carol Costello (@CarolCNN) January 10, 2017
Thx @goodhousekeeping & @carolcostello 4 believing in me & all our efforts 2 empower women (& men!) #reinventyourself #nevergiveup #believe https://t.co/HewMqnL82L
— Gretchen Carlson (@GretchenCarlson) January 10, 2017
As she did on 20/20, Carlson — who attracted months of headlines when she sued Roger Ailes for sexual harassment this summer, which led to his ouster from Fox News — called for a more hospitable environment, not only in the workplace, but in society:
This [harassment] is not an issue that women should feel pressure to solve by ourselves. It’s an issue for our society, for men and women, to fix. One of the most important things to do is to raise our kids in a respectful way with both genders. I want [my son] to respect women when he gets to the workplace. Whether you work inside or outside the home, it’s important to have that respect.
She reported that she’s heard from “hundreds, maybe thousands” of women who say they are going through what she went through.
“The idea that all of these women feel secure enough to share their stories with me is really heartwarming,” she said. “I want to help them.”
Carlson encouraged those women and women everywhere to unlearn feeling ashamed and unwilling to speak up. She did it and look what happened!
When talking politics, she said this:
We need a woman in the White House right now. I really think that women want to work together. In the past 10 or 15 years, what has Congress done? Nothing. Our nation is so divided…”compromise” is a bad word. But you’re not weak if you compromise. Someone once told me all women in Congress, no matter which party they’re in, get together every week and have breakfast. I think it’s wonderful that they’re coming together — they don’t agree on issues, but they respect one another. And maybe at one of those breakfasts, they have compromise. I’m not encouraging people to give up their true beliefs, but I do think we need to find common ground on some of these major issues facing our nation. I see this as an unbelievable opportunity for our new President to prove what he can do.
While this reads like it could be a retrospective lamentation over Hillary Clinton failing to net the highest position in the country, Carlson does say that she sees compromise as an opportunity for President-elect Donald Trump to “prove what he can do.”
according to the Good Housekeeping piece, Carlson isn’t waiting for anyone in the government to prove themselves; she plans to testify before Congress about how women can be protected from harassment in the workplace herself! First and foremost, she’s advocating for the eradication of forced-arbitration clauses in employment contracts.
After that? Well…
“I will work in TV news again, and this time I look forward to being in an environment where I feel safe and respected. I’m confident it’s out there,” she said.
Read the whole thing here.
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This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
