A couple weeks ago I had the incredible opportunity and honor to visit Capitol Hill and testify in front of the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues, in the third of a series of hearings on #MeToo and sexual harassment. Previous hearings laid out the problem; ours focused on solutions.
I spoke about the work of Project Include in driving cultural and process change in the tech industry, and #MovingForward in galvanizing VC firms towards accountability; the latter of which also tied into Jess Ladd’s work with Callisto, using technology to detect repeat sexual offenders and to connect survivors. Debbie Katz gave sharp, punchy recommendations grounded in her 30+ years of litigation in employment discrimination, civil rights, and whistleblower protection. Judge Laura Safer Espinoza with the Fair Food Standards Council spoke about economic justice for farm workers, Dr. Dorothy Edwards of Alteristic (with her wife and children in the audience!) gave analysis and perspective on training and prevention, and Linda Seabrook with Workplace Safety & Equity for Futures without Violence had specific requests for Congress around re-authorizing VAWA.
Representatives Susan Brooks IN-5 and Lois Frankel FL-21, the bipartisan co-chairs of the caucus, presided, directing our testimony and then the Q&A from other Representatives present: Kathy Castor FL-14, Susan Davis CA-53, Lucille Roybal-Allard CA-40, Ann McLane Kuster NH-2, Debbie Dingell MI-12, and Barbara Comstock VA-10. Remarkably, some of the Congresswomen even spoke to their own experiences with harassment, including on the Hill, and recently; and called out their own institutions for not doing more.
After the hearing, I (and my wonderfully supportive friend Elisa!) then got to play tourist for a couple hours before heading back to NYC. The physicality of the space and historic architecture was a visceral reminder, at least to me, of how important the work of our lawmakers and government is.
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