Will #MeToo Really Make A Difference?

What Should The Rules Be, Anyway?

Among The Washington Post's Thursday opinion columns is one written by Donna Lenhoff, titled The #MeToo Movement Will Be In Vain If We Don't Make These Changes.  After presenting an outline of her proposal, I offer a few brief thoughts:

#1 Increase the $$ caps for damages, so that corporations have to get serious.  Currently, large firms are subject to a maximum $300,000 fine.

#2 End the confidentiality of settlements reached between accuser and accused.

#3 Provide investigators with sufficient funds.

#4 Measurement, reporting and investigation should all be enhanced.  Possibly corporations should be required to conduct anonymous surveys and report results on their websites.  Also, more research on where the problem is occurring and what works in addressing it.

What do I think?  I read through the Comments section, and feel there may be a few tweaks to be made, but otherwise, you'd think this would generate a fair amount of consensus among lawmakers.

#1 Just multiply that $300,000 by a large enough number and large corporations would get on it.  The maximum for smaller firms is currently $50,000.

#2  Ending confidentiality when settlements are reached does have its drawbacks, as those in Comments have pointed out (What about the embarrassing details made public?).  The comeback is that without an end to confidentiality, abusers can remain in place and find other victims.

#3  Having sufficient funds to look into serious allegations seems like a way to tell how much politicians really want the problem to end.

#4  The other area some in Comments found fault with was the anonymous survey idea that would require corporations to report results on company websites.  The problem here being that relations between 'management' and 'employees' is not always good.  This doesn't seem to me to be a big deal if surveys are conducted among employees only, and not open to just anyone.  There's a jobs site company called Glassdoor that encourages employees to rate their bosses, for example.  See this article in the New Yorker.

So, overall, I'm on board, and look forward to a bi-partisan push in Congress.  As for confidentiality, I'd need more information.