How to Make it Easier for Women to Report Sexual Harassment

In December of 2002, Time featured three women whistleblowers on the cover of its “person of the year” issue, noting that in “a year when our trust in American institutions was tested, Sherron Watkins of Enron, Coleen Rowley of the FBI and Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom found the strength to stand for what’s right.” At the time, I was at the Securities and Exchange Commission, and I had worked on countless cases where—to put it bluntly—a powerful and ethically unhinged group of men stole things from innocent people. For years, that magazine cover sat in my office as a reminder that courage wins. Today, as heartening as it is to see Time’s new issue honoring the #metoo “Silence Breakers,” I worry that courage doesn’t always win quickly enough.