Time's Up (stylised in all caps) was a non-profit organization that raised money to support victims of sexual harassment. The organization was founded on January 1, 2018, by Hollywood celebrities in response to the Weinstein effect and the Me Too movement. As of January 2020, the organization had raised $24 million in donations. Time's Up collaborated with the National Women's Law Center to create the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund (TULDF), which provides legal and media support to individuals who have been subject to workplace sex discrimination, such as sexual harassment. The Time's Up Foundation raised money for the TULDF. The organization came under fire after its leadership's involvement in the attempted cover-up of the Andrew Cuomo sexual harassment allegations came to light. In September 2021, Time's Up dissolved its 71-member advisory board, which included several prominent actors, as a result of the continued fallout from the group's handling of the controversy. It was also reported that its entire governing board would resign and be replaced. In late 2022, the three board members were Ashley Judd, Nina Shaw, and financial executive Gabrielle Sulzberger. In January 2023 the organization announced it was ceasing operations.
History
Origins and launch Time's Up was founded on January 1, 2018, by female Hollywood celebrities in response to the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases and the rapid expansion of the Me Too movement, with the aim of raising money to support victims of sexual harassment. Following the exposure of the widespread sexual abuse allegations made against Harvey Weinstein in early October 2017, large numbers of women described their own experiences of sexual harassment on social media while using the hashtag #MeToo. Women within the entertainment industry accused others in the industry of sexual harassment and abuse, as media sources covered Weinstein's legal settlements for sexual misconduct with high frequency. During this time, a small group of female talent agents in Los Angeles met to brainstorm solutions to sexual harassment problems in the industry. This group quickly expanded, growing to 150 participants and began to hold weekly meetings and frequent workshops to discuss related issues and solutions.
January 2018 open letter Time's Up publicly launched in January 2018, when the founders of Time's up published an open letter as a full-page advertisement in The New York Times and Los Angeles-based Spanish-language newspaper La Opinión. The signatories to the letter included Shonda Rhimes, Jessica Capshaw, Kate Capshaw, Ava DuVernay, Reese Witherspoon, Eva Longoria and Natalie Portman, among other high-profile women in entertainment. In the open letter, Time's Up stated that its goal was to protect working-class women from becoming victims of sexual misconduct. The group announced the creation of the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund, administered by the National Women's Law Center, which would work towards this end. Time's Up's advocacy arm also stated it would push for the creation of laws to punish companies that fail to address persistent sexual harassment. By January 7, 2018, nearly $15 million for the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund had been raised.
Awards show protests The January 1 full-page advertisement also called for women on the red carpet at the 75th Golden Globe Awards to wear black and speak out about sexual misconduct. Some Time's Up members brought activists to the awards ceremony and wore pins bearing the group's name. During the event, Oprah Winfrey referenced Time's Up in her speech. The 60th Annual Grammy Awards were hosted later that January. At the awards ceremony, several female musicians donned specific items of clothing to express solidarity with Time's Up. Lady Gaga, Lana Del Rey, Kesha and Cyndi Lauper, wore white roses or all-black outfits, while Lorde's choice of outfit included an excerpt from a work by Jenny Holzer that had been printed on a card and stitched onto the back of her dress. During the awards show Janelle Monáe made a speech referencing Time's Up, calling for pay equality in the music industry and an end to sexual harassment. At the 2018 BAFTA Film Awards in London in March that year, some attendees donned black attire and wore Time's Up pins.
Early growth and development The Time's Up organization was initially funded by contributions from Shonda Rhimes and Katie McGrath that allowed the organization it to hire seven full-time employees. According to the Los Angeles Times, the group was "initially fashioned as a democratic collective." In late 2018, Lisa Borders, former president of the WNBA and former Coca-Cola executive, was named the first president and chief executive officer of Time's Up. On February 18, 2019, she stepped down after her son was accused of sexual misconduct. Tina Tchen, formerly Chief of Staff to Michelle Obama and executive director of the White House Council on Women and Girls, was named as chief executive in October 2019. By October 2018, Time's Up raised $22 million from donations for the Times Up Legal Defense Fund. In January 2019, the organization launched its 4% challenge, asking production companies to show their commitment to working with a woman director on a feature production in the next 18 months. Universal Pictures, MGM Studios, Paramount Pictures and Amazon Studios pledged their support for the challenge. Using funding from Melinda Gates, in 2020 the organization created the Time's Up Impact Lab in order to research how to best prevent workplace discrimination and sexual harassment. In September 2020, Time's Up Foundation launched "Time's Up, Measure Up," a project of the Time's Up Impact Lab to study the impact of the pandemic and economic crisis on women. That same year, Time's Up Now, the advocacy arm of Time's Up, launched a campaign titled "We Have Her Back" to support female political candidates and counter what the group described as sexist, racist and derogatory media coverage of women running for office.
Closure In January 2023, Time's Up announced via their website that they were ceasing programmatic operations and directed survivors of workplace sexual harassment or violence to their legal defense fund site. Gabrielle Sulzberger also confirmed this, stating that the organization's board had unanimously decided to shut down the organization's operations at the end of January and that $1.7 million left in funds would be distributed to the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund.
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