SHE HAS RISEN
The fall of powerful men has finally given the women who replace them a chance to prove their worth
OVER the past few months, the #MeToo movement has spurred women to speak out against sexual harassers. They’ve been calling for their firing. And now, women are replacing those men.
Robin Wright will star in the sixth and final season of “House of Cards” following sexual-assault allegations against the show’s former star Kevin Spacey and his subsequent firing. Christiane Amanpour will take over Charlie Rose’s spot on PBS following sexual-harassment claims against him. Sen. Al Franken announced his resignation over similar accusations, and his rumored replacement is Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, Tina Smith.
Elle magazine, meanwhile, scrapped its January cover, which had originally been shot by photographer Terry Richardson, who has been dogged for years by repeated claims that he has assaulted models on his shoots. That cover, featuring Zoë Kravitz, was reshot by Argentinian lenser Paola Kudacki. Good. Good not just for people who care about justice, but for people who care about business.
Following NBC’s firing of Matt Lauer on Nov. 29, the “Today” show’s ratings went up for the first time in three months. According to Page Six, the morning show beat its main rival, “Good Morning America,” by more than 539,000 viewers for the five days ending Dec 1. Hoda Kotb, who filled in as co-host the week Lauer left, handled her fast transition seamlessly. Meanwhile, Rose’s show “CBS This Morning” is being ably anchored in his absence by two women, Norah O’Donnell and Gayle King, with guest hosts filling in.
Though Netflix initially said it would scrap “House of Cards,” Wright’s elevation to the lead has saved thousands of jobs and will continue to boost the economy in Baltimore where the show is filmed. “We’re excited for the 370 people who make ‘House of Cards’ and have done the best work of their lives on that show; for the 2,000 people in Baltimore who have come to depend on that show for their jobs,” said Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer, at the UBS Global Media and Commu- nications Conference on Monday.
There’s no doubt that, whatever the field, replacing men with women is good p.r. If you’re the head of a company (or political party) wanting to show that you value women and that employing a sexual predator is contrary to your values, promoting female talent is a smart way to do it.
Replacing a disgraced man with another man, after all, could result in even more embarrassing revelations. After Ridley Scott dumped Spacey from his movie “All the Money in the World,” he hired Christopher Plummer for the role instead — leading to reports that Plummer had written a 2008 memoir in which he fondly reminisces about his time with a 16-year-old “nymph” who was “able to do the most amazing and unprintable things.”
Since the character Plummer is playing is based on a real-life man, there was no option to hire an actress for the role. But, where possible, it’s good practice to put womenin the spot. Replacing these menwith women has, so far, led to positive results instead of the “incredible drain of talent” that CNN reporter Dylan Byers fretted about on Twitter. All this time, women have been waiting to prove that they can do jobs just as well — if not better — than men. But until now they haven’t had the chance.
That’s partly because sexual harassment keeps women from advancing in their careers in the first place. According to a 2016 report by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 85 percent of women have been harassed at work. As a result, “Whether the industry is media, entertainment, politics, technology or something else, these women say things like: ‘I quit.’ Or, ‘I left that place,’ ” the Harvard Business Review stated in a piece reacting to that 2016 report. In addition, NPR podcast Marketplace Weekend claimed that, among women who have been sexually harassed at work, 80 percent leave to start a new job.
When women leave industries because they’re too uncomfortable to work in them, they never get a chance to reach their potential. So don’t mourn the talent we’re losing as these men exit their careers. Mourn the countless women who never had a chance to develop theirs.