Toxic-Workplace Avenger

Her landmark lawsuit helped ignite the Me Too movement. Gretchen Carlson is now on a crusade to protect all workers.

- JULIA HERBST

GRETCHEN CARLSON IS SEATED AT A TABLE IN A BLUE SUIT, WITH A camera pointed at her. She looks serious, but comfortable: After a career in broadcast media, she's used to being filmed.

But on this April morning, there is no hair and makeup person hovering just out of frame. No teleprompter or camera crew. No Bill O'Reilly talking over her or coanchors cracking sexist jokes. She's sitting in front of a panel of politicians, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of workers' rights. "In 2016, I found the courage to sue one of the most powerful men in the world, former Fox News chair and CEO Roger Ailes, for sexual harassment," Carlson begins.

When Carlson came forward with allegations against Ailes back in 2016, the decks were stacked against her, as they are anytime someone makes allegations against a powerful man. Who would believe her? What would they say about her? "It was the toughest decision of my life," Carlson says, looking up at the committee. "But after they fired me, I said to myself, If I don't do it, who will? My story certainly made headlines, but it could easily have been swept under the rug like countless others, because of that forced arbitration clause in my contract."

Written into Carlson's employment contract with Fox were two legal elements that made her fight with the network even more difficult: a forced arbitration clause and a nondisclosure agreement. She couldn't take the network to court, nor could she speak about what had happened to her. (Even today, she can't discuss the harassment that led to her $20 million settlement because of a post-dispute NDA.)