The Hill: Cuomo investigation returns spotlight to workplace harassment

August 8. 2021

Executive Director Noreen Farrell was featured in an article in The Hill about New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has been reported by many as having sexually harassed them. ERA and many of our partner organizations are calling for Cuomo’s resignation:

“Gov. Cuomo’s conduct was collectively enabled by many other bad actors,” said Noreen Farrell, the executive director of the women’s rights group Equal Rights Advocates. “They were working within a system that was really built to deter survivors from seeking and obtaining justice,” she said. Equal Rights Advocates has joined a number of other gender justice and survivor organizations to call on the New York State legislature to remove Cuomo from office…

“[The Me Too movement] helped drive the conversation beyond individual perpetrators to the system that allows harassment to exist,” Farrell said. “I think the movement exposed the complicity of others at the highest levels within the workplace who are protecting abusers for the cost of profit or power. …I think the New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo case presents textbook examples of all of these devastating factors at play,” she added.

“What happens to Gov. Cuomo will test the progress of the Me Too movement,” Farrell said. She pointed specifically to the scope and depth of the investigation into Cuomo, as well as the conduct that was under investigation. “The report considers a range of conduct that had been previously ignored before ‘Me Too,’ ” she said, referring to inappropriate comments and unwanted hugs…

Farrell also pointed to the widespread bipartisan calls for Cuomo’s resignation, including those from his staunchest political allies. “That’s really powerful,” she said.

Read the article.