Natalie Portman offers step-by-step guide on how to boost other women
As one of the founders of the Time's Up initiative, Natalie Portman has spent the year speaking out about sexual harassment and abuse, pay disparity and gender inequity.
Last week, she offered her view of what could be done to help women, step-by-step, at Variety's Power of Women summit in Hollywood.
First, she suggested giving or raising money for the Time's Up legal defense fund. The fund has already raised $22 million and more than 3,500 individuals -- 98 percent of them women -- have reached out for legal representation and assistance since it was created in January.
Next, Portman called on women to gather.
"Meet with other women and see what changes you want to make," she told the crowd. "Through Time's Up or on your own, gathering has been the central principle of what we do and has created every action we have taken."
She cautioned against gathering only with others from the same background.
"Listen, if any group you're in has only people who look like you, change that group," she said. "It's an awakening experience to hear from women who have different experiences of marginalization."
Fourth, she suggested demanding more from the entertainment industry.
"All you in this room have the power to negotiate for equal pay, or grant equal pay, or popularize equal pay in our culture," she said, adding that they should be embarrassed "if everyone in your workplace looks like you."
Portman's fifth step was "gossip well."
"Stop the rhetoric that a woman is crazy or difficult. If a man says to you that a woman is crazy or difficult, ask him: What bad thing did you do to her?" she said to rousing applause. "That's a code word. He is trying to discredit her reputation. Make efforts to hire people who have had their reputations smeared in retaliation."
She also implored the audience to not shy away from calling out those who abuse their power, saying they will only change their behavior "if they worry they will lose what they care about."
Finally, she issued a challenge to everyone in the room to "tell a new story" and take a year off from violence against women.
"What if for one year, everyone in this room does everything in their power to make sure that all of the entertainment produced in this room does not depict a rape or a murder of a woman?" she dared. "In the projects you write, produce, direct, act, package, market do not harm women this year. Let's see how that goes."
