"It's okay to make mistakes in the efforts to topple the patriarchy."
UPDATE 9/8/2021 at 6:45AM
Eva Longoria commented on the reorganization at Time's Up after it was announced the majority of the board -- including herself, Shonda Rimes and Jurnee Smollett -- would be stepping down amid ongoing controversy.
"It's okay to make mistakes in the efforts to topple the patriarchy," the actress told Variety on Monday. "Mistakes will be made. It doesn't mean the efforts should stop. We have to continue."
"We've been under thousands of years of a patriarchal society," she added. "It's not going to topple in the three years that Time's Up has existed. We have so much more work to be done."
The mass resignations come on the heels of CEO Tina Tchen and chairperson of the board Roberta Kaplan stepping down amid the wake of revelations that the organization had been working on behalf of former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo regarding sexual misconduct accusations against him.
After revealing she made a "financial contribution" to Time's Up so it can continue making workplaces safer for women, Longoria also said she is "excited" about the nonprofit group's future.
"We were always in service of our mission and setting up a structure and a space to end the imbalance of power. So I’m excited for the next generation to move that forward because it is important that the work continues."
ORIGINAL STORY 9/5/2021 AT 7:49AM
Just three years out from its establishment amid the #MeToo movement, the Time's Up nonprofit organization is undergoing its most dramatic reorganization yet amid ongoing controversy.
In a statement posted to its website on Saturday, the organization revealed that the majority of its board would be stepping down over the next 30 days, including Shonda Rhimes, Jurnee Smollett, Eva Longoria, Katie McGrath, Christy Haubegger, Hilary Rosen, Michelle Kydd, and Nina Shaw.
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View StoryThe mass resignations come on the heels of CEO Tina Tchen and chairperson of the board Roberta Kaplan stepping down the wake of revelations that the organization had been working on behalf of former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo regarding sexual misconduct accusations against him.
Time's Up was founded to provide ongoing support and resources for survivors of sexual assualt and misconduct in the workplace as a result of the public reckoning in Hollywood and beyond brought about by the #MeToo social movement.
To hear that the organization was instead involved in helping an alleged perpetrator of this behavior was seen by many as a betrayal of its very foundation.
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View StoryAs if to reiterate this very point, the statement posted on Saturday from the board announcing the mass resignations begins with the words, "TIME’S UP was created to support the goal of safe, fair, dignified work for all women."
"It is crucial to us as a board that the organization remain in service to this seismic, global work to demand equity and disrupt systems that foster discrimination, harassment and abuse," the statement continues, saying that the organization sees this moment as "an important opportunity for growth and change."
"TIME’S UP is ready for new leadership, and we want to move forcefully toward its new iteration," reads the statement, before throwing its full support behind interim CEO Monifa Bandele.
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View StoryUnder her leadership, the organization has brought in an outside consultant and vows to work with "survivors and those who work for survivor justice and gender equity in the workplace and beyond" to assess Time's Up and refocus its commitments.
While the majority of the board will be stepping down over the next month, the statement adds that four members will "remain during this period to help ensure a smooth transition." Those members include Ashley Judd, Colleen DeCourcy, Raffi Freedman-Gurspan and Gabrielle Sulzberger. No word if they will remain with Time's Up after the transition.
"TIME’S UP belongs to all women. Its mission must continue – until we live in a world in which no woman ever needs to say #timesup again," the statement concludes.
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View StoryIn the wake of this announcement, TheWrap spoke with Alison Turkos a survivor who had previously written an open letter -- cosigned by 145 others -- back in August asking that Time's Up do then exactly what it's vowing to do now.
The letter also called out the organization for speaking out on issues not related to sexual harassment, like racial inequality at the Golden Globes and even Scarlett Johansson's profits lawsuit against Disney over "Black Widow."
"They are not actually speaking to anything the survivor community asked for," Turkos and the other survivors said in their open letter. "
"It cannot go unnoticed that this announcement from Time's Up was made in the shadows of a Friday night before a holiday weekend," Turkos told TheWrap. "Transparency is key and it is what the survivor community has been asking for from the beginning. Our letter clearly states this. Gatekeeping helps no one. "
"The survivor community looks forward to being an active participant in this new iteration of Time’s Up," Turkos continued. "As the disability justice community taught us, nothing about us without us."