Why boys are the future of change in the #MeToo movement | Gretchen Carlson

Read more at BigThink.com: Follow Big Think here: YouTube: http://goo.gl/CPTsV5 Facebook: http://bit.ly/1qJMX5g Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigthink So trying to fix the whole issue of sexual harassment in our society is a tangled web. I didn’t even know that when I set out on my journey in July of 2016. And so there’s not really any easy fix. And as a result one of the key components I believe is the way in which we choose to raise our children because that’s where it really all starts. What I found out over the last couple of years is that we spend an inordinate amount of time trying to empower our young girls and we do a really great job with that. There are tons of organizations out there that do good work. But when we talk about sexual harassment as only a girl or women’s issue we’re really doing a disservice to it, because quite honestly it’s really a man’s issue. You know the preponderance of predators are men, and in the way in which we call it a “women’s issue,” first of all, there’s almost a negative connotation that comes with that, unfortunately. And the other variant with that is that men just tune out. They just are like “Oh, I don’t have to worry about that.” And so with our sons we keep thinking that the way in which we’re going to fix this problem is to empower our young girls more. But we’re already doing a great job at that. So really where we need to be focused is: what are we telling our sons? How are we teaching them to respect young girls who are their colleagues in school growing up, young women who are with them on college campuses, and then young women who are with them eventually in the workforce. Because if we don’t get to our boys young, to instill that respect, it’s almost too late to try and change when men are in their thirties and forties and fifties and onward. Recently I just read an article about how men are fearful about this whole Me Too era and they’re not going to hire women anymore. They’re not going to take them out to business dinners or spend time with them alone. And to me that’s really a copout. We should be teaching our young boys that this is how you behave when you’re in the company of a woman, and that’s when you’re at a restaurant and that’s when you’re in the workplace. So men know how to treat women! But teaching our young boys is an essential part of this equation.