♪ god has given us one more day ♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, women at work. 2017 was the year women stood up in the face of sexual harassment and assault. >> we will not go away! >> declares time's up for harassers. >> a new day is on the horizon! >> we're on the front line with waitresses, housekeepers, and truck drivers. >> and he would follow me around the restaurant. >> started grabbing on me, trying to kiss on me. >> one guy said, i could watch you walk away all night. >> as they join the chorus of women demanding change. white gold. >> are we here or is this some kind of movie? >> the churning rivers of bhutan the source of water for 1.3 billion people. bob woodruff takes us on the adjourn near of the lush country

on the drink, the natural beauty being threatened by dams built to mitigate the effects of climate change. remembering a first lady's groundbreaking embrace. first the "nightline 5." >> i'm on the move all day long. sometimes i don't eat the way i should. so id drink boost. >> boost high-protein nutritional drink has 15 grams of protein and 26 essential vitamins and minerals including calcium and vitamin d. boost protein, be up for it. poor mouth breather. can't sleep? take that, a breathe right nasal strip opens your nose up to 38% more than allergy medicine alone. shut your mouth and say good night, breathe (sound of footsteps) (sound of car door opening) (car door closes) (sound of engine starting) ♪ ♪

our 3 contestants are all at the big ikea table. who's going to be tonight's winning chef? contestant #1, impressive knife skills. but contestant #2 fights back by using fresh parsley. and, contestant #3 adds a touch of sweetness. sweetie, come eat outside. but it's to hot out there! perfect! make room for the judge! what's your dream? at ikea, we help you live it. make the dream yours. (sound of footsteps) (sound of car door opening) (car door closes) (sound of engine starting) much for joining us.

tonight an eye-opening look into the lives of everyday american win fighting sexual harassment in the workplace and demanding change. diane sawyer has the story. >> reporter: seven months ago, some very brave women came forward to tell their personal stories so that women everywhere could speak up with hope. >> that a new day is on the horizon! >> so our question, what will it take to make sure this moment matters for all working women all across the country? the housekeepers, waitresses, workers in small towns as well as big cities. so many of them afraid of losing their jobs. we heard from every part of the country. >> i was dreading going into work. >> felt under my dress -- >> i don't want to lose this job -- >> reporter: on the front lines the servers. >> he would follow me around the restaurant. >> reporter: there are 2.5 million waitresses and waiters across this country tonight. and a majority of them work for a wage less than $3.26 an hour.

for 12 hours of work, that's a paycheck of $40. tips are their livelihood. a woman in north carolina sends us a message. she is a veteran server of 20 years. six different restaurants. since she's still working, she asks us not to give her name. and says she's proud of being a waitress, even though the years take their toll. >> feet are killing me, my toe hurts. 20, 40, 60 -- >> reporter: she says every penny she makes goes for school supplies for her children and medical care and a college fund. and she knows how we've all laughed through the years about what waitresses do to earn their tips. >> wait, wait, wait -- >> go out and get those tips! >> oh, wow! >> you think she thinks i have a beautiful face or is she just

saying that? >> well, they do work on tips. >> reporter: we know it's almost a kind of handbook. wear red lipstick. lean over. but it's one thing to laugh. another to live it. >> i'll say, hi, welcome, what can i do for you what can i get for you? they'll say, show me your tits. would you walk into an office and say that to somebody? >> reporter: because you need the money, you try to smile through comments she say came every week over 20 years. >> i had one guy say, i could watch you walk away all night. your wife and children are sitting right next to you. it's a job that doesn't take education to do. it takes skill but it doesn't take education. so i think people perceive us as we're dumb. we'll take it because we can't do anything else. >> reporter: it's not just smiling at customers who pay you. it's also trying to make sure you please the manager. because the manager controls which servers get the best

section in the room. the ones we all want. near the windows. more customers, more tips. and by the way, across this country, a huge percentage of chefs and managers are male. >> i was told that i would not get a good section if i did not give my manager a [ bleep ]. in the restaurant business, if you don't have a good section, you don't make money. >> a lot of women that work in this business are young single moms. they don't have any self-esteem. these managers -- they can spot that. the second they walk in the door. and they just prey on them. >> "you're almost legal." >> "are you ready for this in". >> "you're being dramatic." >> "take you from behind." >> "try to smile." >> reporter: 52 million people in america, restaurants were our first job, teaching us our value in the workplace. >> i was a lot tanner back then. and skinnier.

>> reporter: madison was only 16 years old when she started working at an ihop franchise in illinois. what kind of 16-year-old were you? >> private school, all girls. >> reporter: she was a hostess at the register, smiling at customers. while she says this is what two of the managers, two men, were doing. >> they would come up behind me, they would just rub up against me. they're so confident, you know. that no one was ever going to say anything. >> reporter: she says one of them asked her to run a personal errand with him before the shift started. the teenage girl got in the car. what happened? >> he parks the car. and he just -- unbuckled his belt. and unzipped his pants. and he -- he just -- pulled out his penis, and it was already erect. it was already -- like he was -- i don't know. it was just -- ready.

then he grabbed the back of my head and pushed my head down. and i -- he just kept pushing my head up and down. and he said, "well, it's not worth it if you're not enjoying it." so then i got out of the car and i went in to work. >> reporter: afterwards, she says, the franchise owner and those two managers warned the young girl she should say nothing. not only to protect her job, but to protect their families. she continued to work there for one more year. >> i feel so naive for even going in the car to begin with. and i think i blamed myself for a long time. >> reporter: as we talked, i thought i could hear a sound from the next room.

will you come out? it was her mother, sobbing. >> you're stronger than i ever was. >> reporter: madison says only after she left that restaurant did she learn there were ten other women who had been working right there in the same franchise and had their stories too. they are now filing suit against the franchise and the ihop corporation. the franchise owner has denied wrongdoing but gave us no further comment. the ihop corporation would not comment on the litigation. but they told us they are very concerned about any question of harassment in the workplace and hold their franchises to high standards. >> if no one does anything about it, they're going to keep getting away with it. >> reporter: in a bitterly divided political climate, there

is one thing we appear finally to agree on. 83% of people think sexual harassment at work is a real problem. including men. >> we need to have respect. for everybody. >> reporter: the men at bo's diner in missouri worry maybe a lot of men are getting fired too fast. >> they should come out, but you should also be proven before you get fired. >> reporter: one diner says he's just worried that the risk of lawsuits and harassment claims will actually undermine jobs for women in small businesses. he says say you have a job opening, you hire a woman. >> something happens down the road with one of my other employees toward the lady, i might be out $50,000, $100,000 in paying. and with the high demand i'm not. does that have to make the lady be overly qualified for the job she gets? >> reporter: another sobering survey, 71% of us think the movement will not make it better

for women in the workplace. so who is going to change the world? for all the restaurant workers just trying to earn a living with dignity? we received? ideas. some big, some small. a couple of bartenders in new orleans started something called shift change. asking that everyone intervene for servers. >> you're not alone. customers are the people who have the power. so i think it starts with just treating the people serving you with respect. >> guys say really crazy stuff. oh, you're a guy, you're a bartender, locker room talk, whatever. it's like, no, absolutely not. >> reporter: we also talk to an advocate, the head of the largest organization for restaurant worker rights who says, remember what a tin c tip mean for a life. >> when you're earning $2, $3, $4, your wage so is low it goes entirely to taxes, you're living off tips. the customer is always right because the customer pays your bills, not the employer.

>> reporter: at a restaurant in new york i talk with servers. simone says every dollar she receives goes to support her child, pay for housing, make a dent in her student loan. so you're living entirely on tips? >> right. >> reporter: as her shift begins in new york, that veteran server in north carolina is heading to her job. she says she always takes a minute or two to think about the young workers and their high hopes. >> i just have that little talk with myself that it's going to be a good shift. i'm going to go in, i'm going to have a positive attitude. >> reporter: women all over the country hoping change will come, and come to their workplaces too. next, it's the world's only carbon negative country. what bhutan is doing in the fight against climate change. and your current treatment hasn't worked well enough,

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our 3 contestants are all at the big ikea table. who's going to be tonight's winning chef? contestant #1, impressive knife skills. but contestant #2 fights back by using fresh parsley. and, contestant #3 adds a touch of sweetness. sweetie, come eat outside. but it's to hot out there! perfect! make room for the judge! what's your dream?

at ikea, we help you live it. make the dream yours.

with the fastest-growing economy in south asia, bhutan is taking a major stance on climate change. bob woodruff has the story. >> reporter: just so beautiful. 23-year-old pasan grew up on the water. he's loved it ever since he was a young boy. but the water that he loves in the only home he's ever known is being threatened by forces beyond his control. this is the remote country of bhutan. nestled at the top of the world between china and india. less than 1 million people live here. a secluded nation by choice. intent on preserving its own identity.

there are no fast food chains, no smoking, and limits on mass tourism. and they are still managing without a single traffic light in the entire country. but that's not why i'm here. it's bhutan's relationship with what they call white gold. water. this land-locked nation's relationship with water has made the bhutanese into being the most environmentally progressive nation in the world, and it's reflected in their passion. >> climate change is really happening. i can see the real living examples. >> global warming is really and definitely manmade. >> reporter: sandwiched between the world's worst and third-worst carbon emitters, the bhutanese are forced to live in a real precipice of climate change. bhutan is the world's only carbon-negative country. it absorbs three times more carbon than it emits. but even that hardly offsets the emissions of its neighbors.

climate change is a real tangible threat here. those iconic peaks, the himalayas that shield this place from the rest of the world, are also like a sword hanging over their head. bhutan is part of what is called the third pole. it's the source of no less than 10 river systems across asia. and a freshwater source for 1.3 billion people. like the other two poles to the north and south, the ice is melting. today the melting glaciers are already filling 2,600 glacial lakes to the brim. you've seen the water, is the water higher? >> yeah, definitely. >> more floods? >> yeah. everywhere. it's flash flood, landslides, people being washed away. >> reporter: today there are 25 glacial lakes in danger of bursting. one of the most dangerous glacier lakes is thorthomi. fit bursts it will instantly unleash 14 trillion gallons of water into the river valleys

below, a tsunami from the sky. this is where pasan calls home. while most bhutanese respect their fast-flowing rivers, many keep their distance fearing they will be swept away. >> my two friends died. they drowned. they were drowned. >> reporter: which makes pasan's career choice even more surprising. he is a river guide. his future is linked with the water. have you seen a change in the water because of the glaciers melting fastener. >> every day. every year it increases. the river is like mother for me, like my mother. it feeds me. so that's why every time it changes, i wonder why.

>> reporter: this churning whitewater is bhutan's white gold. and the bhutanese government wants to harness this power with a network of hydroelectric plants. but not everyone here is on board with the plan. like pasan's boss. tobi takes us downstream to what will become the country's largest hydropower projects to see the impact of the construction for ourselves. as we approach, the scenery changes. this in large part is how bhutan is planning to stay carbon neutral. build enough dams, harness the glaciers, mitigate the country's climate impact. the government has jumped all-into into hydropower at the expense of their mighty rivers. you look this way, you see beauty. you look this way -- you got construction and the modern world.

do you want any dams at all? >> yeah, yeah, i have the view there should be some electricity that generates revenue for the government. but it should not be all the rivers. some rivers should be kept free. >> reporter: in 2016, hydropower represented a large portion of bhutan's economy. it is now the fastest-growing economy in south asia. but the bhutanese government says they barely skimmed the surface of their country's potential. certainly some opposition to these dams, but it is very minimal. are you for or against the dams being put in? >> again, it's helping most of the bhutanese people out here. so due to the construction of that hydro project, again, they've promised within 2020, the whole of bhutan, each and every corner, will be lighted. >> reporter: if the temperatures continue to rise and the glaciers disappear, so too will the water source for these river guides, the farmers, and the

hydropower plants. this water, it turns out, can eventually run dry. ♪ ♪ as the outside world further encroaches, the stress of development can clearly be seen. now it's up to them how that same change comes to their home. for "nightline," i'm bob would the rough on the rivers of bhutan. >> thanks to our digital team for that story. the full documentary can be found online at abcnews.com. next, a tribute to pearls of wisdom.

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our 3 contestants are all at the big ikea table. who's going to be tonight's winning chef? contestant #1, impressive knife skills. but contestant #2 fights back by using fresh parsley. and, contestant #3 adds a touch of sweetness. sweetie, come eat outside. but it's to hot out there! perfect! make room for the judge! what's your dream? at ikea, we help you live it. make the dream yours. fearcrazy enough to believe it can change the world. fearless is resilient enough to suffer the slings and arrows - and come out stronger. fearless reads the rules, understands the limitations, listens to the naysayers - and then goes ahead and does it anyway. you know what we make. fearless makes us who we are.

finally tonight, barbara bush will be laid to rest tomorrow. her husband of 73 years, former president george h.w. bush, today still by her side. at st. martin's episcopal

church, shaking hands with visitors, many wearing barbara bush's signature pearls. and a tweet that reminded us of an important barrier mrs. bush broke down in 1989, visiting an aids hospice when there was still widespread fear you could get aids simply by touching someone. mrs. bush not afraid to hold, hug, or kiss. a mother's touch from a first lady. our coverage of mrs. bush's funeral starts tomorrow at noon eastern, 9:00 a.m. pacific time. thanks for watching abc news. as always we're online ♪

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