margaret hoover. what is next for the #me too movement, the resurrection of the equal rights amendment, and even new rules for miss america? today on "firing line." ♪ >> "firing line with margaret hoover" is made possible by... corporate funding is provided by... >> women's voices are being heard today like never before. women are standing up against workplace harassment and have turned to my guest for inspiration. gretchen carlson is a journalist and a former fox news anchor whose sexual-harassment lawsuit against her boss helped ignite a brushfire across the country. no longer friends with fox, gretchen's impact has spread across the internet, amplifying the already burgeoning #me too movement. much like that hashtag which remains forever present on social media, gretchen, too, continues to trend. she has taken her harrowing experiences with workplace harassment -- at least we presume they were harrowing, though her settlement terms prohibit her from discussing it, and turn them into legislative goals with the introduction of the bipartisan bill ending forced arbitration of sexual harassment act. surely the laws cannot change our underlying culture overnight, but since "firing line" has no gag order, she will discuss how her bill in congress can help. >> [ chuckles ] >> she is a new york times best-selling author, one of time 100's most influential people, a former miss america representing the great state of minnesota, and now chair of the board of trustees of the miss america organization, which she just announced has dropped the lifestyle and fitness portion of the pageant, formerly known as the swimsuit competition, and she has transformed it into a contest that rewards talent and accomplishment. gretchen carlson, welcome to "firing line." >> i've known you for forever. we should make sure your viewers know that. >> we have known each other for about a decade, and we knew each other even during that time that you were on fox, and that's exactly where i want to begin, because what you did at fox news by beginning a lawsuit and going through a process that actually ended up fairly favorably for you. i know you can't talk about the details, but what we can say is, through that process, you identified a problem with the system. you identified that there is a larger set of forces that were forcing women into silence, and instead of going quietly into the night with a paycheck, you've devoted your time since then as an activist to fix the system. >> i'm thinking about so many emotions, like the courage it takes to come forward by yourself before there's a #me too movement, before there's a time's up pin, before there's anything -- just me taking on one of the most powerful men in the world. so courage, first of all, is not something that you just switch on like a light switch. it takes years and years, and why is that, especially with this issue? because women are so maligned when they do come forward. so as much as you say that things worked out okay for me, not really at the beginning when i had no idea what was going to happen from moment to moment. >> well, and part of the reason it took so much courage is because you were forced into silence. >> right. so, this is the way that society has deemed to settle sexual-harassment situations... until now -- either settlements, which is what happened to me. >> uh-huh. >> then i can never tell you any of the details of my case, although my lawyers had a strategy in which to make my case public. so you can go online and you can read everything that you want to read about it, but i can't say, for example, on july 6, 2010, here's what he said to me -- something like that. but the other way in which we've chosen to solve these issues is through arbitration, and usually when i say that to big groups of people, there's this glaze factor. because nobody knows what "arbitration" means, although 60 million americans have arbitration clauses in their employment contract, so they should. >> arbitration in and of itself on its face isn't something so terrible, right? i mean, the idea of arbitration on its face is to unclutter the court systems, unclutter civil courts, create a more streamlined process for both sides, both parties to come together and resolve disputes. >> right, and so it was originally intended when the supreme court ruled on it 20-plus years ago to do just that -- to unclog the courts and to settle small-business disputes that really didn't need to go through the whole jury process. but what's happened in the workplace is since the anita hill hearings, a lot of companies figured out to use arbitration in a way of keeping their dirty laundry private. >> mm-hmm. >> because one of the stipulations of arbitration is that it's a secret chamber. >> right. >> now, they'll say to you, "it's a really good option for you because it's cheaper for you." well, not really, because it's not cheap. you have to pay these people about $1,000 an hour just to sit there and hear your case, and, also, they'll say, "well, maybe you don't want the whole world to know what's happening to you." well, i think what we've seen over the last two years is that the world has been taken advantage of, and that's why i think the movement has continued so vociferously is because people were angry when they found out that there had been this big secret. >> well, the issue isn't arbitration of itself, it's forced arbitration, and you say 60 million americans are involved in forced arbitration. oftentimes, they agree to it without really understanding or knowing because it's in all sorts of contracts that have nothing to do -- it's really pervasive. >> it's everywhere, and so for a cellphone contract, maybe we don't think that's that big of a deal, but when it's your employment, and it's a reason that you have to sign on the dotted line or you don't work there, that is not correct. >> uh-huh. >> there are a lot of really, really smart people out there who don't realize they have these clauses in their contracts until they get to a situation, hypothetically, like mine, and then they're like, "oh, my gosh. i have no recourse." >> so, is your dispute with forced arbitration generally or forced arbitration in the specific cases of sexual harassment? >> so my bill in front of congress, bipartisan, as you mentioned, which is a huge accomplishment in the house and the senate, is very narrow in scope because i want it to pass. >> mm-hmm. >> and in this hyper-partisan time that we live in, not much passes in a bipartisan fashion. so it's only for sexual harassment. >> so that's the pragmatic, but just on a philosophical level before we get to the details of your bill, do you have a problem with forced arbitration generally? >> so i generally do have a problem with it for almost every argument because i've learned so much from the process of being involved so intimately in these discussions and learning more about these laws. so i don't really feel that it's fair to force anybody into those situations because, in many cases, there are tons of people who don't have the resources that i had or the national platform to make my story public. >> right. >> so there are probably thousands of stories out there of people who have not been given their just due because they've been forced into the secret chamber. >> so your bill, ending forced arbitration of sexual harassment act, which, in this case, you have republicans and democrats in the senate and the house who have dropped a bill specifically to address this issue. >> mm-hmm. >> and i know for a fact, because i know you, that this didn't happen by itself. this is what you did. you went and found the sponsors, both democrats and republicans, for this bill. this is gretchen carlson's bill. >> well, thank you, margaretyes, it was a tremendous amount of work. what i've learned now, though, is that i have so much work to do to actually get it passed. so, i mean, i spent about 18 months walking the hallways of congress and meeting -- >> are you registered as a federal lobbyist? >> not yet, but here's what i would say to the members of congress. do you want to be on the right side of history or the wrong side of history? and do you have daughters? and do you have any woman in your life that matters anything to you at all? and they would all -- mainly the men would start telling me stories about their wives who had faced harassment, their daughters, their nieces, and so, then i would say to them, well, then don't you want to be a part of fixing this? because this issue is truly apolitical. let's take it out of the shadows. you know, let's deal with it. because when you do that, you empower more women to know that they're not by themselves. >> and what's important is that the sponsors of your bill are not