and, melissa silverstein is the founder of the blog and website, women and hollywood. lisa senecal, you've had a personal experience with sexual harassment and that's drawn you to the #metoo campaign movement. tell us what happened. >> sure. like most women, i've had a number of experiences with sexual harassment beginning with my first job when i was 15 years old and it's really been out of and on throughout. the most egregious offense was an actual assault that occurred with a male executive. unfortunately, because of an mba and we can go into the evils of nondisclosures another time, but because of that there isn't a lot i'm able to say about the specific event, but the issue of sexual harassment and aad finally having this come to the floor, so many women are already familiar wit from being on the receiving end and i think especially with the #metoo campaign, it's been really wonderful and an eye opening experience for men to realize how pervasive an issue it is. >> woodruff: from your experience, it was a business setting. melissa silverstein, you have been writin

that was nick bryant reporting there, as you heard. joining me now from new york city is melissa silversteinisation fighting for gender equity in hollywood. first off, melissa, were you surprised when this story broke? i was actually surprised at how large—scale it was. people in the business have heard rumours, especially a person who focuses on gender equality of —— inequality, but i didn't realise the breadth of it, so that, i think, shocked everybody. why do you think these women came forward now? what you think triggered it, do you know? well, i don't know per se, but what i have been feeling is that previously, men in the business who everybody thought were bullet—proof, like roger ailes or bill 0'reilly, we re like roger ailes or bill 0'reilly, were able to be vanquished and taken down for being the harassers that they were and i also think that there is a sense in this country right now that we are under siege as women and that our rights are being rolled back and women have had enough. and once the new york times got a couple of people to talk, i think that started the ball rolling

joining me now from new york city is melissa silverstein, the founder of women and hollywood, who fightequality in hollywood. thanks for joining gender equality in hollywood. thanks forjoining us today. listening to all of these revelations, many people will be thinking did everyone know this was going on? is this something that has been going on in hollywood for a very long time? well, clearly, it's been going on for a very long time. we have allegations going back 30 years and he seems to have spent a lot of time going up the women and also covering it up. it must have been a lot of work and the culture of silence that he created around himself, and the fear that he build, isjust disgusting —— that he built. fear that he build, isjust disgusting -- that he built. you talk about power and that presumably is the reason why women didn't speak out earlier. there will be some saying, actually, they should have spoken out much sooner and it would have stopped the pattern of behaviour, potentially. let's remember, this is not on the women who have been victimised by him and who have been vic