Noreen Farrell is executive director of Equal Rights Advocates, which has spent more than 50 years fighting for women’s rights in workplaces, schools, and public life.
In the span of a month, two stories have laid bare an uncomfortable truth about progressive politics: Too many people will protect powerful men at the expense of the women they harm, whether to protect a movement, a party, or because they’ve been conditioned to believe this is how power works.
Rep. Eric Swalwell announced his resignation from Congress last Month after multiple women came forward with allegations of sexual harassment and assault. March’s revelation by Dolores Huerta that iconic labor leader Cesar Chavez sexually abused girls and women for decades is still reverberating through communities that revered him.
In both cases, the pattern is the same: Whisper networks carried warnings for years, but survivors who came forward were silenced or discredited for the sake of the “greater good. ” Why? Because Swalwell was seen as a rising Democratic star, a useful weapon against President Donald Trump. Because Chavez was a civil rights icon whose legacy anchored an entire movement.
Because people convinced themselves that exposing the truth would do more damage than burying it. They were wrong. Silence doesn’t protect movements, it protects oppressors. It tells every woman who has been harassed, groped, or assaulted by a powerful man on “our side” that her pain is an acceptable cost of doing business.
Letting people in power abuse women is never acceptable, regardless of party, regardless of legacy, regardless of how inconvenient the timing might feel. We have seen this calculation before—the quiet bargain where accountability is sacrificed on the altar of political convenience. It never works. The truth always surfaces.
And when it does, the cover-up inflicts its own damage, compounding the harm to survivors and eroding the moral authority these movements depend on. Consider the moment we’re in. We have a president who was found liable by a jury for sexually abusing a woman, and accused by at least 28 others, and has faced no meaningful consequences for it. A president who has made clear, through word and policy, that he believes powerful men can do whatever they want.
His administration is rolling back decades of progress on combatting sexual harassment and assault in workplaces and schools; gutting protections against discrimination; and dismantling the legal infrastructure women depend on for safe, equitable workplaces. The Supreme Court, made up of one-third of Trump appointees, is the first since the 1950s to rule against women and people of color in a majority of civil rights cases. This is the landscape women are navigating right now.
And into this landscape, we are supposed to accept that the men or other abusers on “our side” get a pass? No.If we are serious about building a world where women have equal power—economic, political, and personal—then we have to be serious about accountability within our own ranks. Not because it’s easy, but because the alternative is corrosive. Every time we look the other way, we tell the next generation that a woman’s safety matters less than a man’s career.
We weaken the very movements we claim to be protecting. The women who came forward about Swalwell, including content creators who had no institutional backing, no legal team—just their own platforms and conviction—showed extraordinary courage. So did the survivors who finally broke decades of silence about Chavez. They did what the political establishment was unwilling to do.
They chose the truth. The lesson here is not that our movements are broken. It’s that they are only as strong as our willingness to hold everyone in them accountable. Letting people in power abuse women is never acceptable, regardless of party, regardless of legacy, regardless of how inconvenient the timing might feel.
We are in a fight for women’s futures in this country. That fight requires moral clarity. It requires us to stop treating accountability as a threat and start treating it as the foundation. Good things, lasting things, come from doing what is right, even when it’s hard. Especially when it’s hard.
Women-S-Rights Sexism Organizing Eric-Swalwell Sexual-Violence
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Gwen Farrell Adair, ‘MASH’ actress, dies at 94“MAS*H' actress Gwen Farrell Adair died Thursday at 94. She is remembered for her TV roles and for breaking barriers as one of California’s first female licensed boxing referees.
Read more »
'The Cost of Healing in Silence': How racial trauma impacts Black mental health todayIn her book, local author and licensed therapist Ashley McGirt-Adair looks at how racial bias in mental healthcare impacts Black patients, why culturally responsive care is important, and what it takes to heal out loud.
Read more »
Shonen Jump Creator Breaks Silence on Ending After 14 YearsThis Jump creator has broken their silence about announcing the end of the manga after 14 years of serialization
Read more »
Major Crunchyroll Anime Creator Breaks Silence on Epic Finale (& Teases Future)Wistoria: Wand and Sword's creator opened up about the anime's future after that epic latest episode
Read more »
Below Deck Down Under’s Mike Durrant Breaks His Silence on Getting Fired, Surprise Onscreen Departure'Below Deck Down Under' lost a cast member — and they are speaking out about getting fired on screen
Read more »
House Democrats Urge US State Dept to End Silence About Israel’s Nuclear WeaponsJake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.
Read more »