Former Fox news host Gretchen Carlson has cautioned women against always reporting sexual harassment in the workplace to HR in an address at Fortune's Most Powerful Women dinner in New York.
Carlson says that a company's HR department might not be on your side.
"Is human resources really the right place to go? Because what I always equate it to is: Who's giving them the paycheck? In the end, if the culture's being set from the top and it's trickling down to the lower levels, human resources may not be looking out for you," she said.
Carlson who filed a complaint against former Fox' CEO Roger Ailes, alleging that he fired her after refusing his sexual advances and complained against sexual harassment in the workplace, settled for US$20 million last September.
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Carlson, who worked at Fox for eleven years, is using her experiences as the basis for a forthcoming book, Be Fierce, which is dedicated to fighting sexual harassment at work. She says she didn't expect to become a face against harassment, but is taking the baton with gusto.
"But when I found myself in that role and started hearing from women who needed me, it became my life mission," she said.
The former anchor says that her book takes in the experiences of the "thousands" of women who approached her with their own stories of harassment following her complaint against Ailes. The book will offer "new ways in which might look" at sexual harassment and reporting it.
Carlson, who is set to testify before congress about forced arbitration, says there is much more work to be done. Especially when it comes to the secrecy around cases of sexual harassment.
Often it's the case, she said, that the predator [can] keep working and you're gone."
The need for cultural change was highlighted in a study conducted by the Harvard Business Review into many womens' reluctance to report sexual harassment. Changes include better HR and reporting systems, improving the company culture and training employees on the impact of the 'bystander effect,' so people are clear on how to react if they witness harassment in the workplace.
In April this year Bill O'Reilly, arguably the biggest star on Fox, was sacked following allegations of sexual harassment.
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