Time’s Up is a movement against sexual harassment founded in 2018 in response to the Weinstein harrasment allegations and #MeToo movement. In November 2017, the Alianza Nacional de Campesinas wrote a letter of solidarity to the Hollywood women involved in exposing the sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein. The letter, published in Time, described experiences of assault and harassment among female farmworkers. The letter stated that it was written on behalf of the approximately 700,000 female farmworkers in the United States. Partly in response, Time’s Up was announced in The New York Times on January 1, 2018. The announcement cited the letter of support from the Alianza Nacional de Campesinas and the desire to support women, men, people of color, and the LGBT community who have less access to media platforms and funds to speak up about harassment. At its founding, a $13-million legal defense fund was announced, administered by the National Women’s Law Center, to support lower-income women seeking justice for sexual harassment and assault in the workplace. The movement advocates for legislation to punish companies that tolerate persistent harassment and supports toward gender parity in studio and talent agencies. Led by Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff, Tina Tchen, with major donors like Meryl Streep, Witherspoon, J.J. Abrams and his wife, Katie McGrath, Shonda Rhimes, Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw, the fund’s GoFundMe page has already raised more than $15 million of its $15.5 million goal.

After the New York Times leaked the numerous harrassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein, it didn’t take long for people online to take their anger against Weinstein and use it against Streep, who, as they assumed, must have known, because she had worked with him. “I think I’m taking the hit for an entire group of people who worked with Harvey Weinstein”, Streep said in an interview with ITV in January 2018. “But what’s difficult about this is that it preceeds him, these abuses. In our country, the settlement of a sexual harrasment suit is a legitimate tax deduction. It’s built into the way of doing business. This is outrageous. And it is because of the imbalance of power that’s off.”