This new system comes on the heels of many companies dumping their diversity, equity, and inclusion scores, among them the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index. Carlson began surveying the top 3,000 largest companies earlier this year, according to her nonprofit group, Lift Our Voices. The LOV Where You Work index will go public in 2025.
“Our team of academic researchers will survey Russell 3000 companies and model publicly available financial data to design a corporate grading system and determine whether the presence or absence of silencing mechanisms drives performance outcomes,” the organization explained on its website.
These mechanisms include nondisclosure agreements and forced arbitration via closed-door courts outside the public system. Often these are the strategies enacted by companies when incidents of sexual harassment arise. Carlson herself worked for Fox News under a forced arbitration clause that prevented her from suing then-CEO Roger Ailes for sexual harassment. Ailes died in 2017 without facing any legal consequences for the various allegations against him.
“We believe employers who allow workers to speak out – and do not restrict them with the use of mechanisms like forced arbitration and NDAs – outperform their sector peers,” Carlson said in a statement. “It’s the right thing to do, and it’s good for business.”
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This comes years after Carlson pursued two respective bills to ban NDAs and forced arbitration for all U.S. companies, which have since become law. Carlson became the face of the #MeToo movement when she came out publicly with her allegations against Ailes.
In 2019, Carlson founded Lift Our Voices with fellow former Fox News contributor Julie Roginsky. Two years earlier, Roginsky successfully filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Fox News. The network eventually settled the case with Roginsky.
