A day after the New York Times revealed CBS paid yet another hefty sexual harassment settlement, CBS said it as selected 18 organizations to receive the $20 million award that was part of its former chairman and CEO Les Moonves’ separation agreement.

The Times said Thursday (Dec. 13) that CBS paid a $9.5 million settlement to actress Eliza Dushku after it found she was subject to several instances of sexual harassment while on the set of weekly series “Bull” and had been wrongly terminated because she complained of the abuse. 

The $20 million award was deducted from Moonves’ separation package, a $120 million award that has come under fire as allegations that he had abused several women throughout his career in the TV business have piled up.

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According to CBS, the $20 million will go toward supporting the elimination sexual harassment in the workplace, with each organization representing a different critical approach, including efforts to change culture and improve gender equity in the workplace, train and educate employees, and provide victims with services and support.

The list of organizations to receive funds are:

- Catalyst

- Collaborative Fund for Women’s Safety and Dignity (Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors)– re-granting

- Free the Bid

- Freedom Forum Institute – Power Shift Project

- Futures Without Violence

- Girls for Gender Equity / ‘me too.’ Movement

- International Women’s Media Foundation

- National Women’s Law Center

- New York Women’s Foundation – re-granting

- Press Forward

- Producers Guild of America Foundation

- RAINN

- STRIVE International

- Sundance Institute’s Momentum program

- TIME’S UP Entertainment

- TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund

- Women in Film Los Angeles

- Women’s Media Center

CBS will give a portion of the grant to two organizations, the Collaborative Fund for Women’s Safety and Dignity (through Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors) and the New York Women’s Foundation, in order to disburse smaller grants to additional organizations.

CBS worked with advisory firm RALLY, an issue-driven communications firm, to determine the criteria for the grants and develop a strategy that will support new and existing work. The resulting strategy takes three approaches to creating safer and more equitable workplaces: increasing the number of women in positions of power, promoting education and culture change, and supporting victims of harassment and assault.

Both the Collaborative Fund for Women’s Safety and Dignity and the New York Women’s Foundation will be announcing Request for Proposals (RFPs) for organizations to apply for additional funds. 

The #MeToo and Time’s Up movements — which started as an opportunity for women to speak out against shocking revelations of abuse in the workforce by men in power — have evolved into a clear mandate for better treatment and opportunities for women in across all business sectors, especially in the entertainment industry.

Read More: #MeToo: A Moment or a Movement?|Some On-the-Job Gender Training

In just the last few weeks, women have achieved a number of milestones have in front of and behind the camera:

• NBC in mid-January hired Libby Leist as its executive producer at Today, making her the first woman to lead the broadcast network’s morning show, which was rocked in November by the firing of popular host Matt Lauer amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

• The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences nominated a record number of women actresses, writers, directors and producers for Oscars in 2018. The official tally of 40 nominated women — tying 2016’s record — includes the first woman to receive a nomination for cinematography, Rachel Morrison for Mudbound.

• And, in a touch of irony, Variety has reported that Maria Contreras-Sweet, the Small Business Administrator under President Barack Obama, has the inside track on purchasing the beleaguered The Weinstein Co. production outfit, once headed by Harvey Weinstein, ousted on accusations of sexual misconduct. If she succeeds in purchasing the company, it would be led by a board with a majority of women.

“We’re experiencing a sea change — women and minorities are not interested in putting up with being in second place anymore,” Step Up: High Water creator Holly Sorensen told Multichannel News. “It’s as combination of Hollywood being willing and seeing the value of these stories both creatively and financially.”

A Movement in the Spotlight
Indeed, the movement toward greater representation and respect for women in Hollywood has taken root on entertainment’s biggest stages, from Oprah Winfrey’s inspirational and impassioned speech supporting those who have bravely spoken up against sexual abuse at the recent Golden Globe Awards — along with the symbolic black-dress protest at the event — to the all-woman lineup of presenters at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Even the biannual Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour was heavily influenced by the #MeToo movement as female actresses, directors and writers spoke eloquently about the need for a change in how business is conducted, particularly in light of the fact that only 28% of the current producers, directors and editors of scripted shows are women, according to Lifetime executive vice president and head of programming Liz Gateley.

The #MeToo movement will only be effective if it creates permanent change, Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, co-creator of Lifetime’s scripted series UnReal, said during the network’s TCA panel.

“What I want at the end of this ‘hashtag-MeToo’ moment is so much more than just a safe working environment for myself and for my colleagues,” she said. “ What I want is to get our shows on the air and to get rid of the assumption that female-created or run shows are going to be, quote-unquote, soft, and to get rid of the insistence that the female characters be, quote-unquote, likable … and also to get rid of the idea that you need a man above you or with you to run the show, because the woman is going to be too emotional or inexperienced, or any of the other stereotypes that are out there.”

Digital service YouTube has already committed to content that features women and minorities in front of and behind the camera, president Susanne Daniels told Multichannel News, with women producers behind YouTube Red’s original series Step Up!: High Water and Youth and Consequences. Programmers need to move away from hiring white men as showrunners if they are going to affect true change within the industry, she said.

“There are a lot more experienced white male directors in the category than are anyone else, so if you don’t make the effort it feels safer to go in that direction,” she said. “Working with someone else other than a white male director requires taking a chance and a risk because there aren’t as many options. The industry has to push from every end — we have to push from our end as executives, but we have to work with producers, studios and production teams that are willing to push from their end.”

Shows That Speak to the Moment
The #MeToo and Time’s Up movements have also spurred several creative projects on various networks. PBS has commissioned #MeToo, Now What?, a five-part series that will look to take the discussion regarding sexual harassment in the workplace to another level and to examine how the movement can be used to effect positive and lasting change.

Starz last Friday (Jan. 26) debuted #Thatsharrasment, a David Schwimmer-produced series of short films depicting real-life cases of workplace sexual harassment created in conjunction with The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network and the National Women’s Law Center.

On Tuesday (Jan. 30) E! will debut Citizen Rose, a documentary series that follows actress/producer Rose McGowan, whose initial accusations against Harvey Weinstein helped spark the #MeToo movement.

The movements signify an awakening to what’s been happening in the industry for some time, as well as the need to change the negative paradigm that exists in companies all over the world, McGowan said at E!’s TCA session. “I think it is a time of reckoning and a reset button,” McGowan said.

Added Citizen Rose executive producer Andrea Metz: “This is a global problem … what this message is about is that women don’t have to sit in silence any longer and sit in fear,” she said. “Rose has been brave enough to come forward, and I think we’re just going to see the messaging continue, and the conversation continue. And that’s what’s so important.”

We stood near 66th Street at Central Park West in Manhattan, thousands of us, behind the police barricades, waiting. The first-anniversary NYC Women’s March crowd would reportedly hit 200,000, but many of us — too far away from the speeches, outcries, slogans and finally, the start of the marching — stood and waited for over two hours, patient and hopeful.

Then, finally, at the first real signs of restlessness on this unseasonably warm day: movement. It was slow at the beginning, like baby steps. The shouting got loudest as we passed cameras, then monitors, then Trump-branded hotels. The placard signs were winning: “Men of Quality Don’t Fear Equality,” “Girls With Dreams Become Women With Vision,” “Get Your Tiny Hands Off Mother Earth,” “The Fem-Pire Strikes Back,” and a personal favorite, “UGH Where Do I Even Start.” And then, after a turn at 59th Street and Columbus Circle, the crowd widened and we were off, moving quickly, walking 20 more blocks with a sense of exhausted relief and accomplishment, and a hope that it would contribute to positive change.

The pace of that day, in fact, seemed to mirror that of this current moment in the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements. Last October wasn’t a week old when Harvey Weinstein turned from producer to pariah, and ever since, weekly revelations have drawn ire and more banishments in film and television — perhaps most notably on TV, once-invincible morning host Matt Lauer of Today. But real progress has proven slow, as patience battles restlessness.

Read More:Some On-the-Job Gender Training | With #MeToo, TV Hits the ‘Reset Button’

That pace is fine for history; social movements move slowly and broadly in a host of directions and take years, even decades, to unfold. What’s unique here and now is that this current women’s movement is playing out on the most relentlessly and constantly examined canvas in modern history; namely, the digital, multiplatform, obsessive 24-hour news cycle. And, as we’ve already witnessed, there’s no way to keep that impatient, ratings-hungry backdrop from reshaping what will be an historic, evolving narrative — especially given that the media itself is among the industries being examined.

The excessive punditry makes it difficult to parse what it all means going forward after a week that saw one woman’s intimately reported, aggressive dating encounter with Master of None star/co-creator Aziz Ansari balanced against Today, one of TV’s most popular shows, naming its first-ever female executive producer, Libby Leist. One thing’s for certain: It will be a challenge to make the right kind of continued progress while separating conversation from noise.

“The complexity of the topic itself is in part due to the fact that there’s never any pause in the cycle of reaction,” Isra Ali, clinical assistant professor in the department of media culture and communications at New York University, said. “There tends to be a trajectory of something reported, like with Aziz Ansari, and then immediate reaction online and then reactions of news reporting reacting not on just the event but also in reaction to the reaction. The question becomes, does it ever settle or is it just a continual cycle?”

A Maddening Pace
Also muddying the meaning in the movement are the competing narratives. One can argue that this current push for rights was born during the last presidential campaign and saw its first symbolic heights in the first Women’s March, with attendance that — White House reports aside — dwarfed the inauguration crowds. In the months since, the general goals have been about protecting reproductive rights and health care, putting more women in Congress and trying to climb back toward a balance of power lost when the electoral numbers tipped to Donald Trump.

But the goals widened in the months since the Weinstein revelations ripped the Band-Aid off the unattended wounds of Hollywood, leading to a re-examination of the American workplace and, in fact, culture itself. Questions of respect, disparity in pay and unfair hiring practices — matters that haven’t been “questions” for women for decades — received fresh consideration. And, thankfully, #MeToo, and its attendant call for an end to sexual assault, discrimination and harassment, saw a resurgence. What’s at play is how we as a culture define progress, and how one gets to it.

These questions now play out every moment in the media, courtesy of both news organizations and the social channels that have become bully pulpit forums. Revelations uncovered after months of dogged reporting share space with raw confessionals that go viral and are then fodder for mind-numbingly debated cable news topics.

So far, the change has come in individual gestures. Kevin Spacey, the Oscar and Emmy winner now regarded as a serial sexual predator based on multiple accusations, has lost his Netflix series House of Cards and was quite literally erased from the film All the Money in the World. Fellow bad actors Russell Simmons, Louis C.K., Lauer, CBS This Morning anchor Charlie Rose and others have each been professionally picked off; what remains is the development of some overall strategy that will make the content business, among others, adhere to ethical rules of sexuality and fairness.

“This moment has created this space for people to tell their stories but we’re only responding to these as individual stories rather than saying this is much bigger than that,” Ann Russo, professor of women and gender studies and director of the women’s center at DePaul University, said. “Without critical social analysis, this stays at this individual level versus what to do to change society. That’s what I’m wondering: Is this a moment or a movement?”

Progress Report
The disparity in the ways media has covered progress and hysteria were on display both at the Today show and in the coverage of Ansari. From that day in late November, when Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb announced Lauer’s dismissal from Today, the show has seemingly run a two-prong approach to the issue: execs keeping a wary eye on public reaction and the ratings of Guthrie and Kotb, and having the co-anchors report on Lauer with only the necessary probing, while offering general coverage of the state of sexual harassment.

The new arrangement worked: On Jan. 2, Kotb was named official co-anchor of one of the most powerful, popular shows on television. And in a nod to this new normal, longtime executive producer of the show, and Lauer favorite, Don Nash, announced his departure; he was replaced by Libby Leist, a senior producer on Today, now the first woman to hold this exalted place in the business. Ad revenue at the show fell in December 24% year-over-year, but viewers are pleased with the pairing.

How this will change the show, and the industry, or whether this becomes simply another individual story, remains to be seen.

“When people say, we need to get more women in power and office, that doesn’t necessarily change the culture or our underlying structure,” Russo said. “It could make a difference but it also depends on what the [Today] show itself allows for. Media depends on making money. They’re not going to allow a lot of critical analysis of pervasive sexual issues. Some of these moves are good but it’s about having a bigger commitment than these symbolic gestures, especially since those gestures might deflect people’s attention and make them think, ‘Oh, everything’s OK.’ ”

That raw feelings remain pervasive, and divisive, has been obvious, and nowhere more so than in the case of Ansari, and “Grace,” the woman whose graphic account of their aggressive sexual encounter remains a focal point of discussion. Ansari, in some circles, is now regarded as disingenuous and hypocritical, a seeming feminist who sported a Time’s Up button during the Golden Globes, and whose 2015 book is titled, Modern Romance: An Investigation.

Date With Destiny
Others, however, angrily suggest Grace’s story reads like date porn, detailing an encounter that could have been avoided — or, at least, not reported on with such vigor and, in some views, vengeance. Ansari is well-liked and respected, and the concern is that Netflix — much as NBC did — will wait out the public opinion, and then decide whether or not he deserves to be heaped in with the likes of Spacey and Lauer for what is acknowledged to be less of an offense.

What’s concerning, too, is the part the media is playing in moving this narrative forward, even influencing it. Sources on polar opposites of the cultural agenda — Fox News Channel on one hand, The New York Times and The Atlantic on the other — lined up to delegitimize what felt, to them, like an attempt by the writer of Grace’s story to undercut the entire women’s movement with the account.

Fox News’s Tucker Carlson wondered if the movement is now hurting whom it meant to help; Ashleigh Banfield on HLN argued that Grace had little more than a bad date that she’s now elevated into a weapon in the greater narrative. “The #MeToo movement has righted a lot of wrongs and … [you] chiseled away at that powerful movement with your public accusation,” she said.

Samantha Bee took on the issue on Full Frontal, offering a “#sorrynotsorry” rebuttal, saying, in part, “a lot of people are worried about Aziz [Ansari]’s career — which no one is trying to end because we know the difference between a rapist, a workplace harasser and an Aziz Ansari. That doesn’t mean we have to be happy about any of them.”

Ali suggested that beyond the bitter recrimination, the talk is good. “There are levels,” she said, referring to the acknowledged difference between Ansari and, say, Louis C.K. and Weinstein. “It’s good to see there is a scale; when people say the movement has made things very black and white, that’s actually not the case. … It may seem like a witch hunt with immediate negative consequences but I do think there’s room for a little bit more subtlety.”

It’s that attempt to make reasonable decisions about something as unreasonable as sexual discrimination that — once the media noise dies down — could ultimately shape this movement into something extraordinarily powerful. Swifter, more historic movement will come about, Russo said, if these reported events “become less of a spectacle and more something we’re concerned about.”

It’s an opinion voiced with stunning validity by Ann Curry, whose career as a Today co-anchor was arguably cut short in part due to Lauer’s influence. “We’re a long way from fixing the problem; it’s more than a conversation,” she told Stephen Colbert during a recent visit to The Late Show. “It’s about action. It’s about not just telling people they can’t do certain things, it’s about changing the dynamic and the power balance within companies so that women are not seen as people who can’t rise to the top. Once we figure that out, we might have a chance to figure [it all] out.”

Last week the nominations for the Oscars were announced. For the first time in history, a woman — Rachel Morrison (pictured) — was nominated for the best cinematography award (for Mudbound). Mary J. Blige was the first person nominated for both an acting performance and original song in the same year (also for Mudbound). Lady Bird, from Greta Gerwig, is the 13th film directed by a woman to be nominated for best picture.

Maybe 13 will be a lucky number for these women role models. I know I certainly hope so. But I also know that going forward we need more than luck — because there is still more work to do.

For too long, women in media have not had the same recognition or opportunities as their male counterparts. In the 90-year history of the Oscars, only one woman — Kathryn Bigelow — has ever won the award for best director. Moreover, not one woman of color has ever been nominated in the category.

Times’s up — in so many ways. Because this isn’t right. It’s apparent that while talent is equally distributed, opportunity is not.

From my seat at the Federal Communications Commission, I see this every day. In meetings and events in Washington and on the road, I can’t help but be reminded. The number of women in leadership roles in the communications sector I encounter is simply too few. The data prove it. While women hold just over half the jobs in the new economy, they hold less than a quarter of the jobs in all science, technology, engineering and math occupations.

In media and entertainment, women account for more than half of moviegoers, but in recent years they have been directors of less than 5 percent of the top-grossing films. Moreover, women represent less than 30 percent of the protagonists on screen.

Furthermore, in media and entertainment, this absence is important. Storytelling is an incredible power. What we see on the screens all around us tells us so much about how we see ourselves as individuals, communities and a nation. The absence of women and women of color — on and off screen — is striking.

So when Oscar night rolls around, we can and should cheer for the almost unprecedented number of women up for awards. We owe it to them — and the many women who wish to follow in their wake — to do more than offer our applause. That means doubling down on incubators, projects and pipelines to build a more diverse future.

But it’s just as important to consider what can be done right now to bulk up the number of women with opportunities to act, write, edit, create, produce and direct. It’s a task everyone can commit to because the adage is true: If she can see it, she can be it. Because while the slate of nominees this year reflects real progress, we still have more work to do.

Jessica Rosenworcel is an FCC commissioner. Follow her on Twitter at @JRosenworcel. Photo of Rachel Morrison on the set of Mudbound by Steve Dietl/Netflix.