When former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson received a $20 million settlement from the network over the sexual harassment lawsuit she filed against former chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, she said, “I’m ready to move on to the next chapter of my life in which I will redouble my efforts to empower women in the workplace.”
Her statement, while rather boilerplate, was remarkable for one simple reason: Carlson has a next chapter.
In a new feature for Fortune, Laura Cohn reports that victims of sexual harassment who go public with their claims—even those who win large awards or settlements—often find it extraordinarily difficult, both psychologically and professionally, to stage a next act. In that sense, they are victims twice over. And yet, the women who talked to Cohn don’t regret their decisions to come forward.
“It was a sense of duty to other women and a sense of duty to the military I served,” says Paula Coughlin, a former Navy lieutenant, who sued after a 1991 incident at a Las Vegas Hilton Hotel, during which she claimed drunken Naval and Marine officers sexually assaulted her and several other women. “We had criminals in our midst. That does not sit right with me.”