Who Is Gretchen Carlson?

​How might she change your life?

At first glance, Gretchen Carlson looks like any soccer mom chauffeuring her kids through her bucolic ’burb of Greenwich, CT — blond, pretty, smart and fit. But that’s where the resemblance ends.

The truth is, Gretchen is not just smart, but a Stanford grad and a seasoned network TV news anchor; not just pretty, but a former Miss America — and a leading force behind waking our country up to the realities of sexual harassment of women in the workplace. Last July, she accused her former employer at Fox News, Roger Ailes, of firing her in retaliation for her refusing his sexual advances. In September, she was awarded a settlement reported to be worth $20 million. And she’s mad.

“This is happening every single day to women in all walks of life,” Gretchen, 50, has said. She’s become an outspoken activist, a magnet for women who reach out to her desperately seeking advice on how to deal with handsy bosses, managers who won’t promote women and more. She’s also hoping to take her fight to Congress, where she plans to testify against “forced arbitration” — a term usually found in the fine print of the employment agreements many of us sign when we start a new job, though we may not pay much attention to it. Essentially, it means one waives one’s right to sue an employer in open court and agrees to negotiate all disputes through arbitration, usually directed by a company-hired mediator. “It’s secret,” Gretchen has said. “It’s a huge problem.” And by keeping settlements surrounding sexual harassment out of open court, men in power continue to brush off the issue — as, sometimes, do the women who work for them.