Gagging orders have been silencing mothers for decades – it’s time to rip them up

Non-disclosure agreements are increasingly being used by powerful bodies to stop women talking about being mistreated, writes former assistant to Harvey Weinstein Zelda Perkins – who warns it’s making women suicidal

Why we are letting employers and perpetrators get away with this often illegal behaviour, which is then covered up with silence and a payout? (EPA)

Today, dozens of women stood head to toe in black, their mouths gagged with yellow tape on the steps of the Royal Courts of Justice, in solidarity with the estimated 435,293 mothers who are silenced every year by NDAs following discrimination, harassment or bullying at work.

Astonishingly, this behaviour has gone on for decades – mistreatment in the workplace, hidden as if it is a trade secret, with the victims ushered out stage left, never to be heard from again (literally).

The question is: Why we are letting employers and perpetrators get away with this often illegal behaviour, which is then covered up with silence and a payout? The push-back that you will hear from NDA enthusiasts is that victims need the protection of NDAs, to be able to move on. The reality, though, is that NDAs compound the abuse and most often halt people’s careers indefinitely.