Follower power. This tale of two women is about follower power. About how two women with little or even no power took on men with so much power they were nearly unbridled.
The first of the two women was Frances Haugen. She was the whistleblower at Facebook who (in 2021) disclosed her identity on 60 Minutes. Haugen revealed she was the source of internal documents disclosing that Facebook knew some of its algorithms were causing great harm, notably to young people. She further told of a Facebook program designed to curb misinformation and other threats to national security, but that was dissolved after the 2020 presidential election. Haugen said what she saw at Facebook “over and over again was that there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook. And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its own interest, like making more money.”
The second of the two women was Cassidy Hutchinson. She was the whistleblower in the administration of President Donald Trump, who was an aide to his chief of staff, Mark Meadows. Hutchinson came to the nation’s attention when she complied with a subpoena to testify before the January 6th committee charged with investigating the attack on the US. Capitol. Previously Hutchinson had been a loyal member of Trump’s team, course-correcting only after the violence that unfolded on January 6th. To explain her about face, she too invoked feelings of patriotism, specifically her loyalty to American democracy. She told the committee that she regarded the January 6th attacks on Mike Pence as “unpatriotic” and “un-American.” And she testified that “we were watching the Capitol building getting defaced over a lie.” All this has just been reinforced, and then some, in her new book, tellingly titled, Enough.
Do Haugen and Hutchinson have anything in common that might explain their extraordinary bravery? Their willingness to risk their well-being to publicly defend the United States of America from its economic and political excesses?
They do.
- Both are women. Both are women in a time when men still continue to hold the most powerful posts in American business and politics.
- Both are young, or relatively so. Haugen was about 35 when she went public with her disappointment and anger. Hutchinson was about 25 when she did the same.
- Both were anything other than members of coastal elites and undergraduates at anything other than elite schools. Haugen graduated from the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. Hutchinson from Christopher Newport University.
- Both were starry eyed optimists early in their respective careers. When Haugen joined Facebook, she thought that “Facebook has the potential to bring out the best of us.” When Hutchinson started working in the White House she was, by her own testimony, “transfixed” by Trump and wanted nothing so much as to be his “loyal foot soldier.”
- Both came quickly to the conclusion that whistleblowing could and would be their way of trying to save the nation – and trying to redeem themselves. Haugen and Hutchinson are similarly a throwback to a time when civics and civility mattered far more than they do now. And when American ideals and idealism were threaded through the fabric of our national discourse.
None of this is to say that the weak shall inherit the earth. Rather it is to point out that being apparently weak – lacking obvious sources of power – does not preclude being remarkably strong. When Haugen worked at Facebook, and when Hutchinson worked in the White House, they were, by every measure. followers. They were certainly not, by any measure, leaders. Still, by daring to speak up and speak out they changed the nature of the conversation. And, maybe, the course of history.