#MeToo movement: exploring complexities
24 September 2018
The coverage of women and sexual harassment in the workplace has changed since the #MeToo hashtag went viral in October 2017, after Alyssa Milano (actress) used Tarana Burke’s (social activist) expression “Me Too” on Twitter, encouraging victims of sexual harassment to voice their experiences. As a result, an avalanche of sexual harassment stories were shared online by numerous celebrities and high profile professionals of multiple industries. This overwhelming response has led to the #MeToo movement to gain momentum internationally in the media and to movements with the same purpose to multiply around the world (for example, #Cuéntalo movement in Spain or #quellavoltache movement in Italy). Since then, not only the way in which sexual harassment stories are reported has changed, but also, finding strategies to deal with this issue have become a priority.
The roundtable “#MeToo movement: exploring complexities,” organised by the School of Transnational Governance, aims to discuss the reframing of the coverage of women and sexual harassment in the workplace but also in their personal lives. We will assess what the #MeToo movement has achieved so far, which challenges it currently faces, and how to respond to the backlash and negative side effects that it has generated. Ultimately, the participants will be discussing what could be done about the wide-spread “sexual harassment problem” in our society and what the consequences are of looking at different industries through the lens of gender equality.