Digital feminism: In the aftermath of #MeToo, what’s next for workplace equality for women?

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Examining the influence of the #MeToo movement on workplace harassment, Sharon Jayoung Song delves into the effectiveness of digital feminism and its impact on women in vulnerable positions.

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Institution: Columbia University

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Examining the influence of the #MeToo movement on workplace harassment, Sharon Jayoung Song delves into the effectiveness of digital feminism and its impact on women in vulnerable positions.

Image courtesy of interviewee. December 15, 2023

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This video video discusses the global impact of the Me Too movement, which brought public attention to issues like sexual harassment and gender violence. It recounts the author's experience as a journalist witnessing women's protests worldwide in 2018, which highlighted a shared experience across diverse cultures regarding workplace harassment. The author investigates the effectiveness of the Me Too movement, particularly in terms of legal reforms addressing the needs of the most vulnerable victims: women in positions of authority and low-wage workers.

The research reveals that federal and state courts responded to the movement differently, with notable progress in places like California and New York, while federal laws remained lacking, often hindering protections for victims. The author emphasizes the need for a nationwide strategy to criminalize workplace sexual harassment and ensure consistent protections across all states.

The paper highlights the credibility of digital feminism and the necessity of further research on the relationship between gender violence and women's economic rights. It concludes that genuine change requires addressing the intersection of these issues to create survivor-centric legal solutions.

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The Me Too movement, was truly a global phenomenon

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that brought the often private conversations

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of sexual harassment

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and gender violence into the public sphere.

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In the spring of 2018, I was a journalist in New York

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and I remember sitting in the newsroom

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watching the live feeds of women from

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what looked like all over the world, marching

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and holding up a sign with those two words.

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And I mean, I've seen protests and demonstrations before,

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but what struck out to me was

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that this was a personal experience

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that was clearly universal.

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It was resonating with women from any culture, geography,

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religion, politics.

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It had crossed racial and ethnic boundaries.

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And these women were all united

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to expose a disturbing reality that yes,

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workplace sexual harassment was happening,

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but more importantly,

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that there was a near global cultural acceptance

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of this behavior we saw at such a great scale in which it

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was being normalized and excused.

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And what was fascinating to me was

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that this cultural reckoning was happening

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all thanks to the internet.

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Uh, social media platforms really became a tool

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for democratizing feminist activism, a tool

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that wasn't available to prior feminist movements.

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The focus of my study was centered on a question that at

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that time was not widely covered by the news.

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Did the Me Too movement even make an impact

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for female workers most at risk

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of facing harassment in the workplace?

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Because I think with any social movement, no matter how big,

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it's only truly successful if it's most

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vulnerable victims see change.

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And years after that watershed moment, I wanted

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to track if the US both federal

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and state courts responded to this huge call

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to reduce sexism

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and whether those solutions specifically address the issues

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that targeted victims face.

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I had to first identify who these victims were,

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who are the groups that primarily make up the statistics

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of workplace sexual harassment

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and what are the factors that put them at greater risk than

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others so that we can then put this into legal writing

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to make sure that protections are in place.

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So my research came up with two main groups

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who may be more frequent targets than others,

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and that is women in positions of authority

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and also low wage workers.

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I realized quite quickly

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that these two main vulnerable groups offer contrasting

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theories of power, right?

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I mean, they are at the opposite ends

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of the economic spectrum.

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So then I wondered, is there a commonality here though,

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and is it an economic one?

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And there most certainly was a link.

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And these are both vulnerable groups who may lack access

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to economic rights to break it down for women in positions

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of power, not a strikingly obvious group as one

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that will lack access to economic rights at a first glance.

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But this group may experience higher rates

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of sexual harassment solely due to a lack in numbers.

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So they have high invisibility.

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There's just too few women at the top at executive roles,

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which is a result of women's economic oppression.

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So there are specific legal obligations

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to protect this group.

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And then on the other side

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of the spectrum are low wage workers.

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There are often frequent targets

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because they simply do not have power.

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They're seen as subordinate.

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Uh, there's just a lack of bargaining

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and legal protections for this group.

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They also may not be aware of the rights that they have due

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to their socioeconomic status.

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This group may wield more power as a collective,

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but they often sign it away through individual arbitration

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or NDA agreements.

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So because of these economic limitations,

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they're more vulnerable to this type of gender violence.

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Did federal and state courts measure up to the moment?

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I did find that Me Too was successful in compelling state

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interest in states like California

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and New York regions that were truly at the epicenter

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of me too, where they faced all this mounting

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public pressure for change.

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But I would say that Me Too did fall short in effectively

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targeting the two main groups at the federal level.

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This can be problematic since federal law

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preempts state law.

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What I found interesting is even if certain states gain all

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these significant legal grounds

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to address workplace sexual harassment,

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protections can't really be strengthened,

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for victims if federal laws remain outdated

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or worse, if they clash

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with the state's legislative efforts, which I found

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to be the case in some of the lawsuits in New York.

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I really do believe that there is a space

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and a need for a nationwide strategy

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and that Congress should do more

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to formally criminalize workplace sexual harassment.

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And that's not just to avoid the ambiguity

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and confusion since every state approaches the offense

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differently, but more so that protections are in place

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for all victims and not just for those

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conveniently living in states that do.

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What I've seen is that not all state and

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and local governments across the country have shown the same

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level of efforts to improve laws related

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to sexual harassment.

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And this wide disparity

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between individual states could leave certain populations

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without access to these effective laws.

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Uh, for instance, Mississippi

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and Alabama does not have any sexual harassment laws.

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So in this Post Me Too era,

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even though states like California

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and New York have really led the way in enforcing state law

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specific to me too, if there isn't more done at the federal

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level, I don't see how victims outside

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of those states can gain the protections that they need.

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The significance of my project was

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to talk about the credibility of digital feminism.

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There isn't a whole lot of scholarly work dedicated

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to me too and its impact on workplaces,

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but I think analyzing the aftermath

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of a movement like this is necessary

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to figure out whether this form of activism that is

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Born outta social media, can real changes

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and commitment come about from employers?

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Can it improve gender equality legally?

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Can it make a mark in the litigation landscape?

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I wanted to show a direct correlation that it can.

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In terms of future research, I think it's super important

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to examine the relationship between gender violence

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and the economic rights of women.

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These rights I consider to be human rights,

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and quite often they're seen as oppressions

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that are not connected.

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When without a doubt they are.

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And if legal changes are serious about coming up

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with a solution that is more survivor centric, catered

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to the needs of the victims, the intersection

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of these oppressions absolutely needs to be addressed.

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