#MeToo movement a long time coming
This past Sunday was the last day of the UN’s UNITE campaign, which marks 16 days of activism against gender-based violence that began on Nov. 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and ran until Dec. 10, Human Rights Day. For us in Canada, it also includes Dec. 6, the day we remember the 14 young women killed in the Montreal Massacre. It’s a sombre time of year in our national memory.
It also coincided with Time magazine’s announcement of their Person of the Year issue, the “Silence Breakers” of the #MeToo movement. #MeToo was started by American social activist Tarana Burke several years ago, but has since gained new traction in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the flood of accusations coming from newly empowered women finally speaking truth to power.
It certainly seems like a watershed moment. The only questions to ask are: What took so long? And now that it’s here, can we count on real change?
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been binge-watching “Mad Men.” I’m captivated by the set design, by the costuming, and by the backstage insight into the advertising game, but more than anything else, I’m attuned to the gender disparity, the double standard and the outright sexism that women lived with day in and day out in the workplace and in the home. This was my parents’ generation and, frankly, I don’t know how our mothers put up with it. Well, I guess they didn’t. That’s why we have legislation around discrimination in the workplace and domestic abuse and sexual assault in the home. If it isn’t for the people willing to step up and speak out, nothing changes.
In thinking about this watershed moment, at a time in history when equal pay for equal work is law, when discrimination based on sex/gender is actionable, and when women’s workplace participation is at its postwar height, we’ve been primed to believe the truth of women’s workplace experience, not just because of the example of “Mad Men,” but because of the overwhelming number of women’s, and some men’s, stories that emerged to say #MeToo. We can thank the relative anonymity of social media in helping to burst the dam.
Some of the fallout has been humorous. A U.S. female political candidate has made the fact that she lacks a penis part of her campaign platform. Former U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking at a private event, said more women need to be elected because men “seem to be having problems these days.” On the flip side, there are those who caution against a “witch hunt,” afraid maybe for the sake of their own reputation; and among the accused, those who excuse their behaviour as being “of the times.” The truly insidious backlash will be, as Sheryl Sandberg suggests, if women are seen as the problem and their equal access to opportunity skirted out of fears accusations could fly around their male colleagues. That’s already happening; Vice-President Mike Pence has stated he doesn’t meet alone with women. Women can’t be trusted. Or he can’t trust himself. It’s not clear. Will anything change? Many people echo Obama in saying we need more women in politics, in corporate leadership, on boards of directors, in all industries and sectors. That’s not new; it’s been a rallying cry for years. Critical mass is important in influencing group dynamics, and more women will mean fewer men. That is a sad fact for men. But some men clearly don’t deserve the power they’ve been given, they’ve been promoted under false pretences and their spot should go to a competent and qualified woman. The best news coming out from the Weinstein scandal is the possibility that an all-women team will buy The Weinstein Co., a phoenix rising from the ashes.
I like to think that men are paying attention and rethinking their behaviour, examining their own relationships with colleagues, friends and families to discover where they really sit on the equality meter. But I also like to think that women are rethinking their responses to sexist behaviour, are gaining strength and support in their numbers, and are developing a language of resistance that they can use in the moment to stand up for themselves, and to address the issues officially should they decide to report it.
It’s hard work, this social change. But it’s good to remember that we are here today because of where we were yesterday. We need to keep our eye on a different tomorrow.