Keeping up momentum

– Women have to be “visible and loud” in their fight for equality to build on the gains of the #MeToo movement, activists said as they push for legal reform, an end to violence and equal pay.

From India’s female vigilantes who beat men accused of rape, to demonstrators in Argentina demanding safe abortions, women have been speaking out on local issues that matter to them, said Inna Shevchenko, famous for her topless feminist protests.

“The only way to change the situation is to be visible and loud,” said Shevchenko, who was granted asylum in France after receiving threats in 2012 for hacking down a cross in protest against the prosecution of Russian punk band, Pussy Riot.

“All these voices and campaigns have brought us to #MeToo. It is a key movement in the history of feminist movements and it will keep spreading,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on the sidelines of the annual Trust Conference in London.

The #MeToo movement began in the US a year ago in response to accusations of sexual assault and harassment in the entertainment industry and has emboldened women to speak out, from Britain and France to India and Iran.

While women have been protesting over abuse for years, society has become more willing to listen since the emergence of #MeToo, campaigners say.

The next frontier, activists said, is legal reform.

“What’s next after #MeToo in the US is constitutional equality,” said Carol Robles-Roman, a lawyer campaigning for the constitution to be amended to expressly prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex.

“You can raise money to hire all the lawyers you want, but all it means is that the line to the courthouse is going to be that much longer.” – Reuters

London