our years ago, a phrase first coined by American activist Tarana Burke became a viral hashtag as thousands tweeted #MeToo to share their stories of sexual assault. Today, the hashtag has been used to fight gender-based violence and discrimination in over 100 countries worldwide. And though the coronavirus has dominated much global news coverage since early 2020, women’s rights activism has persisted worldwide, in some cases gaining more urgency throughout the pandemic.
A continued global focus on #MeToo frames the release of a new book written by Rachel B. Vogelstein, the Director of the Council on Foreign Relation’s Women and Foreign Policy Program, and Meighan Stone, the Council’s Adjust Senior Fellow for Women and Foreign Policy. Within Awakening: #MeToo and the Global Fight for Women’s Rights, Vogelstein and Stone explore the women’s rights movements in seven countries, highlighting how the viral hashtag has pushed against patriarchy around the world.
In a recent virtual book launch hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, Vogelstein and Stone joined Nigerian women’s rights activist Fakhrriyyah Hashim to discuss the specifics of what #MeToo looks like in different countries and what the movement can teach the world about how to fight for women’s rights. “We really wanted to show that women everywhere, including in the United States, continue to face these challenges,” Stone said when describing her motivations for writing the book. However, unlike women’s movements of the past, Vogelstein notes that, “21st century tools have diversified the global women’s movement,” allowing for an American hashtag like #MeToo to go viral globally and create a new form of activism. In Sweden, women working in different fields branched off of #MeToo and rallied behind humorous, industry-specific hashtags, including #sistaspikenikistan (the last nail in the coffin) for construction workers and #vikokarover (we’re boiling over) for restaurant workers. And in Nigeria, activism on Twitter allowed even women living in conservative parts of the country to speak up about sexual assault. “We had a period where young women just go the courage to start talking about their experiences with sexual violence,” Hashim said, noting that it was hard for women in the northern part of her country to come forward about receiving sexual abuse from men they didn’t know.
However, when it came to translating digital activism to actual policy change, Vogelstein, Stone, and Hashim shared mixed results from the variety of countries studied in Awakening. In Sweden, digital activism eventually led to the successful prosecution of a prominent photographer on rape charges and the implementation consent-focused rape legislation. However, even a country that saw successfully legal changes during its #MeToo movement has faced failures. After journalist Cissi Wallin publicly accused fellow journalist Fredrik Virtanen of rape in 2017, he accused her of gross slander and won his case. In Nigeria, activists like Hashim launched a campaign to legally increase the age of marriage and were successful in raising the age of marriage to 18 in two additional states. However, during the book launch, Hashim noted that while the west has been able to provide some redress to victims of sexual violence, Nigeria has still been unable to provide justice to its victims. “The state is not listening to us,” Hashim said. “It’s talking over us.”
Going forward, the panel at the book launch recommended several things states can do to provide legal support for women’s rights. “Governments need to ensure that there are adequate legal protections against assault and sexual harassment,” Vogelstein said, pointing out that there are still 50 countries worldwide that don’t have any laws preventing assault and sexual harassment. “A lot of states lack the political will to change some of these things,” Hashim added, “and a lot of our governments are male dominated.” Because of this male domination, Hashim said that in Nigeria, activism was focusing on increasing women’s political representation. Finally, in response to a question about how women were getting men on board with the #MeToo movement, Vogelstein shared a story from Brazil. When the Brazilian hashtag #myprimeiroassedio (my first harassment) went viral in 2015, mostly male journalists began writing about the movement. One activist asked top male journalists if women might be able to take over their platforms and post about sexual violence, and in turn one woman was even able to post on a top Brazilian soccer blog after a big match. “By collectively organizing the sheer numbers of women who are coming forward,” Vogelstein said, “[we are] starting to change male perceptions of this issue.”
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Awakening: How #MeToo Started a Global Reckoning with Sexual Abuse
Image by Pixabay.
July 28, 2021
The #MeToo movement helped raise awareness of gender-based violence and discrimination around the world, but translating digital activism to actual policy change has been challenging. In a new book, CFR's Rachel Vogelsten and Meighan Stone explored how the world's governments can do better.
F
our years ago, a phrase first coined by American activist Tarana Burke became a viral hashtag as thousands tweeted #MeToo to share their stories of sexual assault. Today, the hashtag has been used to fight gender-based violence and discrimination in over 100 countries worldwide. And though the coronavirus has dominated much global news coverage since early 2020, women’s rights activism has persisted worldwide, in some cases gaining more urgency throughout the pandemic.
A continued global focus on #MeToo frames the release of a new book written by Rachel B. Vogelstein, the Director of the Council on Foreign Relation’s Women and Foreign Policy Program, and Meighan Stone, the Council’s Adjust Senior Fellow for Women and Foreign Policy. Within Awakening: #MeToo and the Global Fight for Women’s Rights, Vogelstein and Stone explore the women’s rights movements in seven countries, highlighting how the viral hashtag has pushed against patriarchy around the world.
In a recent virtual book launch hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, Vogelstein and Stone joined Nigerian women’s rights activist Fakhrriyyah Hashim to discuss the specifics of what #MeToo looks like in different countries and what the movement can teach the world about how to fight for women’s rights. “We really wanted to show that women everywhere, including in the United States, continue to face these challenges,” Stone said when describing her motivations for writing the book. However, unlike women’s movements of the past, Vogelstein notes that, “21st century tools have diversified the global women’s movement,” allowing for an American hashtag like #MeToo to go viral globally and create a new form of activism. In Sweden, women working in different fields branched off of #MeToo and rallied behind humorous, industry-specific hashtags, including #sistaspikenikistan (the last nail in the coffin) for construction workers and #vikokarover (we’re boiling over) for restaurant workers. And in Nigeria, activism on Twitter allowed even women living in conservative parts of the country to speak up about sexual assault. “We had a period where young women just go the courage to start talking about their experiences with sexual violence,” Hashim said, noting that it was hard for women in the northern part of her country to come forward about receiving sexual abuse from men they didn’t know.
However, when it came to translating digital activism to actual policy change, Vogelstein, Stone, and Hashim shared mixed results from the variety of countries studied in Awakening. In Sweden, digital activism eventually led to the successful prosecution of a prominent photographer on rape charges and the implementation consent-focused rape legislation. However, even a country that saw successfully legal changes during its #MeToo movement has faced failures. After journalist Cissi Wallin publicly accused fellow journalist Fredrik Virtanen of rape in 2017, he accused her of gross slander and won his case. In Nigeria, activists like Hashim launched a campaign to legally increase the age of marriage and were successful in raising the age of marriage to 18 in two additional states. However, during the book launch, Hashim noted that while the west has been able to provide some redress to victims of sexual violence, Nigeria has still been unable to provide justice to its victims. “The state is not listening to us,” Hashim said. “It’s talking over us.”
Going forward, the panel at the book launch recommended several things states can do to provide legal support for women’s rights. “Governments need to ensure that there are adequate legal protections against assault and sexual harassment,” Vogelstein said, pointing out that there are still 50 countries worldwide that don’t have any laws preventing assault and sexual harassment. “A lot of states lack the political will to change some of these things,” Hashim added, “and a lot of our governments are male dominated.” Because of this male domination, Hashim said that in Nigeria, activism was focusing on increasing women’s political representation. Finally, in response to a question about how women were getting men on board with the #MeToo movement, Vogelstein shared a story from Brazil. When the Brazilian hashtag #myprimeiroassedio (my first harassment) went viral in 2015, mostly male journalists began writing about the movement. One activist asked top male journalists if women might be able to take over their platforms and post about sexual violence, and in turn one woman was even able to post on a top Brazilian soccer blog after a big match. “By collectively organizing the sheer numbers of women who are coming forward,” Vogelstein said, “[we are] starting to change male perceptions of this issue.”
