After the first accusation against Arnault, 18 women came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct that had taken place over a period of 20 years. The #MeToo movement in Sweden ignited following the high-profile case of Jean-Claude Arnault, which led to the cancellation of the 2018 Nobel Prize in literature. In another victory in February, former presidential hopeful Ahn Hee-jung-initially acquitted by a lower court on charges of sexual abuse-was sent to prison for three and a half years on appeal. This January, both Ahn and the actor Lee Myung-haeng-one of the first accused of harassment in South Korea’s entertainment sector-received prison sentences of two years and eight months, respectively. Her courage inspired hundreds of others to step forward, leading to the sudden resignation of several Korean sports figures, literary elites, and politicians.
In South Korea, the burgeoning #MeToo movement began with a televised interview of the lawyer Seo Ji-hyun, who took the unprecedented step of publicly accusing her former boss, the senior prosecutor Ahn Tae-geun, of sexual misconduct. In South Korea, Sweden, and Egypt, the landmark cases that first sparked a reckoning on sexual violence in these countries have all handed victories to the accusers. As legal cases now wind their way through the court system, the rapid-fire pace of news has slowed, which some critics interpret as a sign of failure.īut in recent months, courts around the world have handed down sentences that definitively reinforce the cultural shifts driven by the #MeToo movement. Initial #MeToo accusations led to an avalanche of global resignations and oustings across the private and public sectors. “A precedent has been set that if you raise your voice for truth, you will taste victory.” “Today is a day of victory for all women,” she defiantly told reporters in January from the steps of Pakistan’s Supreme Court, after more than two years of fighting. But Khadija refused to remain silent-and more than 2 million supporters used the hashtag #JusticeforKhadija to champion her case on social media, ultimately helping her win her appeal. Her well-connected attacker was later acquitted by a court system that routinely excuses perpetrators of violence against women. Take the story of Khadija Siddiqi, a law student in Pakistan who was stabbed 23 times in 2016 by a fellow classmate after spurning his advances. Its influence can be measured in the courts, in changing legislation, and, paradoxically, in the growing backlash. The #MeToo movement continues to achieve widespread-and tangible-progress on a global scale. A fundamental shift in women’s rights is underway.
And though a rising number of female candidates have run for political office in countries globally, women remain dramatically underrepresented at the highest levels. Women who previously endured abuse, harassment, and discrimination in silence have raised their voices en masse, collaborating across borders to demand reform.īut for all that momentum, an Economist survey shows that skepticism of harassment claims has grown. Comparable local campaigns exist in dozens more. First launched by the activist Tarana Burke in the United States a decade ago, the Me Too movement has now reached nearly every region of the world the phrase itself, and the viral hashtag #MeToo, is in regular rotation in more than 85 nations.
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