A study on the impact of the me-too movement with special reference to Bangalore city- the true story Unveiled

#MeToo Movement has been the talk of the town breathing new life into the women’s spectrum and caters to the reporting of facts dealing with sexual harassment, abuse and physical and mental assault. It resulted in a widespread movement and galvanized activists all over the world.

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A STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF THE ME-TOO MOVEMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO BANGALORE CITY- THE TRUE STORY

UNVEILED

C A Annie Stephen

Faculty of Commerce, Kristu Jayanti College, Bangalore, India

Nithya

Student - BCom, Kristu Jayanti College, Bangalore, India

ABSTRACT

#MeToo Movement has been the talk of the town breathing new life into the women’s spectrum and caters to the reporting of facts dealing with sexual harassment, abuse and physical and mental assault It resulted in a widespread movement and galvanized activists all over the world And it has brought out into the open stories that were buried deep within their hearts #MeToo movement that gained momentum has encouraged women to come out and speak about their personal stories of sexual harassment It was reported that majority of the cases were reported from the entertainment industry An attempt has been to understand the actual scenario of the movement on college students and the impact of the same on their lives A well-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents The results showed that majority of the cases go unreported and that majority of the victims prefer not taking any action against the predator and owing to the social stigma , silence seems to be the best alternative at hand

Keywords: Metoo movement

Cite this Article: C A Annie Stephen and Nithya, A Study on the Impact of the

Me-Too Movement with Special Reference to Bangalore City - The True Story Unveiled,

International Journal of Management (IJM), 11 (2), 2020, pp 62–74

http://www.iaeme.com/IJM/issues.asp?JType=IJM&VType=11&IType=2

1 INTRODUCTION

The #MeToo movement which is of recent origin came to India in 2017 when a student pursuing law Raya Sarkar compiled a list of alleged sexual harassers in the Indian academia The idea of women speaking up years after the alleged incident and even making these

accusations anonymously threw up several questions – and over a year later, they are still in the air In an online poll of 15,000 members across the country by LocalCircles, 32 per cent said that they or one of their family members have experienced or observed sexual harassment

at the work place After the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment at the workplace buffeted social media in the past weeks, a survey revealed that nearly one in three individuals have either faced it or knows someone in their family who did, and every second victim faced physical advances by the perpetrator However the work is on and the movement continues to focus on helping those who need it to find entry points for individual healing and galvanizing

a broad base of survivors to disrupt the systems that allow for the global proliferation of sexual violence The main intention of the movement remains to reframe and expand the global conversation around sexual violence to speak to the needs of a broader spectrum of survivors Young people, queer, trans, and disabled folks, Black women and girls, and all communities of color The need for perpetrators to be held accountable and the strategies implemented to sustain long term, systemic change Even as the #MeToo movement began brewing in the West in 2017, a group of researchers started worrying about the fallout of the global storm that claimed many big names, starting first with the fashion industry and slowly spreading to other fields Though the #MeToo movement empowered women to speak out against sexual harassment and jolted awake sleeping sexual harassment cells at the workplace, new research has found that the effects of #MeToo on women in the workforce may not have been all positive The statistics reveal there has been a sudden spike in the sexual harassment complaints reported before the National Commission for women

Figure 1 Sudden Spike-National Commission for women

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

In a study on “The #MeToo Movement as a Global Learning Moment” by Joanna Regulska,

2018, wherin she belived to have studied that most women around the world have experienced sexual harassment, assault, and violence, or have at times been pushed into a zone where they knew it did not feel right causing pain, emotional and physical, and for others still, this moment had to be deeply buried In the context of India, Raya Sarkar, a Dalit Queer PhD Scholar, put together a List of Sexual Harassers in Academia (LoSHA) on Facebook in October 2017 Both the LoSHA and the responses to it by prominent feminists led to an uproar on social media However, with the discussion not moving beyond naming and

shaming, the conversation died down shortly thereafter While a couple of academicians mentioned on the list were found guilty when official enquiries were taken up, most others faced no repercussions and there was no news of any inquiry being initiated against them (Dasgupta 2018) In a study by “#Me Too Movement; It Is Time That We All Act and Participate in Transformation” by Bun-Hee Lee, 2018 led to the view that when the problem with sexual harassment is accused, it is sometimes regarded as an accuser’s fault or evidence

of social maladjustment This misguided prejudice and atmosphere have kept victims in silence for a long time Therefore, this wrong prejudice should be eliminated The #MeToo movement, given the global nature of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and violence against women, it asks about our responsibilities in creating an inclusive and diverse environment conducive to advancing intercultural and intercultural understanding Ullman and Peter-Hagene (2014) found that confidants who react negatively to a victim’s disclosure by blaming the victim, trying to control their choices about legal or health issues related to the assault, or treating the victim differently increased the victim’s problems and ended up in a state of self-blame, and feelings of helplessness

3 OBJECTIVES

1 To study the challenges faced by the victims of sexual harassment

2 To study the effect of me-too moments to the victims

3 To study the action taken by the victims

4 To study the consequences of the me-too moments by the victims

5 To suggest remedies to tackle the menace of me-too victims

4 METHODOLOGY

The study has been undertaken with a pre-notion that there are a far larger proportion of people who undergo the sexual assault and the unreported cases far outnumber the cases

reported The study has been conducted with the help of primary data Data has been gathered

with the help of structured questionnaire administered to the respondents Data has been gathered through the Google forms wherein the respondents could give details without revealing their identity Simple graphs and charts have been used for data analysis and data

inferences

4.1 Analysis

Figure 2 Gender characteristics

64%

36%

GENDER

Female

In the above chart I can be observed that the Gender characteristics have been displayed Around 36% of the population comprised of Males and 64% percentage comprised of females The main reason for higher proportion of female respondents is that the female respondents are more prone to having a me-too experience and had shown the willingness to express

Figure 3 Current Age

The above graph depicts the age f the respondents Majority of the population belonged to the age category of 15 to 20 years About 14 % of the respondents were between the age of 20

to 25 years and 4% of the populations were between the ages of 25 to 30 years

Figure 4 Have been harassed

The above graph depicts the respondents answer to the question whether they have been harassed at any point in their lives 62% of the respondents confessed to actually being harassed by others while 38% of the respondents denied any such experience

0%

82%

14%

4%

CURRENT AGE

10 years-15 years 15 years-20 years 20 years-25 years 25 years-30 years

62%

38%

HAVE YOU BEEN HARASSED?

Figure 5 Verbal sexual harassment

The chart reveals the respondents response to the verbal harassment faced by the individuals 21% of the respondents stated that they have not faced verbal sexual harassment and 79% of the respondents stated to have experienced verbal form of abuse

Figure 6 Inappropriate touch

On being questioned as to whether the respondents experienced inappropriate touch from the predators, about 49% of the respondents felt that they had experienced inappropriate touch and 60% of the respondents’ state to have experienced inappropriate touch

21%

79%

WAS IT A VERBAL SEXUAL HARASSMENT

40%

60%

DID YOU EXPERIENCE INAPPROPRIATE

TOUCH?

Figure 7 Sexual texts The study reveals that fact whether the respondents received any form of illicit content or text The figure shown depicts 44% of the respondents to have not received inappropriate texts while 44% have faced abuse and harassment through the sexual texts

Figure 8 Sexual assault The above graph reveals that 21% of the respondents experienced sexual assaults while the other 79% of the respondents did not face sexual assault

44%

56%

DID YOU RECEIVE SEXUAL TEXT?

21%

79%

WAS IT A SEXUAL ASSAULT?

Figure 9 The age of the respondents when the incidents happened The graph depicts the age of the respondents when the incidents happened which led to a form of a me-too experience 86% of the respondents experienced such unpleasant moments

at the age of 10-20 years while 11% of the respondents’ experienced it at the age of 20-30 years and yet another 3% of the respondents’ experienced the same at the age of 5-10 years

Figure 10 Number of times the Respondents’

The graph presents the number of times the respondents’ have been harassed At least 76% of the respondents revealed that they have been harassed at least 1-5 times, 12% of the respondents’ have been subject to such atrocities 5-10 times and 12 % of the respondents’ have experienced it more than 15 times

3%

86%

11%

AT WHAT AGE WAS THE INCIDENT

HAPPENED?

5 yrs-10 yrs 10 yrs-20 yrs 20 yrs-30 yrs

76%

12%

0%

12%

HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU BEEN

HARASSED?

1-5 times 5-10 times 10-15 times 15 times and more

Figure 11 The perpetrator was a known person

The graph here depicts whether the perpetrator was a known person I was observed that 63% of the respondents stated that it was an unknown person while 37% of the respondents’ felt that it was a know person

Figure 12 The responses to the fact whether the victim raise any objection

The graph reveals the responses to the fact whether the victim raise any objection at the time of such misbehavior It was observed that 41% of the respondents were of the opinion that they did raise objection but were subdued on account of many factors including societal pressure etc

37%

63%

WAS THE PERPETRATOR A KNOWN PERSON?

41%

59%

DID YOU RAISE OBJECTION?

Figure 13 Consequences of assult

The above graph depicts the consequences of a me-too moment experienced by the respondents It was observed that many of the respondents felt angry while 14% of the respondents felt lonely 24% of the respondents face depression and long term consequences and 32% of the respondents face d low self-esteem during their life time

Figure 14 The responses on the manner of overcoming the trauma faced

The graph depicts the responses of the responses on the manner of overcoming the trauma faced during the incident 71% of the respondents managed themselves on their own while 29% of the respondents took the help of others to recover from the trauma caused to them

8%

32%

22%

24%

14%

WHAT WAS THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE

ASSAULT?

Depression Low self esteem Anger Frustation Loneliness

71%

29%

HOW DID YOU OVERCOME IT?

Self Other's assistance

Figure 15 Study the action taken by the respondents on account

An attempt was made to study the action taken by the respondents on account of the experiences encountered by them Some of the respondents remained silent while few others informed others Some of them retaliated and got back to avenge the act Majority of the respondents tried to remain strong and bold while another considerable number of respondents took the bold step of passing on the information to others to receive help

Figure 16 The occurrence details of the me-too moments

The graph shows the occurrence details of the me-too moments 57% of the respondents faced the abuse in public places in different forms such as inappropriate text, gestures, text etc while 43% of the respondents’ experienced tragic moments in private spaces by known persons

36%

33%

22%

3% 3% 3%

WHAT WAS THE ACTION TAKEN BY YOU?

Started protect me Try to be bold and strong Blocked him

57%

43%

DID IT OCCUR IN A PUBLIC PLACE OR

PERSONAL PLACE

Public place Private place

Figure 17 The respondents response on their ability to share the incident

The graph shows the respondents response on their ability to share the incident or narrate the same in a public domain such as social media or voice it out on an open space 54% of the respondents stated to have shared their story while 46% of the respondents did not reveal the matter to anyone

5 KEY FINDINGS

The study measured sexual harassment along three dimensions: gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention, and sexual coercion Gender harassment involved negative treatment of women that is not necessarily sexual, but may include things like a person making sexist remarks, telling inappropriate stories, or displaying sexist material Unwanted sexual attention includes staring, leering, ogling, or unwanted touching Sexual coercion includes bribing or pressuring women to engage in sexual behavior

1 Sexual harassment and assault pose a significant problem, especially for women

Nationwide, 64% of women and 36% of men reported experiencing some form of sexual Harassment and/or assault in their lifetime

2 Majority of them faced assaults around the age of 15-20 years

3 79% of the population has faced verbal assault

4 60% of the sample faced inappropriate touch

5 56% have faced textual content that was objectionable and inappropriate

6 Majority of them experienced it at least 1 – 5 times during their lifetime

7 In majority of the cases the perpetrator was unknown person

8 Sexual harassment and assault cause people, especially women, to experience low self-esteem, anger, frustration and lonely

9 Many of them have reported the assault cases and have tried to handle it themselves

10 Sexual harassment takes place across a range of locations, but the most frequently listed location is a public space

11 Women most frequently reported experiencing sexual harassment in a public space like a street, park or store at their workplace or school at a nightlife venue , and at their residence

54%

46%

HAVE YOU SHARED YOUR STORY TILL DATE