Relevance of the #MeToo movement

The purpose of the following essay is to throw the light upon one of the most important issues in the contemporary organizations. The issue is the #MeToo movement that has been initiated by the women employees of the organizations spread worldwide. This movement is dedicated to raise the voice on the sexual harassments that take place within the premises of the organizations by the male employees at different levels (Garber 2018). In the current times many big organizations like Google and others have taken the firm steps against this sexual violation or harassments on their female employees. It is very important for the higher authority managers of the different organizations to adopt the zero tolerance policies within the organizations that will help the women employees to be retained. Many other strict steps should be taken and awareness among the women employees should be awakened as well.

The #MeToo era has been the hottest trend in the contemporary organizations and the media world as well (Sayej 2017). This movement is to make the women aware that they are always exposed to the male dominance and the society reigned by the patriarchy. According to the words of the critics, the women voice had been suppressed in the organizations and the society for many years now. However, the women decided to raise their voices in the protest so they could do something against this male dominance. In the year 2017, the global protests came in this context and the women began their protests by the Global Protest March. The activist signs had been shown up and this was the beginning of the protests by the female employees all around the world. In the words of Hacker (2017), the women were up to the fact that they had to wake up and make sure that the inevitable change was coming up. The women began their protests by stepping forward and throwing their hats off into the ring and running for the public office (Garber 2018). It had been seen that the sexual misconduct on the women had been increasing. The time had come for the women to protest since it would ruin the overall reputation of the organization. It has become inevitable that the contemporary organizations will have to change for the good since their brand reputation will be on the line. It is up to the leaders of the organizations whether they want to adopt this change or not (Kiser 2015). If they adopt this point of view it will surely add more value to their organizational ethics. This fact of sexual misconduct will surely hamper their ethics. However, on the contrary Sayei (2017) has argued that it is sure that this will be imposed on their companies if they do not apply by their own. If this is imposed upon them by the external forces by the external forces it will not at all be good for them. Apart from the sexual misconduct it has also been seen that the women have been victims of the unequal pay. It is the responsibility of the leaders to take up the lead and make the necessary positive changes to their workplace culture (Byerley 2018).

The stance of the organizations

Many female employees have been the victims of this movement in this era because of the lust and greed of their male colleagues (Michailidis, Morphitou and Theophylatou 2012). As they have decided to make the heavy protests from the go, it will be a huge upheaval task for them (McLaughlin, Uggen and Blackstone 2012). They have to be united in the various organizations and their strength will be reflected through this only. However concerning the state of mind of the survivors of this sexual violence, they will need to build up a community that will be helpful for them to make the bonding (Byerley 2018). This fact of sexual violence upon women is nothing new but it has been important to gain the attention of the social media of late. Rawski and Workman?Stark (2018) have opined that the social media will be able to create a platform by which the women could be able to raise their voices properly. The organizational leaders should be more effective in solving these problems for the sexually harassed women. It must be said in this context that the protests by women regarding the sexual harassments by the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein came into the forefront indeed. The women will need to be more conscious about their position and equality in the organizations (Lee et al. 2018).

The organizations should look to increase the awareness among the female employees and ask them to be much careful when they go for a meeting, party and dine out with their male colleagues. The critics are of the opinion that the managers can also take the help of the social media in this case. The proper training will be given to the female employees so they can be able to defend themselves at the time of the need (McLaughlin, Uggen and Blackstone 2012). The community concerning the female employees should look to shift their focus on the recent events that have taken place in the several organizations. On the contrary, a stern example can be given in this scenario and it is of Google. Last month, the female employees of Tokyo in Japan had been so outrageous that they had stopped their work and this was due to the failure of Google to tackle the sexual exploitation issues of their female employees (García-Moreno et al. 2015). The protests grew stronger and stronger and the waves of female employees began to come out of their offices in different locations around the world like Dublin, Berlin, Hyderabad, Singapore, New York and their corporate headquarters at California. McLaughlin, Uggen and Blackstone (2012) have argued that this walkout movement was caused due to the dissatisfaction and discontent of the employees as the leadership of Google had adopted some immoral choices in this context of the sexual exploitations of the female employees.

However, Google had taken some serious steps in this context as well. One of the creators of the Android mobile service by Google, was alleged of sexual harassments on the female employees. This had been the cause that he was given the farewell and an exit package worth of $90m. The internal investigation was carried out by Google and the results went against Andy Rubin, one of the creators of the Android mobile service. As per the critics, the fact came out that the internal complaints against the company should not have come to light rather one of the executives had been given the farewell with a multimillion dollar exit package for his behavior. This #MeToo movement had been started by the social activist Tarana Burke when she came up with the information that a 13 year old girl had been sexually harassed by the boyfriend of her mother. Tarana Burke had set up an organization of her own that would help and support the victims of the sexual abuse. This entire thing came to light in the year 2017 when the actress Alyssa Milano had tweeted about this (Sayej 2017).

In the words of the critics, it is the responsibility of the organizations to protect their female employees from the various kinds of sexual abuse. The liability and responsibility of all the male members of the organization should be evaluated towards their female colleagues (Stanko, Hanmer and Radford 2013). The internal investigations should be done as per the complaints and allegations of the women employees. In this light, the judgments should be done and strict actions should be initiated against the culprits. The harassment training should be given to all the female employees and supervisors. García-Moreno et al (2015) have opined that the Zero Tolerance Policies should be practiced more often. The male employees should be told that this kind of treatment will not at all be accepted indeed. Both internal and external scrutiny should be done perfectly so the alleged persons can be given the strict punishments and the female victims should be served their justice (Stanko, Hanmer and Radford 2013).

Conclusion

As per the above discussion, the paper can be concluded by saying that the #MeToo movement has become quite widespread and this has become the major weapon for the women in the organizations and in the other industries as well. The male employees should be given the strict punishments if the allegations are proved to be true. The legal and human resources professionals should see after this issue properly. The social media should also take up the responsibility to raise their voices against this as well.

References

Byerley, J.S., 2018. Mentoring in the Era of# MeToo. JAMA, 319(12), pp.1199-1200.

Garber, M., 2018. Is this the Next Step for the# MeToo Movement?. The Atlantic.

García-Moreno, C., Zimmerman, C., Morris-Gehring, A., Heise, L., Amin, A., Abrahams, N., Montoya, O., Bhate-Deosthali, P., Kilonzo, N. and Watts, C., 2015. Addressing violence against women: a call to action. The Lancet, 385(9978), pp.1685-1695.

Hacker, S., 2017. Pleasure, power and technology: Some tales of gender, engineering, and the cooperative workplace. Routledge.

Kiser, A.I., 2015. Workplace and leadership perceptions between men and women. Gender in Management: An International Journal, 30(8), pp.598-612.

LEE, M., RUSSO, M., PETRI, Y., CHANDRAN, A. and HARDIN, C., 2018. Shifting Power Dynamics: The# MeToo Movement. Berkeley Scientific Journal.

McDonald, P., 2012. Workplace sexual harassment 30 years on: A review of the literature. International Journal of Management Reviews, 14(1), pp.1-17.

McLaughlin, H., Uggen, C. and Blackstone, A., 2012. Sexual harassment, workplace authority, and the paradox of power. American sociological review, 77(4), pp.625-647.

Michailidis, M.P., Morphitou, R.N. and Theophylatou, I., 2012. Women at workequality versus inequality: barriers for advancing in the workplace. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(20), pp.4231-4245.

Rawski, S.L. and Workman?Stark, A.L., 2018. Masculinity contest cultures in policing organizations and recommendations for training interventions. Journal of Social Issues, 74(3), pp.607-627.

Sayej, N., 2017. Alyssa Milano on the# MeToo movement:’We’re not going to stand for it any more’. The Guardian.

Stanko, E., Hanmer, J. and Radford, J., 2013. Women, Policing, and Male Violence (Routledge Revivals): International Perspectives. Routledge.