What the #MeToo Movement Highlights and Hides about Workplace Sexual Harassment: Spotlights and Shadows

What the #MeToo Movement Highlights and Hides about Workplace Sexual Harassment seeks to examine both the spotlights (Part I) and the shadows (Part II) of the #MeToo Movement, setting a research agenda to examine both more carefully in management research, and constructing an integrative case to introduce insights to student and practitioner audiences.

Sexual harassment is not a new phenomenon in organizations – it has been the topic of scholarly inquiry since the 1970s and has existed as a form of dysfunctional organizational behavior and abuse of power for much longer. Even so, the #MeToo Movement thrust this organizational issue into the spotlight, raising new awareness and concern about an age-old problem, including digital forms of sexual harassment, bystander behavior, and organizational and societal ideas around masculinity and gender-based violence. At the same time, #MeToo kept other aspects of sexual harassment in the dark. Shadows addressed include the more mundane and common forms of low-severity micro-sexual harassment, how to help targets heal from trauma, the complex intersectional experiences of women of color, the experiences of male targets and those in low SES jobs, and the implications of #MeToo on legal theory.

Insights from #MeToo highlight the power of social movements to frame the public’s understanding of the issue of sexual harassment and to spark counter-movements that challenge that frame. This volume will be of interest to researchers, scholars, students, practitioners, and policymakers.