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

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.

Sexual harassment (SH) 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 SH, bystander behavior, and organizational and societal ideas around masculinity and gender-based violence. At the same time, #MeToo kept other aspects of SH in the dark. Shadows addressed include the more mundane and common forms of low-severity micro-SH, how to help targets heal from trauma, the complex intersectional experiences of women of color, the experiences of male targets and those in low socioeconomic status 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 SH and to spark counter-movements that challenge that frame. This volume will be of interest to researchers, scholars, students, practitioners and policymakers.