The
#MeToo movement and women’s equality have been pretty much ignored in the
presidential debates. It’s been two years since the #MeToo hashtag went viral,
exposing prominent men in the entertainment industry, sports, and politics for
sexual assault and harassment. I am wondering why the #MeToo movement is absent
from debate rhetoric, since women comprise over half of the US population and
over five million women tweeted about their experiences with rape and sexual
assault in October, 2017, after a tweet by actress Alyssa Milano, inviting
survivors to share their stories. Tarana Burke, who created the #MeToo movement
in 2007 has said, “Centering sexual violence in the 2020 election is critical
because it’s been two years since millions of people spoke out and said ‘me too'.
Those people are still waiting for a response from our national leaders” (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/me-too-democratic-presidential-candidates_n_5e1de8d0c5b6640ec3dc0371?ncid=newsltushpmgintwomen).
Tarana
Burke has created a new hashtag, #MeTooVoter, to raise awareness about the
abuse of power by powerful men in industries, and to try to get debate moderators and presidential
candidates to recognize that women are a big voting bloc and deserve attention
in the presidential election. 54 percent of voters in 2016 were women.
African-American women carried the Democratic vote in that election as they are
the largest voting bloc in the Democratic Party. And, it isn’t only women
candidates who should be bringing up the issue of sexual violence. It is a
public health issue in which 19 million people have indicated that sexual
violence has impacted their lives (MSNBC "Politics Nation" Tarana Burke Interview, Oct. 20. 2019) .
The
leading four candidates have said that policies to address sexual violence will
be on their platforms; however, none of them has rolled out a detailed plan to
put legislation in place. In fact Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, at the recent
Politico sponsored debate, when asked one of the only questions re: women in
all of the debates, sidestepped the issue. They were asked to respond to a
quote by Baraka Obama, “If women were in charge, you’d see a significant
improvement in just about everything. If you look at the problems in the world,
it is usually old men not getting out of the way” (Sanders
and Biden Non-Response to Gender Question). Both
of them sashayed over to their own favorite talking points, possibly due to
their advancing ages. Yet why did neither of them at least acknowledge that
having more women in power would be a positive change?
Former
presidential candidate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand did run on a platform of gender
equality, centering sexual assault as a major policy issue. But she
unfortunately, dropped out of the field in August.
Jennifer
Klein, chief policy and strategy officer at Time’s Up, said she wants to see
more specifics from the presidential candidates. “Politicians who ignore
this pervasive issue do so at their own peril. Any candidate for president
should have clear and robust policies for combating sexual harassment and
assault, and promoting equity and dignity for working women” (Huff
Post Article).
So why
are women’s issues and #MeToo absent from current political rhetoric and the
debates? While the #MeToo movement created a powerful momentum, and many men
are being held accountable for sexual misconduct, when push comes to shove,
women are still second class citizens in this patriarchal oligarchy. Congress
has only 23 percent women. Women are only three percent of corporate CEOs. Only
five percent of film directors are women. We still have not had a woman
president. We are not a significant part of the billionaire 1% who control most of our resources. We have to mobilize a movement of women who refuse to take the
abuse, discrimination, and marginalization any more. We need to demand gender
equality. Our time is now. #Time'sUp for #MeToo!
