#MeToo Protests Across the American States

• In Event: Communication and the Media in State Politics

Abstract

Across U.S. states, under what circumstances are #MeToo protests more likely to occur? Since the growth of the #MeToo movement in fall of 2017, thousands of protests against sexual harassment in the workplace have occurred throughout the U.S and the globe. Existing research on social movements has explored the socioeconomic and political correlates of women’s protest as well as legislative action within state legislatures. We still do not have an understanding, however, of 1.) how variations in political characteristics of states (such as political culture and characteristics/actions of state legislatures) shape the likelihood of women’s protest and 2.) how sociodemographic and political variables shape protest specifically within the modern context of the #MeToo movement.

In this study, I analyze instances of #MeToo protests (protests concerning sexual harassment in the workplace) since 2017 using crowd data from Jeremy Pressman and Erica Chenoweth’s Crowd Counting Consortium (CCC). Specifically, I collect state-level data, such as the presence of women’s organizations in the state and number of women in the state legislature, and determine how these variables shape instances of protest in the state. This research highlights the importance of state context in shaping the political environment for women. Political action related to #MeToo, such as protests, is not only conditional on individual variables, but depends on political characteristics of states.

Author

• Caroline Linnea Carlson, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill