Individual and collective empowerment: Women's voices in the #MeToo movement in China

ABSTRACT

In the past, women had been inclined to remain silent in the face of sexual harassment and this article examines the case of Chinese women, who have been empowered by the global #MeToo movement to fight for social equality. Through interviews and observations, this study analyzes how this movement has empowered Chinese women both at individual and collective levels and motivated them to fight against sexual harassment. However, further challenges remain, such as reforming of outdated laws. Therefore, the study suggests an institutional level approach for the empowerment of Chinese women and aims to draw more attention to similar strategies for the empowerment of women in non-western contexts.

ABSTRACT IN SIMPLIFIED CHINESE

在过去，中国女性被性骚扰之后一般倾向于保持沉默；而本文探讨了全球“#MeToo运动”如何赋权中国女性使她们能够发声争取社会平等的权利。基于深度访谈和田野观察，本研究分析了这一运动如何具体在个人和集体层面赋权中国女性并激励她们反抗性骚扰。不过，仍然存在许多更深远的困难和挑战，比如过时的法律法规的改革问题等。因此，本研究建议要在制度层面探寻进一步赋权中国女性的方法，并希望学界更多地关注非西方背景下女性赋权的类似问题。

KEYWORDS:

• #MeToo
• 中国女性
• 赋权
• 性骚扰

KEYWORDS:

• #MeToo
• Chinese women
• empowerment
• sexual harassment

Notes on contributors

Zhongxuan LIN (Ph.D.) is an Associate Research Fellow at the School of Communication and Design, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. His research interests include cultural studies, disability studies, and communication studies. His work has appeared in Gender, Place & Culture; Disability & Society; Chinese Journal of Communication, Information, Communication & Society, International Journal of Communication and New Media & Society among others.

Liu YANG (Ph.D.) is a lecturer at School of Journalism and Communication, and a post-doc at the Postdoc Research Station of Law, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China. Her research interests include feminist studies and political studies. She has published articles in New Media & Society, Information, Communication & Society, Disability & Society, International Communication Gazette, etc.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Chongqing University “Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,” under grants “2018CDXYXW0043” and “106112017 CDJXY070002.”