Ending Sexual Violence in One Generation
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Ending Sexual Violence in One Generation A PROGRESS REPORT FOR THE UNITED STATES 2018 © 2018 RALIANCE. All rights reserved. RALIANCE is a national partnership dedicated to ending sexual violence in one generation. Every day, RALIANCE makes prevention possible by advancing research, influencing policy, supporting innovative programs, and helping leaders establish safe workplaces and strong communities. RALIANCE partners with a wide range of organizations to improve their cultures and create environments free from sexual harassment, misconduct and abuse. The Sport+Prevention Center, a first-of-its-kind online resource created by RALIANCE, engages the sport community as a partner in ending sexual and domestic violence. RALIANCE advocates for prevention funding and policies that put the needs of survivors first. The partnership has also awarded $2.3 million in grants to communities across the country. Founded in 2015 through a multi-million dollar seed investment by the National Football League, RALIANCE is based in Washington, D.C. PREFACE RALIANCE publishes an annual progress report with the trauma of sexual abuse and discourage chronicling the significant themes, milestones, even more people from coming forward. and events related to efforts to end sexual The controversy surrounding Kavanaugh’s harassment, misconduct, and abuse in the United confirmation is a painful reminder that the effort States. This year’s 2018 report offers a look back to hold offenders and people in positions of from June 2017 through May 2018, the months power accountable is far from over. before and after the #MeToo movement took the nation by storm. As #MeToo faces a backlash with the co-opted #HimToo, all of us today must recommit to Yet, even as we prepared to publish this report, changing our culture so that survivors are believed, the movement shows no sign of slowing down. supported, and able to seek the justice they While the #MeToo movement is bigger than any deserve. By examining the progress made and the one individual or single case, the confirmation challenges that remain in the fight to end sexual of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme violence in one generation, RALIANCE hopes this Court is an important teaching moment for this report will help inform policies, behaviors, and country that what we say and do about sexual healthier workplaces and environments. harassment, assault, and abuse matters. Every time we question, ridicule, and demean a survivor Prevention is possible. Survivors’ voices are that comes forward, we hurt those who are living powerful. Together, we will end sexual violence. ENDING SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN ONE GENERATION: A PROGRESS REPORT FOR THE UNITED STATES 2018 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY accountability and prevention. It’s an important cultural moment that is long overdue. We cannot RALIANCE stands committed to ending sexual fire, arrest, or otherwise punish our way out of harassment, misconduct, and assault. And we are sexual misconduct, but holding those who have not alone. abused others responsible for their actions is an One year ago, in response to a New York Times important step. Even more encouraging are the investigation exposing decades-long abuse of public conversations that #MeToo has sparked power and women by Hollywood producer and about bystander intervention, workplace climate, studio executive Harvey Weinstein, actress Alyssa and the fact that silence about misconduct Milano asked survivors to post on social media in endorses and conceals bad behavior. #MeToo solidarity using the hashtag #MeToo, referencing has escorted basic principles of prevention into the movement for women of color started by living rooms and lunch rooms, into our homes, activist Tarana Burke years prior. Subsequent workplaces, and streets. investigative journalism detailed more abuses by men in positions of power — for the first #MeToo has escorted basic time, many faced repercussions. No industry or institution was without fault — from Congress to principles of prevention into newsrooms to the small screen and beyond. Vox living rooms and lunch rooms, Media tracked 220 celebrities, politicians, CEOs, into our homes, workplaces, and others who have been accused of sexual and streets. misconduct since April 2017 (North, 2018), and the list grows daily. #MeToo transformed from a viral hashtag about We’re seeing a true public reckoning with how common sexual assault and harassment are attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs that must in the United States to an international movement change. Change is happening. From the news to stop sexual and gender-based harassment, and media to advocacy, activism, and policy, this misconduct, and abuse once and for all. report examines the period of June 2017 - May 2018 where our society has made progress in the People are talking about #MeToo, about movement to end sexual violence and where survivors and experiences, and importantly about more leadership and change is needed. TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE I ENDING SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN ONE GENERATION III CHANGE IS HAPPENING 2 #METOO ADVOCACY & ACTIVISM 3 MEDIA 6 GOVERNMENT LEADERSHIP & POLICY 9 RESEARCH AND EVALUATION 12 PREVENTION 14 INSTITUTIONAL ENGAGEMENT 15 THE PATH FORWARD 16 HOW RALIANCE IS MAKING AN IMPACT 17 REFERENCES 18 CHANGE IS HAPPENING RALIANCE has a bold vision to end sexual violence in one generation. The past year has demonstrated that we aren’t alone in our mission to stop sexual harassment, misconduct, and assault. Women declared #TimesUp. Men began to openly question their past actions and encourage each other to be part of the solution moving forward. People thought about what it means to hold others accountable for their behavior and organized events and fundraisers to turn these thoughts into actions. 2 Ending Sexual Violence in One Generation: Progress report for the United States 2018 #METOO ADVOCACY & ACTIVISM #MeToo is a defining moment in both the violence is seen as normal to one that promotes history of our country and the movement to equity, consent, and safety for all. In an interview end gender-based violence. It took shape upon with Variety, Tarana Burke speaks to this need to the foundations built by survivors of sexual expand the scope of #MeToo in the mainstream, harassment, misconduct, and assault; activists; noting in 2006, “I launched the #MeToo and allies over the past three decades. movement because I wanted to find ways to bring healing into the lives of black women and While the #MeToo movement girls. But those same women and girls, along with other people of color, queer people and disabled was historic, it only marks the people, have not felt seen this year” (Burke, 2018). beginning. Producer Rebecca Carroll wrote about her experience at the Charlie Rose show (Carroll, Social media also has had a profound effect on 2017) and noted little was being said about the this movement. Over 12 million posts, comments, ramifications for Black women and racialized and reactions were recorded in fewer than 24 sexual violence. hours worldwide on Facebook (CBS/Associated Press, 2017). Within that short span, Hollywood became the flashpoint, journalists became the Addressing racism and news, and the public began scrutinizing the discrimination based on behaviors of many powerful figures and the roles status, sexual orientation, that institutions and organizations have played in and gender identity must perpetuating or hiding sexual violence. also be part of the #MeToo It is important to note that the #MeToo movement. movement does not distinguish between groping, verbal harassment, manipulation, and rape — nor should it. The movement has boldly #MeToo asks us all to examine our personal shown that all of these behaviors are problematic, behavior — including behaviors that are discriminatory, and disruptive, even if they are problematic or make us complicit. Too often, not all criminal. Recognizing the full spectrum other female workers facilitate or overlook sexual of violating behaviors has helped people ask harassment, misconduct, and assault inflicted necessary questions about how to hold people upon women with less power to fight back accountable for bad behaviors and how to keep against it (Ross, 2017). the needs of survivors central in these decisions. It is often people on the margins — workers in To keep the momentum going, it is critical that low-wage industries, women, and immigrants the movement focus on changing our culture — who face different power dynamics and often from one where inequality thrives and sexual have less access to resources. Many courageous RALIANCE 3 survivors on the front lines — like those profiled Transparent spoke out on social media about by The New York Times at two Chicago Ford Motor sexual harassment by Jeffrey Tambor, and he left Company plants — spoke out about sexual the show (Bendix, 2017). and racial harassment. Coverage by journalists Susan Chira and Catrin Einhorn shed light on the Mass shooters often display a common trait harassment women without power or resources — a history of threatening and abusing women faced in factories (Chira & Einhorn, 2017). and girls (Victor, 2018). Both 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz — the shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Addressing discrimination in all its forms must High School in Parkland, Florida who murdered 17 be part of the #MeToo movement. Lesbian, gay, people (Murphy, 2018) — and 17-year-old junior and bisexual people face disproportionately Dimitrios Pagourtzis — charged with capital higher rates of sexual violence (Walters, Chen, murder and aggravated assault for the shooting & Breiding, 2013), and transgender people at Sante Fe High School near Houston, Texas experience pervasive mistreatment and violence that killed 10 and injured 13 more (Hennessy- (James et al., 2016). Making this more visible, Fiske, Pearce, & Jarvie, 2018) — shared an open two members of the team at the Amazon series disrespect for women and aggression. WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 24: Tears roll down the face of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Emma Gonzalez as she addresses the March for Our Lives rally on March 24, 2018 in Washington, DC.