Gender, Power, and Harassment: Sociology in the #MeToo Era

Abstract

This article examines what sociological research teaches us about gender, power, and harassment in the #MeToo era, showing how the sociological literature on harassment has both shaped and been shaped by legal definitions and scholarship. For instance, like case law, sociological research has tended to focus on the workplace to the exclusion of harassment in other spheres such as housing, as well as on sexual forms of harassment—despite evidence that nonsexual forms of sex-based harassment are even more common and just as harmful as sexual forms. While not all sociological studies of harassment employ an intersectional approach, those that do show that race and gender shape not only who is likely to be targeted but also how different people define and understand harassment. The sociological research suggests that mainstream organizational approaches to harassment fail to reduce rates of harassment and even elicit backlash but that some alternative approaches offer promise.