#ME TOO MOVEMENT: INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT ON INTENTION TO CONTROL SEXUAL HARASSMENT AGAINST WOMEN

Abstract

Social media provide a common platform to the public to speak about social injustice and put grievances about the policies. They also unite and act against crimes. Social Media has been instrumental in the propagation of gender inequality protests around the world. This purpose of study is to assess the influence of the “#Me Too movement” on intention to control sexual harassment against women and further to suggest a framework using mass communication as a tool to create awareness and control sexual harassment against women. Multivariate data analysis was conducted through Partial Least Squares Path Modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the data. The questionnaire was circulated through WhatsApp and emails to 800 Indian participants. The results suggested that social media movement like “#Me Too movement” has a positive influence on the intention to control sexual harassment against women. This research showed that awareness about sex-based crimes could be increased with participation in these kinds of social movements which in turn leads to the formation of an intention to control sexual harassment against women.