#Metoo. Motståndsberättelser om sexuella trakasserier i(nifrån) socialt arbete i Sverige

Abstract

#MeToo has become a global digital feminist resistance movement where sexual harassment and sexualized violence have been made visible in different situations and occupations. In Sweden the hashtag #orosanmälan (English: #ReportingWorries) was created in 2018 for social workers. Very few studies have been conducted on sexual harassment in social work, a gap that this study aims to fill. The aim is to make visible, analyze and critically reflect on resistance stories about sexual harassment from within social work in Sweden. The study applies an analytical framework of gender and heteronormativity, age and racialization, emphasizing Butler’s key analytical concepts performativity, heteronormativity and subversion. The method is a narrative analysis of “small stories” (Georgakopoulou 2015) based on the first one hundred entries on the Swedish website #orosanmälan for social workers (https://www. metoo-orosanmalan.nu). The analysis shows how sexual harassment occurs in contexts of unequal power relations constituted through performative acts of speech against women social workers, students and girls who are clients, and focuses on pregnant, young, racialized, and lesbian bodies. Findings demonstrate how both men and women as leaders and colleagues participate in sexual harassment to devaluate women’s competence, and how threats of punishment are used to subordinate and objectify women social workers. #ReportingWorries challenges the discourse of Sweden as a country of equality and the core values of social work as a discipline and profession based on human rights, social justice, respect, and dignity when sexual harassment is investigated from within social work.