Despite #MeToo, the insufficient care of victims by institutions

Europe 1 with AFP 2:59 p.m., May 20, 2022

"#MeToo helped talk, but behind it, nothing is happening".

Almost five years after the #MeToo wave on social networks, gender-based and sexual violence remains mainly denounced via these channels, a symptom of insufficient management of these issues by institutions.

"I tried to file a complaint last year, we refused to take it," laments Marie (first name changed), 25 years old.

On social networks, on the other hand, "we can reach everyone", assures Anna Toumazoff, feminist activist.

For her, victims have access to "a form of justice" online.

"They finally feel heard", she adds, while many victims lamented last year "the guilt" or the "mockery" suffered at the police station, according to the survey "Take my complaint" carried out by the collective feminist #WeAll.

"The measures taken over the past five years have only closed the gaps, but the reality has not been looked at in the face", regrets Maëlle Noir, member of #NousToutes.

She criticizes "gadget measures of repression against the aggressors, while nothing has been done for the victims".

The “inadequacy of the judicial system” 

Johanna Dagorn, sociologist at the University of Bordeaux, however, believes that the strength of #MeToo is to have been able to "challenge any citizen" via social networks.

But the researcher still detects, in her studies, a "terrible invariant" despite #MeToo: 85% of witnesses to these situations still do nothing.

“During the confinement, the neighbors became relatives, they more often called the security forces” in the event of domestic violence.

But it did not last.

"The problem is that we trivialize sexism, violence," she laments.

For Johanna Dagorn, it is first necessary to strengthen the judicial arsenal, "by establishing, as in Spain, specialized brigades" to improve the reception of victims at the police station, and "know how to listen to them", while "5 to 8 %" complaints are still refused in France.

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Sylvie Pierre-Brossolette, president of the High Council for Equality between Women and Men (HCE), nevertheless noted "a movement of awareness and indignation" in society for five years, but deplores " the feeling of impunity" for sexist acts, felt according to her by a large part of the population because of the "inadequacy of the judicial system".

According to her, the Grenelle to combat sexist and sexual violence, organized by the government last year, shows "efforts, but change is very slow. Centuries of patriarchy and sexism cannot be erased in a few years" .

And even less with "insufficient means", she notes.

Victims who are "afraid of being badly seen"

In the office, the change is not more visible: "Victims do not necessarily dare to speak for fear of being frowned upon, sidelined, or for fear for the progression of their career", regrets Sylvie Pierre- Brush.

"Violence is exacerbated in business", abounds Maëlle Noir.

"The hierarchical organization and the mechanisms of power double the violence and lock speech even more". 

Balance your pig, your start-up, your internship, etc.

An anthology of sectoral Instagram accounts denouncing violence in the office has developed and sometimes makes it possible to get things moving: the creative director of Havas Paris, targeted by a series of anonymous testimonies published on the account "Balance your Agency ", was notably laid off on Tuesday. 

Implement measures to combat violence

These reports on the networks of which the employer is aware must lead, like any report, to internal investigations "confidential, impartial and fair to establish the reality of the facts", and to take measures, explains to AFP Pierre Chevillard, partner at Melville Lawyers.

“An employee who denounces facts, if he is in good faith, does not risk a sanction”, underlines the lawyer in labor law.

“The extremely broad legal framework provides for numerous rules” and obligations with regard to the employer in order to protect the physical and mental health of its employees.

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So, for Maître Pierre Chevillard, "a new intervention by the legislator does not appear necessary".

It is rather necessary to implement internal mechanisms, to communicate and raise awareness, in the office, but also outside, around this violence, to put an end to it.

The HCE, however, proposes to "condition financial support for companies that receive public money to a counterpart on gender equality", explains Sylvie Pierre-Brossolette.