Over the last day or so, you might’ve seen your social feed flooding with status’ of women you know claiming “Me too” often followed by an experience of sexual harassment or assault.

The campaign was started by actress Alyssa Milano, who recognised that so many women feel alone and ashamed by their experiences of abuse and realised “if all women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘me too’ as a status, we might give everyone a sense of the magnitude of the problem”.

In the wake of the on-going revelations of the disgusting acts of sexual abuse committed by film director Harvey Weinstein, the subject of sexual abuse and the inherent sexism that allows men to continue to commit these acts are well on the public agenda. American Educator, Jackson Katz points out that we must stop making sexual harassment of women a passive act. Sexual harassment is not something that just happens to women – it is perpetrated by a male, as an act of power, dominance or sheer hate.

These acts are easy to write off as ‘just something that happens in Hollywood’. It would be simple to chalk this up as merely a result of an industry that makes its money from selling sex, but the truth of the matter is that sexual harassment and abuse is not just a symptom of the silver screen; it is exists within every facet of a woman’s life.

As if to prove this, #MeToo has had over 200,000 social posts in less than 24 hours. So who are all these men? Clearly they are not all in positions of power, in so much as most of the women posting are not Hollywood actresses. They are women like you and me, and men who we see on our commute, the supermarket and yes, in our workplaces.

The sad truth is that sexual harassment and abuse even takes place in our charity workplaces. From donors, suppliers and even colleagues; the charity sector is not exempt from harassment. At Charity Women, we are calling on women (including trans and non-binary) of the sector to shine a light on your experiences of work-related harassment. Use the #MeToo and #Charity hashtags to share your stories* and @CharityWomen or comment below. Like Alyssa Milano, we know that writing ‘Me too’ on a status will ‘give everyone a sense of the magnitude of the problem’ and encourage our organisations to act to ensure that sexual harassment is treated with zero tolerance. 

Me too.

*Please note, that if someone decides not to post a ‘Me too’ status, it is not because they do not have an experience of sexual harassment, but could be because it is too painful to share. No one owns anyone else experience and we do not support any pressure put on anyone to share their stories.