TY - JOUR

T1 - The Global Diffusion of the #MeToo Movement

AU - Lee, Myunghee

AU - Murdie, Amanda

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - Why is the #MeToo movement very active in some countries but not in others? What factors encourage the transnational diffusion of digital feminist activism? Although transnational forces are important, we argue that domestic political opportunity structures play a more significant role than transnational influences in the country-level diffusion of #MeToo. We collected 35,211 global tweets and used Bayesian statistical modeling to test the implications of our theory. Our findings support the idea that as a country better protects its citizens’ political and civil rights and civil liberties, individuals in that country are more likely to engage in the #MeToo movement.

AB - Why is the #MeToo movement very active in some countries but not in others? What factors encourage the transnational diffusion of digital feminist activism? Although transnational forces are important, we argue that domestic political opportunity structures play a more significant role than transnational influences in the country-level diffusion of #MeToo. We collected 35,211 global tweets and used Bayesian statistical modeling to test the implications of our theory. Our findings support the idea that as a country better protects its citizens’ political and civil rights and civil liberties, individuals in that country are more likely to engage in the #MeToo movement.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - #MeToo

KW - digital feminist activism

KW - protest

KW - diffusion

KW - political opportunity structures

U2 - 10.1017/S1743923X20000148

DO - 10.1017/S1743923X20000148

M3 - Journal article

VL - 17

SP - 827

EP - 855

JO - Politics and Gender

JF - Politics and Gender

SN - 1743-923X

IS - 4

ER -