#MeToo shows power of social movements
March 16, 2022
Contrary to the contemporary perception that social movements in Singapore have been relegated to the margins of mainstream discourse on the country’s political and social issues, the history of Singapore’s nation-building project has close ties with the country’s history of social movements and societal activism.
We observe this in the struggle for self-determination that is embodied in the anti-colonial movements in the 1950s to exercises of pragmatic resistance at and through the state’s laws to advance gay collective action in Singapore in recent times. The strategies and tactics of social movements range from utilizing official channels such as using online petitions to relay the collective’s messages to more confrontational collective action measures such as physical demonstrations and protests.
In ‘#MeToo shows power of social movements’ in The Straits Times’ Ask: NUS Economists series, Lecturer Ro’ee Levy (Tel Aviv University Economics) and Assistant Professor Martin Mattson (NUS Economics) investigate whether social movements do indeed cause changes in behavior or are merely reflections of changes in society. They focus on whether the #MeToo Movement has caused an increase in the number of sex crimes reported to the police in different countries.
The authors used data from 31 Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development countries. They measured the strength of the #MeToo Movement in each country based on Google Research interest and collected data on the crimes reported for each country. They found that social movements have a direct impact on individual behavior. As a result of the #MeToo Movement, more sex crimes were reported to the police. In addition, it is also likely that the #MeToo Movement was associated with changes in other forms of behavior such as the increase in the number of helplines and programs that are aimed at supporting survivors.
The authors emphasize that social movements are important in bringing about intended social outcomes. While their investigation was restricted to the #MeToo Movement and its effects on the number of crimes reported, the findings have important implications on the role of social movements in Singapore and their causal effects on the behavior of Singaporeans.
Read the article here.
