Invisible Populations and the #MeToo Movement

• Published date: 01 November 2020
• Author: Richard Greggory Johnson,Hugo Renderos
• Date: 01 November 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13209

Invisible Populations and #MeToo 1123

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 80, Iss. 6, pp. 1123–1126. © 2020 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13209.

Richard Greggory Johnson III

Hugo Renderos

Purdue University

Invisible Populations and the #MeToo Movement

Abstract: The #MeToo movement has done a great deal to address sexual abuse and violence. There is no doubt that

justice may occur when the right person speaks out. However, what happens when the wrong people—that is, people

of color, the working class women, and transgender people— speak out on the same issue? When these “wrong people”

do speak out, they are discredited, marginalized, and silenced by being ignored. This Viewpoint essay addresses two

populations that have been overlooked by the #MeToo movement: women of color and transgender people. The essay

concludes with recommendations for how the movement can move forward given the criticisms around the absence of

diversity and transparency.

Social movements in the United States have

been a part of this society for decades. Evidence

of this can been seen throughout history

with the abolitionist movement (1830), women’s

suffrage movement (1848), labor movement (1930s),

LGBT movement (1969), and other contemporary

social movements as defined by Becker (2006).

The contemporary social movements born out of

the late 1960s and early 1970s included the civil

rights movement, LGBT (Stonewall) movement,

and women’s right’s movement. This was about

the time that Philip J. Rutledge and H. George

Frederickson coined the term “social equity” in

public administration. One may reasonably deduce

that Rutledge and Frederickson were inspired by the

events of the day. The Minnowbrook I (1968) and II

(1988) Conferences were also watershed events in the

intellectual development of public administration.

The abolitionist movement ended slavery, and

the labor movement protects employees’ common

interests, such as set minimum wages, reasonable

hours, and safe working conditions. The women’s

suffrage movement gave women the right to vote, and

the LGBT movement strives toward equal rights for

the LGBT community. It is doubtful that Rutledge

and Frederickson could have imagined in the 1960s

and 1970s that there would be such movements such

as Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, and even the vegan

movement, which is gaining a great deal of visibility

in the twenty-first century. Hooks ([1970] 2009)

called for transversal politics and coalition building

anchored in engaging multiple group standpoints

to advance social justice through intersectional

knowledge projects. This is to suggest the overlap of

different group members and allies working together

to advance a cause of social equity.

Recently, the #MeToo movement has brought

awareness of a group that has remained marginalized

and silent for a long time: military sexual assault

victims. For public administrators, when institutional

differences or issues causing personnel conflicts arise,

they must be addressed immediately, effectively, and

efficiently. However, this has not been the case for

many decades in government institutions, particularly

in the U.S. military. Many generations have had

to pass before any misconduct between military

personnel-recruits would ever be considered (Phillips

2019). When institutional misbehaviors such as sexual

assault were reported in the military, administrators

would not entertain these accusations and failed

to see them as an issue at all. With the advent of

social movements focusing on marginalized groups

in American society, the military started to address

sexual assault in its facilities (Phillips 2019). Only as

recently as 2006 did the military start to take sexual

abuse accusations seriously. This led to several military

branches surveying service men and women and

learning that as many men as women were victims of

sexual assault (Phillips 2019). What was considered a

women’s issue by senior military leadership was now

being applied to men as well.

Excluded Populations

The purpose of this Viewpoint essay is to analyze

the #MeToo movement and its failure to include

other oppressed populations, such as women of color,

white working-class women, and transgender people.

The effects of excluding these groups continue to

Viewpoint

Symposium:

Implications

of the #MeToo

Movement for

Academia

University of San Francisco

Richard Greggory Johnson III is a

Professor & Department Chair for the

Department of Public and Nonprofit

Administration, School of Management,

University of San Francisco. Dr. Johnson

also serves as Chair of the USF Institutional

Review Board (IRB) and USF chapter

president of PAA. As a scholar Professor

Johnson’s research centers on social

equity within the fields of public policy,

management, higher education and Human

Resources Management. He is a prolific

scholar and widely published.

Email: rgjohnsoniii@usfca.edu

Hugo Renderos teaches public

administration and criminal justice courses

at the undergraduate and graduate

levels at Purdue University. He is currently

conducting research on social equity

disparities, emergency management on

pandemics, and intergovernmental relations

in El Salvador.