Professional Women Subjugated by Name-Calling and Character Attacks

The #MeToo Movement reminds us that women can begin movements through individual action. The #MeToo Movement also confirms that we are still dealing with the same old strategies that keep women in subjugated spaces, including in our workplaces. This Article analyzes how name-calling and character attacks continue to be used to put professional women in a gendered place. These strategies were used to defeat Hillary Clinton in her efforts to become the first female president of the United States. If we do not challenge their destructive effect, professional women will continue to be expected to put up with conduct that is often dismissed as harmless or viewed as the price women pay to be in the workplace. This is similar to how women were once expected to put up with sexual harassment at work. My proposal is simple. We begin a movement by acknowledging the problem, illustrating the ways in which it manifests, and encouraging individual action to challenge it, with the hope that, like the #MeToo Movement, this individual approach will lead to collective action