By Natalie Jeffery and Leah Volpe
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writers
Six months since the #MeToo movement exploded on social media, the Woman of the World Festival (WOW) came to Notre Dame of Maryland University last Saturday as a way to break down barriers and foster gender equality.
The all-day event included workshops, panels and open discussions so that attendees could talk about issues like body shaming, sexual orientation, activism, aging and sex trafficking.
The Notre Dame gym was transformed into a market filled with 25 different stands, which ranged from financial services for women to a display of traditional feminine hygiene products and their impact on health, the environment and economy.
“Our intention is to celebrate women in Baltimore and beyond while having frank conversations about our challenges and about barriers to women’s equality in our own backyard and around the world,” said MaryLou Yam, the president of the university.
The WOW festival originated in London and is spreading overseas to locations like Somalia. This is the second time Notre Dame hosted the event.
Tarana Burke, the founder of the #MeToo movement that began last October to support survivors of sexual harassment and has since morphed into an anti-sexual harassment movement, told about 300 attendees in a speech that the fight for women’s rights goes beyond one person.
“Every time I come out and speak to people publicly, it’s about creating ambassadors,” Burke said. “This is for me, organizing work. My role while I have this moment of visibility is to use it to bring other people along to where we need to be. To bring a message to people that this is not going to take one person.”
Burke said her fight against sexual violence started at local schools.
“Anything really is possible,” Burke said. “That’s not just a mantra we’ve been saying to ourselves and to our children for years and years. But anything is possible. And I think that is the biggest reason why we can’t waste this moment.”
Burke said the MeToo movement is not Hollywood-driven or solely a women’s movement. She said #MeToo is a people’s movement.
Burke said all women should contribute by spreading this message in the right way.
“We want to put people in power who put survivors first, who think about survivors’ needs, who want to make our communities less vulnerable, who want to protect our young people,” Burke said.
After the explosion of #MeToo, which had over 12 million engagements on Facebook alone in the first 24 hours, other prominent women recognized the shift in the narrative.
Denise Koch, an anchor for WJZ-TV news who attended the WOW festival in 2016, said she has seen a great deal of progress for women since #MeToo began. Koch said that the media has been run by powerful men for decades but that many things have changed over the past year in the workplace because of the movement’s exposure.
“There’s a real seat change that we will never go back to,” Koch said. “It is a moment that is different than ever before in my professional career. Women are now harnessing their outrage. They are becoming engaged, energized and determined.”
Attendee Djenaba Bahar said she was moved by Burke’s message and wants more information on how parents can better prepare themselves to handle a child’s sexual trauma.
“I wanted to hear Tarana’s method first hand,” Bahar said. “It’s very important, especially for brown women, to use their voices in this movement.”
Burke said the generational divide, especially in communities of color, sometimes prevent an open discussion about sexual assault. The learned silence of these older communities is too far ingrained, she said, adding that the opportunity for change rests in the hands of the younger generation.
Burke said the #MeToo movement is only in the beginning stages of making a true impact. With the help of other social media outbreaks like Time’s Up, Burke said, real changes can be made along with having more women in positions of power in the government.
“MeToo is bringing to light the obstacles women encounter in their daily lives from personal to the professional and it has unleashed a tsunami of telling,” Koch said. “And that has led to powerful men being held accountable in cases of sexual harassment and assault.”
Burke called for all women to be leaders in their own lives and capacity. She said she is only playing the role of organizer to give others the opportunity to have open discussion about sexual violence.
“I am here to tell you that I’m not here to save you,” Burke said. “We can save each other. This is not a singular person effort.”