The #metoo wave and workplaces

Now there is another #metoo wave where women are coming forward and reporting their experiences of sexual and gender-based violence and harassment. Violence and harassment are embedded in the fabric of society and occur wherever people come together: inside homes, in public spaces and in workplaces. Perpetrators are mostly men and women are the majority of victims.

The Norwegian School of Social Sciences, the Norwegian Confederation of Icelanders, BSRB and Varða - the labor market research institute are calling for a lunch meeting where attention will be directed to the manifestations and effects of #metoo in the workplace. How to address the #metoo revolution in the workplace? What did we learn from the last wave that emerged in the second half of 2017 and how has the experience been since then? Has something changed and what are the reasons why women need to come forward again and report painful experiences?

Sólborg Guðbrandsdóttir, speaker and activist, talks about the soil from which the current #metoo wave rises. Fríða Rós Valdimarsdóttir, Eflinger's team leader for education, discusses the context of violence and harassment with issues of equality in a broader sense and reports on important issues that managers and colleagues at workplaces need to keep in mind when the social debate about violence is at its peak, not least in light of the fact that workplaces can both be a scene of violence and harassment, and inside workplaces can be both victims and perpetrators. Finally, Hulda Dóra Styrmisdóttir, project manager at Landsspítala's human resources department, talks about the reactions to the last#metoowave and how the experience has changed procedures and changed the discussion about sexual and gender-based violence and harassment. Flosi Eiríksson, executive director of the Icelandic Professional Association, chairs the meeting. The event is open to everyone. It takes place in Icelandic and interpretation is offered in English.