Let’s Talk about Sex: Examining the Factors Influencing Congressional Response to #MeToo on Twitter

ABSTRACTThis article examines the factors that influence whether members of Congress tweet about the #MeToo movement. Whereas social-identity theory suggests that congresswomen would be more likely to tweet about #MeToo, congressional research argues that increased polarization has resulted in congresswomen bucking gender stereotypes and embracing more partisan behavior than might otherwise be expected (Pearson and Dancey 2011). We examine how gender, partisanship, and ideology shape the Twitter activity of members of Congress surrounding the #MeToo movement using an original dataset of their tweets since October 2017 when the #MeToo movement gained prominence on Twitter. Our findings show that gender and ideology are the strongest predictors of whether Congress members tweet about the #MeToo movement. Liberals—particularly liberal women—are leading the charge in bringing prominence to the #MeToo movement on Twitter.

‘Please be a lady… you are not going to be heard’: The Debate over the Ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

Why did the United States fail to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women? This overarching question forms the basis of this paper and will be answered using an array of primary and secondary sources. This paper gleans most of its evidence from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearings of 1994 and 2002, letters from both President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Congressional Research Service reports on CEDAW from 2013 and 2007, several Senators’ statements in the Congressional Record, Congressional testimony, and the text of the CEDAW treaty. This paper integrates these primary sources with secondary sources, citing legal analyses by former Attorney General Harold Hongju Koh, positions taken by lobby groups such as Amnesty International, the Heritage Foundation, and Concerned Women for America, the text, “Circle of Empowerment” by CEDAW Committee veteran Hannah-Beate Schopp-Schilling, and research on the legislative impact of CEDAW by Dutch legal analyst Rikki Holtmaat. This paper contends that CEDAW’s failure stemmed from: 1) the belief that U.S. women’s rights are already “covered,” 2) the convergence of federalism and inherent constitutional restrictions, 3) the belief that CEDAW will subvert American sovereignty, and, 4) distorted interpretations of the CEDAW Committee’s recommendations.

Stock Market Volatility under Sanctions

Since 1979, Iran has faced with unilateral and multilateral harsh sanctions due to its nuclear energy program. These sanctions have resulted in significant problem to both sanctioned and sanctioning parties. Given the fact that sanctions have had significant impacts on Iran’s economy and since Iran stock market is the barometer of its economy, it is assumed that sanctions affect the Iranian stock market as well. To test this hypothesis, this study studied the Iranian stock market volatility during harsh sanctions using ARCH models. The study found that, despite all sanctions, not only Iran’s stock market shows major stylized facts of any stock market’s volatility i.e. volatility clustering, fat tails and mean reversion but also it shows no irregularity which could be attributed to effect of sanctions. This finding was consistent with Iranian stock market regulators claiming Iranian stock market growth and the U.S. Congressional Research Service report 2013. Therefore, based on findings, this study concluded that Iranian stock market has not affected by sanctions.