How will the #MeToo movement go down in history? As a flash in the pan, or a significant milestone on the path towards gender equality? The answer lies in what happens next. We need to keep up the pressure to ensure that suffering abuse isn’t part of anyone’s job description – anywhere in the world.

We all know how it unfolded: the revelations of sexual harassment in Hollywood that sent shockwaves around the world. And these “shocks” were unusual in that, for millions of women, they were wearily not shocking.

But in sectors or parts of the world where the #MeToo revelations were not being amplified, it was clear this was because of a fear of the consequences of speaking out about harassment, rather than the absence of it. For just like most atrocities, this one hits the poorest women and girls the hardest. The women who can’t speak out or make a formal complaint, or quit their jobs – because losing their poorly paid, insecure job will mean they don’t get to eat, or feed their families, or protect their children. Around the world, sexual harassment at work continues, including, far away from the glamour of the film industry, in some of the most poorly paid sectors of employment. For example, a Care International study found that one in three female garment workers in Cambodia had experienced sexual harassment or violence in the space of a year.

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Powerful social media-driven feminism comes from only one segment of society, yet it echoes a wider collective experience and solidarity. This solidarity is also expressed in more traditional forms of campaigning, including marching in the street, shoulder-to-shoulder, as of old. The Women’s March in January picked up the rallying cry of #TimesUp, and then #March4Women ahead of International Women’s Day brought together thousands of feminists in London. This year, on the centenary of the first time some women could vote in parliamentary elections in the UK, Trafalgar Square was once again centre stage. We felt frustrations at the pace of change, but also a sense of global solidarity and of hope – a hope that finally social norms are changing everywhere.

As Nazma Akter, a Bangladeshi labour rights activist, shouted out to the crowd at #March4Women: “When clothes are cheap, women are cheap. Nothing comes for free in this world. Nothing is a discount.” Women in the crowd heard her, and felt it. They also recognised that we in the UK are implicated directly, since we are consumers of these cheap clothes.

What we need, in response to #MeToo, is a global culture change in the workplace, from the Hollywood Hills to the corridors of power in Westminster, to the factory floors of Dhaka and back again, leaving no one out. And there is a solution, a way of combining feminist energy with legislative change to ensure fundamental transformation in all workplaces, around the world.

On 28 May the International Labour Organization is holding a conference to debate whether or not to legislate for a global convention on sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace. We need the UK government to support a strong global legislative framework that is legally binding, and that explicitly includes the most vulnerable workers here and abroad, including those such as domestic workers who are employed outside businesses with formal HR policies. It should also refer to the UN guiding principles on business and human rights – to ensure that companies adhere to globally agreed standards throughout their supply chains. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the lives of women and girls everywhere.

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A letter from the global development and women’s rights charity Care International UK to Alok Sharma MP, the minister for employment, is being signed by thousands, urging him to support this global initiative, and to make it as strong and effective as possible. If you or anyone you know were one of the millions to say #MeToo – or if, like many, you have found it too difficult to speak up – please sign this letter. If you believe a job should never, as a matter of course, include sexual harassment, exploitation, coercion or abuse – please sign it.

Let’s do justice to the bravery of all the women who have spoken up to push for global legislative change. As we give thanks to the courage of the suffragettes for the political voice they helped give us a hundred years ago, let us, in turn, make sure that future generations remember this moment as the one that put a stop to workplace violence globally.

• Helen Pankhurst is senior gender adviser at Care International UK