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Tag: Harassment

  • The Gendered Representational Costs of Violence against Politicians

    The Gendered Representational Costs of Violence against Politicians

    How does violence against politicians weaken gender equality? Håkansson (2024) shows that harassment directed at female politicians harms descriptive, substantive, and symbolic representation, silencing women and pushing them out of public life.

    While women face more harassment and intimidation as politicians than men do, we know very little about how this mistreatment shapes political representation. To address this issue, Håkansson builds a framework to study the costs of political violence across descriptive, substantive, and symbolic representation. Testing this model with interview and survey data from Swedish male and female politicians, the author finds clear empirical evidence of harm across all three areas.

    In terms of descriptive representation, violence causes women to consider leaving politics more often than men and reinforces male-coded traits for candidates, which hurts the chances of achieving gender-diverse representation. For substantive representation, violence causes harm by silencing feminist debates and disrupting women politicians’ ability to participate in policy discussions. Lastly, symbolic representation is threatened because violence forces women to reduce their public visibility.

    Learn more about this article here:

    Håkansson, S. (2024). The Gendered Representational Costs of Violence against Politicians. Perspectives on Politics, 22(1), 81–96. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592723001913

  • LGBTIQ equality at a crossroads: Progress and challenges

    LGBTIQ equality at a crossroads: Progress and challenges

    How is LGBTIQ equality progressing across Europe amidst rising hostility? The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (2024) reveals a paradox: while openness has increased, hate-motivated violence, harassment, and severe hardship persist.

    Findings from FRA’s third LGBTIQ survey—one of the largest of its kind worldwide—show that despite years of legislative, policy, and advocacy efforts across the EU, member states, and civil society, equality remains precarious. Positive indicators emerge in gradual declines in discrimination since the baseline 2012 survey, greater openness regarding sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics, increased comfort holding hands in public, and more supportive classroom environments.

    However, these gains stand in stark contrast to widespread backlash. Everyday harassment, anti-LGBTIQ online disinformation, school bullying, and hate-motivated violence are sharply increasing, predominantly occurring in public spaces. The survey notes that trans and intersex people, LGBTIQ individuals with disabilities, and those experiencing unemployment or belonging to minorities endure the most severe adversity, including restricted healthcare access, financial distress, homelessness, and harmful conversion practices. The human toll is alarming: more than one in three respondents reported experiencing suicidal thoughts in the past year, with rates climbing even higher among trans women and trans men.

    Warning that faltering on current commitments risks unraveling decades of hard-won progress, the Agency stresses that EU institutions and member states must actively lead by example. The report calls for urgent measures to expand social safety nets, safeguard vulnerable youth, and secure the fundamental dignity and safety necessary for all LGBTIQ individuals to live openly and participate fully in society.

    Learn more about this survey report here:

    European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. (2024). LGBTIQ equality at a crossroads: EU LGBTIQ Survey III. Publications Office of the European Union. https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/fra-2024-lgbtiq-equality_en.pdf

  • Harassment and Intimidation of Parliamentary Candidates in the United Kingdom

    Harassment and Intimidation of Parliamentary Candidates in the United Kingdom

    How common is harassment among political candidates in the UK? Collignon and Rüdig (2020) show that four in ten candidates faced harassment in the 2017 election, with women and younger candidates facing the highest risk.

    Using political violence to reach political goals has long been a serious concern. While people once thought this problem only happened in countries with high levels of violence overall, recent evidence shows that the harassment and intimidation of political figures in the UK is far more common than previously assumed.

    Drawing on survey data from candidates who ran in the 2017 general election, Collignon and Rüdig found that four out of every ten candidates experienced at least one form of harassment. The evidence also indicates that women and young candidates are more likely to deal with harassment and intimidation. To close, the authors lay out a roadmap for future research, pointing especially to the need to examine how people perceive harassment and how it shapes political careers.

    Learn more about this article here:

    Collignon, S., & Rüdig, W. (2020). Harassment and Intimidation of Parliamentary Candidates in the United Kingdom. The Political Quarterly, 91(2), 422–429. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-923X.12855