Gendered disinformation is being used across Africa as a tactic to silence critics and exclude women from online civic discourses, new research shows.
A new book ‘Digital Disinformation in Africa: Hashtag Politics, Power and Propaganda’ explores this further. It is written by Nkem Agunwa, a digital campaigner focusing on human rights activism based in Nigeria and member of the African Digital Rights Network (ADRN), hosted by IDS.
In an unprecedented year for elections in Africa – with 17 countries heading to the polls, the fear is that digital disinformation poses a rising threat to women’s political participation.
The book references the 2016 study by the Inter-Parliamentary Union of female lawmakers globally which revealed that 41.8 per cent of participants said they have been subjected to degrading or sexual images of themselves being circulate on social media. While gendered disinformation is not new, digital technology allows for collective and coordinated anonymous targeting of people with disinformation. As a result, digital spaces across Africa are increasingly being used to manipulate the public and spread disinformation, or to harass and intimidate individuals, creating an atmosphere of fear and distrust.
Not only does gendered disinformation keep women from participating in democratic processes, but as the book details, it directly threatens the fight for gender equality and inclusivity across Africa.
Read here the full article published by the Institute of Development Studies on 10 May 2024.
Image by Skorzewiak via Shutterstock
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Nearly half (47 percent) of women in local politics face threats and hate online, compared to 35 percent of their male colleagues. Female politicians from progressive parties are particularly often targeted, according to new research commissioned by the Cabinet.
Minister Hugo de Jonge of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations, who commissioned the study, called the results “scandalous and unacceptable” in a letter to parliament, according to RTL Nieuws. This behavior, targeting women in particular, is “a threat to democracy,” he said.
The study showed that women not only have to deal with more online aggression and violence, but they also experience more consequences. One in ten women indicated that they have considered quitting politics due to online harassment. De Jonge called that disconcerting. “Women no longer choose politics or even quit the profession. Or they opt for self-censorship and decide to express themselves less. It makes democracy vulnerable.”
Strikingly, women from progressive parties are more often the target of online aggression and harassment. D66 women, in particular, seem to be a magnet for threats from right-wing extremists. D66 leader Sigrid Kaag announced her departure from national politics for this reason last summer. She said she could no longer subject her family to the “hatred, harassment, and threats” she faced due to her work.
Read here the full article published by The Netherlands Times on 14 May 2024.
Image by The Netherlands Times
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March 8, 1857 witnessed the uprising of female needle factory workers in New York City, who marched in defiance of perilous working conditions, meagre pay, and gruelling 12-hour shifts. This demonstration resonated across the Atlantic, reaching Europe with its message of solidarity. Building upon the momentum of the 1857 movement, by 1860, female needle factory workers succeeded in securing the legal authorisation to establish a union. Fast forward to March 8, 1908, when thousands of women employed in the garment and textile sectors of New York City renewed the call for equitable pay and a standard eight-hour workday by mobilising on the streets once more.
In 1909, following the precedent set by their predecessors, 30,000 US women workers initiated a 13-week strike advocating for similar demands. The following year, in 1910, the First International Conference of Socialist Women convened in Copenhagen, Denmark. During the second assembly of this conference, Clara Zetkin, a prominent figure in the German Social Democratic Party, presented a proposal. She suggested the establishment of an annual gathering specifically for working women, providing them with a platform to convene and share perspectives on a designated day each year.
Clara Zetkin's proposal led to the adoption of March 8 as Women's Day. However, it wasn't until 1974, 117 years later, that the United Nations officially recognised March 8 as International Women's Day. Today, we commemorate the protest of women workers in New York City on March 8, 1857 as International Women's Day.
Read here the full article published by The Daily Star on 8 March 2024.
Image by The Daily Star
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The objective behind the move in 1972 to have reserved seats for women in parliament was to increase women's representation in the legislative body. Fifty-two years later, the number of these seats has increased to 50, but does that mean women in these seats are politically empowered? That there are more women's voices now and a greater role of women MPs in decision making? We all know the answer. The increase in reserved seats did not translate to an increase in women's political participation and empowerment.
The reason is quite obvious. These seats are used to increase the number of votes for each political party in parliament; the more seats a party has, the more it will benefit as women MPs in reserved seats are bound to show allegiance to the party that has nominated them. Ultimately, the ruling party (which has the majority of seats) benefits from this system.
As a report in this paper has shown, women MPs in these seats are not given the required resources, authority or opportunity to share responsibilities of a constituency. In fact, only the MPs directly elected have the authority over their constituency. Thus, while eligibility and political commitment are prerequisites for anyone to be an MP, being in a reserved seat with no real power serves precious little except to give some privileges to the MP in question. These days, even eligibility is not a criterion, rather it is whether the nominee is related to a politically influential person—that she is chosen. On many occasions, women MPs from reserved seats have expressed their frustration at having no real authority; sometimes they are treated dismissively within the party and outside.
Read here the full article published by The Daily Star on 5 May 2024.
Image by The Daily Star
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As part of the IPU series 'A conversation with...', we interview parliamentarians from all over the world to find out who they represent and what motivates them.
In this edition, we discover Seiko Noda, a parliamentarian from Japan.
Click here to listen the full conversation published by the IPU on 1 May 2024.
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THE HON JULIA GILLARD AC, HOST: Katy, it's not politics that brought you to Canberra, you were born and raised there, like no one's born and raised in Canberra. Can you tell me about that?
SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR WOMEN: Yes, I'm one of those rare species at Parliament House that lives in the, you know, in the place where everyone comes to and then leaves. My parents came to Canberra in the late 60s. My dad had terrible asthma and had been told to leave the UK and he came and joined the parliamentary library actually and so started working there in the late 60s and I was born here in 1970. Yeah, it was a very small place and a place where a lot of people came to live, not where a lot of people had been born to live. But the kids that were born in the early 70s was sort of the first generation that were born and stayed. I mean, many went, but you know there's a good lot of us that were born in the 70s that stayed, and this became our home.
GILLARD: And tell me a little bit more about your mum and your dad. So, your dad's in the parliamentary library and I know that your mum has been honoured in a beautiful mural and through a mental health award that's named after her. Tell me about her story.
GALLAGHER: Yeah, so Mum was like this dynamo. She was born in the UK but I think had lived in a number of countries, so quite a kind of, for that time, probably someone who had you know all those international connections and found herself married with, in the end, four children, quite young, four under four, in the suburbs of Canberra with no car, no family, no friends and a husband that was working all the time. Very isolated. And instead of, I think, succumbing to that isolation, she turned around and started building a lot of connections and building up services and supports and really dedicated her life to that. Which is why, yeah, there's a mural of her close to where I grew up. But I think a lot of people when I'm going around and doing the work I do, always talk to me about how they remember my mum. Particularly services for women and women with children and people with a disability. She was just, she was one of those people that just rolled her sleeves up, got in, cause nobody else was doing it. And yeah, she was definitely a very powerful influence on all of our lives and many other peoples' as well.
Click here to hear the full interview published by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet of Australia on 02 May 2024.
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Gendered disinformation is being used across Africa as a tactic to silence critics and exclude women from online civic discourses, new research shows.
A new book ‘Digital Disinformation in Africa: Hashtag Politics, Power and Propaganda’ explores this further. It is written by Nkem Agunwa, a digital campaigner focusing on human rights activism based in Nigeria and member of the African Digital Rights Network (ADRN), hosted by IDS.
In an unprecedented year for elections in Africa – with 17 countries heading to the polls, the fear is that digital disinformation poses a rising threat to women’s political participation.
The book references the 2016 study by the Inter-Parliamentary Union of female lawmakers globally which revealed that 41.8 per cent of participants said they have been subjected to degrading or sexual images of themselves being circulate on social media. While gendered disinformation is not new, digital technology allows for collective and coordinated anonymous targeting of people with disinformation. As a result, digital spaces across Africa are increasingly being used to manipulate the public and spread disinformation, or to harass and intimidate individuals, creating an atmosphere of fear and distrust.
Not only does gendered disinformation keep women from participating in democratic processes, but as the book details, it directly threatens the fight for gender equality and inclusivity across Africa.
Read here the full article published by the Institute of Development Studies on 10 May 2024.
Image by Skorzewiak via Shutterstock
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In recent years, the share of women in public office has surged.
*In 2000, just 65 women served in Congress. Today, the number is 151, more than a quarter of the total 535 voting members.
*Likewise at the state level, women now make up about a third of elected officials.
Yet despite these historic gains, women—who make up roughly half of the population—remain starkly underrepresented in government. And for women of color, the disparity is even greater.
No single factor created this gap, and no single change will fix it. But part of the problem is how campaigns are funded—and changing that will make a significant difference.
It’s expensive to run for office: Political ad spending in the 2024 election cycle is expected to exceed $16 billion. And the price of campaigning is a greater barrier for women, who typically have less access than men to the wealthy donors who provide most of this money.
Enter: public financing, a simple but powerful reform that uses public funds to boost small donations to candidates. It’s a policy that can help any candidate willing to engage with a broad base of voters—but some of its biggest beneficiaries are women, particularly women of color, who make up 25 percent of the country’s population but less than 10 percent of state and federal elected offices.
Read here the full article published by Ms. Magazine on 25 April 2024.
Image by Ms. Magazine
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A historic law, the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, mandates the reservation of one-third of the total seats in the Lok Sabha, state Assemblies, and the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi for women.
In 2023, a historic law was passed to usher more women in governance. The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, mandates the reservation of one-third of the total seats in the Lok Sabha, state Assemblies, and the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi for women. But representation in leadership isn’t the only sign of gender parity in politics — active participation of the women electorate is also paramount.
So, how has India fared in both regards so far? India Today’s Data Intelligence Unit analysed the turnout data from 1962 to 2019 and candidates’ data from 1957 to 2019 and found a mostly positive trend.
TURNOUT GAP NARROWED
In 1962, men's turnout stood at 63.3 per cent, while women's turnout was notably lower at 46.6 per cent, indicating a considerable gap of 16.7 per cent. This gap fluctuated over the subsequent decades but generally narrowed. For instance, in 2014, men's turnout was 67.1 per cent, while women's turnout increased substantially to 65.6 per cent, resulting in a smaller gap of 1.5 per cent.
Read here the full article published by India Today on 13 April 2024.
Image source: India Today
A Qualitative Study on Violence against Women in Politics in Türkiye, prepared in cooperation with UN Women and Terra Development Cooperative, was introduced at an event organized in Ankara. A qualitative study, which provides important findings on the causes, occurrence, and consequences of violence against women in politics, was presented to the representatives from civil society organizations, public institutions, local governments, and political parties.
The Study on Violence against Women in Politics in Türkiye, which was started to be prepared by Prof. Dr. İknur Yüksel Kaptanoğlu, Project Coordinator of Terra Development Cooperative, together with her study team in 2022, was carried out within the scope of the project "Advancing Gender Equality and Women's Leadership in Political and Business Life” implemented by UN Women and financially supported by the Sweden through Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). In her opening speech, Swedish Ambassador to Ankara Malena Mård emphasized the importance of a political environment free from all forms of violence, especially for young people.
Click here to read the full report published by UN Women on 10 January 2024.
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A Glimpse into the Life of a Women in Politics: CEMR Unveils First Data Coming from 31 Countries
The Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) has released the first infographics showcasing critical insights from their latest report, "Women in Politics."
The data offer a visual snapshot of the representation of women in elected roles across various subnational levels. Additionally, a detailed breakdown of their portfolios at the local level is provided. The second slide of the infographics unveils the results of an anonymous CEMR survey involving 2,424 participants from 31 countries. Focused on elected women in local and regional European roles, the survey explores their experiences of violence in the political realm.
Click here to see the infographic published by the Council of European Municipalities and Regions on 14 December 2023.
Image by Council of European Municipalities and Regions
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For a country with a significant female population, Nigeria has been poor in ensuring gender parity in elected and appointed leadership positions. Since 1979, the country has practiced a presidential form of government, with a devolved form of government across three tiers—federal, state and local levels. Yet, despite the number of elective constituencies available, there has been little to no women elected to these positions. Nigeria has never elected a female president, vice-president or a governor in any of its thirty-six states. Women elected to the national legislature have been a scant percentage in any of the ten constituted sessions of either chamber, with none emerging as president of the senate and a roughly five-month stint for the only woman to emerge speaker of the house of representatives (Polgreen, 2007).
Click here to read the full report published by the Centre for Democracy and Development on 27 November 2023.
Image by Centre for Democracy and Development
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