Violence against women in politics boosted in the era of internet-based political communication
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A new article published in The Cap Times focuses on the sexist violence experienced by women who are involved in politics. The article starts citing the words by State Representative Michelle Litjens, who declared: “You have to be pretty strong. I think more strong than a man, because I don’t think they go after men’s children like they do for a woman”, to continue presenting examples of verbal violence suffered by female politicians. There are many cases documenting different kinds of harassment against women politicians, some of them including highly offensive sexist expressions. The situation is even worse in a context defined by a strong role of the social networks in political activities. Thus, female politicians are usually exposed to anonymous attacks very difficult to stop or to denounce. Erin Forrest, the executive director of Emerge Wisconsin, took the initiative of sharing screenshots of her own online interactions, which has prompted other politically involved women to share the sexist comments that they receive. Click here to read the full story.
A new article published in The Cap Times focuses on the sexist violence experienced by women who are involved in politics. The article starts citing the words by State Representative Michelle Litjens, who declared: “You have to be pretty strong. I think more strong than a man, because I don’t think they go after men’s children like they do for a woman”, to continue presenting examples of verbal violence suffered by female politicians. There are many cases documenting different kinds of harassment against women politicians, some of them including highly offensive sexist expressions. The situation is even worse in a context defined by a strong role of the social networks in political activities. Thus, female politicians are usually exposed to anonymous attacks very difficult to stop or to denounce. Erin Forrest, the executive director of Emerge Wisconsin, took the initiative of sharing screenshots of her own online interactions, which has prompted other politically involved women to share the sexist comments that they receive. Click here to read the full story.