an article by Ellen Judson and Rose Lasko-Skinner for DEMOS
On International Women’s Day, we have a lot to celebrate regarding the participation of women in public life. At home, our last election saw a record number of women members of Parliament elected; and women in public life in the UK and across the world continue to make waves, and champion causes from climate change to social justice to peace. As Rachel Reeves MP argues in her new book, some of the last century’s biggest achievements were driven by committed women MPs, such as “equal pay for women, maternity and paternity leave, child benefit, abortion law reform, equal guardianship of children and action on domestic violence”.
But for some of our women representatives, the cost of participation remains too high. It’s well recognised that online abuse and harassment against MPs is pervasive; that it can have a profound psychological impact on individuals; and that it disproportionately affects women, particularly Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women. Before the last election, a number of women MPs stood down in part because of abuse they had suffered in public life. And ‘gender norms and expectations’ have been highlighted as a continued barrier to women participating in politics across Europe.
We might laugh when we read during an election campaign, a hoax story that a woman party leader attacks squirrels – after all, isn’t ‘fake news’ something that only other people believe? But we shouldn’t overlook the insidious way that information campaigns online not only affect individuals, but also work to shape wider political narratives. They affect who is included and who is listened to – and who is excluded from public discourse
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There are many links to useful information in other publications.
Labels:
disinformation, cyber-bullying, women_in_public_office, MPs,
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