Roundtable on Gender, Violence and Politics: Pushing Women Out

Is backlash to women’s political participation rising? Do we see a new form of political violence? What role does social media play? What can policymakers do? 

Women’s participation in politics – as voters, supporters, lobbyists, candidates and elected officials – has increased all over the world. While women’s greater participation can be seen as a sign of political empowerment, we cannot jump to the conclusion that discriminatory structures have been considerably weakened. Indeed, we are now seeing that political violence (once thought to be a mostly masculine experience) is profoundly affecting women in politics, in many different ways.

The relationship between women’s political participation, gender inequality, and political violence has emerged as a key point of contention: some scholars suggest that women are targeted by political violence more than men, because of social resistance to this expansion of women’s traditional gender roles. Other researchers indicate that both men and women experience violence designed to achieve political ends, but that men experience physical violence, while women endure harassment and threats, often with sexual connotations.

Welcome to a roundtable that will provide an introduction to this new field of research and give concrete examples of how organizations work with these issues around the world. The roundtable will feature a panel of five experts on the topic – academics and practitioners - who are in Uppsala for a workshop organized by the Uppsala Forum on Democracy, Peace, and Justice and the Gender and Election Violence Project at the Department of Government, Uppsala University.

The participating experts are Mona Lena Krook (Associate Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University), Sandra Pepera (Director Gender, Women and Democracy at National Democratic Institute), Jennifer Piscopo (Assistant Professor of Politics, Occidental College), Gabrielle Bardall (APSA Congressional Fellow) and Julie Ballington (Policy Advisor on Political Participation at UN Women). The roundtable will be moderated by Elin Bjarnegård (Associate Professor of Political Science at Uppsala University).

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