Gendered online abuse against women in public life: More than just words

Event details

International Women's Day Lecture

As we move into a world where the borders between professional activity in the physical world and the online space are becoming increasingly blurred, up to now there has been little attention paid to the risk that this occupational necessity frequently presents. This talk fills that gap; exploring the online abuse of women at work, author Susan Watson uses verbatim accounts to demonstrate that online abuse is the consequence of being a woman on the internet.

Timely, necessary, and the first of its kind, Gendered Online Abuse Against Women in Public Life focuses on digital abuse encountered across the public sphere and brings together both theoretical ideas and policy recommendations. Presenting evidence drawn from 50 rich and visceral semi-structured interviews and a large corpus of Twitter data, the chapters identify how abuse differs by occupation, and devises a seven-element framework that occurs in every episode of online abuse - tested through the qualitative analysis of 10 million tweets sent to 250 women across the UK: data that is no longer available following the platform’s change of ownership. The design of recommendations at an individual, organisational and structural level provides workable solutions to a vicious problem, revealing how online abuse directed at women is misogynistic, frequently includes violent threats, and dismisses women’s contributions to online discussions.

Addressing how the expectation that women in public life maintain a digital presence precipitates online abuse, Watson offers a series of recommendations for ways that online abuse can be managed, countered, and ultimately ameliorated. Highly interdisciplinary, combining scholarly investigation and public policy insight, this is essential reading for students, academics and policymakers alike.

Chair: Professor Sharon Grace

About the speaker

Dr Susan Watson is a qualitative intersectional feminist criminologist, and is Lecturer in Criminal Justice and Social Policy in the School for Business and Society at the University of York, where she leads the university’s criminal justice degrees. Her research and teaching is concentrated on technology facilitated gendered violence. Susan further evidences her commitment to gender equality in her role as Co-Chair of Athena Swan within the School. Susan is also a member of the Executive Board of the British Society of Criminology; a member of the Social Policy Association; and an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Before embarking upon an academic career, Susan worked as a political campaigner for the Labour Party during its period in government between 1997 – 2005. She has also worked on criminal justice research and policy development, including time on the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee.Susan has a BSc (Hons) in Social Policy and Administration, and an MSc in Criminal Justice Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science; and an MA in Social Research and a PhD from the University of York.