Gender-based political violence in subnational elections: from the local to the digital

Abstract

The various forms of violence suffered by women and diversities who engage in politics or hold public office are also transferred to the digital environment, but with specific particularities. This work is about the characteristics and dimensions that online violence against women took during the Argentine legislative elections of 2021. To answer this, monitoring was carried out on social networks during the electoral campaign, which consisted of a quantitative and qualitative data collection from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. These data were then triangulated with in-depth interviews with female candidates and their communication teams from different political parties, and a standardized survey administered to all candidates. The results indicate that women represent a lower percentage of the total mentions in social networks but receive twice as many messages with violence, not equivalent to their total participation; that online violence cuts across parties regardless their ideology; that some agendas generate more violent responses; and that the consequences of political violence affect the professional and personal careers of female candidates and their male counterparts in very different ways.