From online trolls to ‘Slut Shaming’: understanding the role of incivility and gender abuse in local government

Gender parity in legislatures is an important dimension of justice, equality and representative democracy. From a normative perspective, it reflects the women’s right to participate in public life on an equal basis to men, free of direct or indirect discrimination. It also is critical to women’s descriptive and substantive representation given they constitute about half the population.

Countries around the world are looking to identify barriers to women’s equal elected representation. One area of concern is incivility towards elected women in online and offline spaces, yet few studies to date have focused on the nature of incivility directed at women politicians, and even less at the level of local government. This paper addresses this gap using Australia as a case study. It offers new insights into a ‘push factor’ that contributes to women leaving elected local government and their political underrepresentation.

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