The Hidden Costs of Being a Woman in Politics Online

Our co-founder at Areto Labs, Lana Cuthbertson, had the opportunity to speak at the Canadian Women Leaders’ Digital Defence Initiative on March 25th. Put on by the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, the panel was hosted by Aphrodite Salas and included MP Heather McPherson, Tamara Taggart, and Lucina Di Meco. It was a powerful discussion on the lived experiences and impacts of online abuse, as well as the solutions that are inspiring a way to fight back.

Discussing her experience running and winning the position of Member of Parliament for Edmonton-Strathcona, Heather McPherson remarked how shocking it is that attacks often aren’t focused on policy or position, but are personal, and range from microaggressions to death threats. As she pointed out, for her and other women politicians, there is no option to simply not be on social media. It’s part of the job of a politician to engage with constituents, and social media is overwhelmingly the channel to do that through now, especially as in person events and opportunities to connect have disappeared this past year.

Echoing those struggles was Tamara Taggart, who ran as a candidate in the 2019 federal election. She said she won’t be running again. She experienced harassment during her 28-year career in media and initially received written letters in the mail. Later, she dealt with in-person stalkers, including some who were prosecuted and served prison time. But in those cases, she was supported by her workplace and given extra physical security along with the involvement of the police, whereas the attacks she experienced on social media were often directed by supporters of her opposition.

She said she has watched the abuse towards public figures during the course of her career escalate to an unimaginable point, and that there is no accountability:

“I cannot fathom a young woman subjecting herself to that. If I’d have known that going in, I would have never done it. Never.”

This is a critical point for the way we think about and deal with online abuse. This level of harassment would be unacceptable in a traditional workplace, but for public figures whose work environment is partly digital, online toxicity is a constant occurrence with no official recourse in the workplace to get support in dealing with it. Already, we’ve witnessed the damaging effects of allowing this to continue unchecked on these platforms, both on an individual level and to our society .

While the tech companies who own these platforms have been reluctant to stop this behaviour, there is hope in the grassroots and organizational efforts to step in and address this through policy and lobbying channels. As women’s rights advocate, Lucina Di Meco pointed out these incidents don’t happen by chance, but by design. Her work has found coordinated attacks from disinformation campaigns on social media, and has published a guide for journalists to properly report on these issues without unintentionally spreading them.

The harassment of women leaders online not only undermines the strength of our democracy, it actively discourages other women from joining politics or pursuing other public leadership roles. Social media is rife with misinformation and toxicity, and fighting back against this effectively requires a variety of approaches, but all begin with the belief that a better way forward is possible.

Ensuring that all workplaces have mechanisms in place to address and prevent harassment is part of our ongoing mission at Areto Labs. Our work on ParityBOT to fight social media abuse against women in politics led us to develop Coach, a workplace culture building bot based on behavioural research and best practices. We believe that the future of work is inclusion and safety for all — please get in touch to help us build it.