Gendered Online Abuse Against Women in Public Life - (Feminist Developments in Violence and Abuse) by Susan Watson (Paperback)

About the Book

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and freely available to read online.

The first of its kind, Gendered Online Abuse Against Women in Public Life focuses on digital abuse encountered across the public sphere, bringing together both theoretical ideas and policy recommendations.

Book Synopsis

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and freely available to read online.

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 book 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.

Review Quotes

This book pulls back the curtain to reveal the scale of abuse that women in public life now receive. It's a timely and important read into what is driving this horrifying trend and how we can tackle it.

This remarkable book is essential reading for anyone thinking about the barriers to women entering or remaining in public life. The relentless nature of online abuse, as well as its effects on everyone involved, is depressing reading, but Dr Watson's concise analysis makes a significant contribution to our understanding and points towards possible solutions. A really valuable and insightful contribution to one of the most challenging problems so many women face in public life in the twenty-first century.

Timely and important, this book provides firm evidence of the nature, extent, and harms of online abuse directed against women in public life. By focusing on how such abuse impacts not just the safety of women in public life but their freedom, Watson reveals its full consequences and charts a course for us to combat it - individually, socially, and structurally.

With her unparalleled expertise, a wealth of original empirical material, and rich theoretical awareness, Susan Watson offers a unique insight into this most pressing and growing of contemporary problems. Gendered Online Abuse Against Women in Public Life: More Than Just Words is set to have a big impact - among policy-makers, practitioners, teachers, students and informed readers. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

About the Author

Susan Watson is Lecturer in Criminal Justice and Social Policy in the School for Business and Society at the University of York, UK.