Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
A young woman sitting in front of her computer.
Young women are more likely to censor themselves online to avoid being judged, according to studies. Photograph: Alamy
Young women are more likely to censor themselves online to avoid being judged, according to studies. Photograph: Alamy

Far from empowering young women, the internet silences their voices

This article is more than 5 years old

Vicious abuse, hate speech and sexual harassment deter younger women from public debate, finds EU research

If you walked past a craft beer store regularly, and subsequently received obscene messages on Facebook from the store account, what would you do?

Former Austrian Green party MP Sigrid Maurer wanted to sue a beer shop owner in Vienna after receiving a series of abusive online messages.

But Maurer wasn’t able to sue for public sexual assault, because the messages were private. Instead, she reposted the messages online, including the name of the store and its owner – who then sued her, successfully, for libel. She is now appealing against the ruling in Vienna that would mean her having to pay more than €4,000 in damages, because she couldn’t prove he personally posted the obscene messages. He argued that anyone in the store could have accessed his account and sent the message.

The case is just one example of the chilling impact of online abuse and sexual harassment of women, particularly those prominent in public life.

The continuing struggle to combat abuse against women, particularly female politicians, has been highlighted in the UK recently. MPs on the women and equalities select committee have called for a new law to criminalise all non-consensual creation and distribution of sexual images “on the basis of the victim’s lack of consent rather than perpetrator motivation”. Labour MP Yvette Cooper has also called for the naming of Conservative MPs who used “vile and dehumanising language” about the prime minister.

The latest row comes alongside a four-month government consultation on curbing abuse in public life, which closes on 28 October. The government is proposing a new offence to punish anyone abusing or intimidating candidates or campaigners, either in person or online.

It’s not just national politicians who are being abused. In September, MP Andrea Jenkyns told the Commons about the case of Wakefield councillor Nic Stansby, who had, said Jenkyns, been repeatedly trolled since her election in May.

The impact of these kinds of cases is particularly bad for young women, who end up censoring themselves and taking less part in public debate, according to Blandine Mollard, a researcher for the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE). “We used to have a utopian idea that on the internet, every voice would be equally heard, and we could create a more just world,” says Mollard.

Instead, she says digital spaces magnify traditional norms of femininity and masculinity. Young women feel pressured into meeting unrealistic standards of beauty while the level of toxic masculinity online is particularly difficult for boys with a different sexual orientation, who fear being mocked. Mollard’s new research for EIGE shows 57% of young women and 62% of young men have witnessed or experienced online abuse or hate speech.

Young EU citizens have almost equal digital skills and online access: 93% of boys and 92% of girls aged 16-24 use technology every day. But there is a marked difference in their digital confidence, with 73% of boys aged 15-16 saying they would be comfortable using less familiar digital devices, compared to 49% of girls the same age.

Young women and men also behave very differently online, with men taking a higher part in public activities such as debates. They are also more likely to post their opinions on social and political issues or take part in online voting. There is increasing evidence, too, that young women censor themselves to avoid being judged harshly online.

“I’m too frightened to express my opinions online,” says one 15-year-old Swedish girl in the EIGE survey. “I keep them to myself because I know that there will always be someone out there who won’t like what I post.” Another 15-year-old girl expressed a similar view: “The things you get hated for are your opinions and sexual things, if you’re a girl.”

Mollard admits she was not expecting these results. “We thought the internet was an empowering space for young women. This has been a bit of a wake-up call.”

This matters, because women are already substantially excluded from education, business and other opportunities the internet can provide, according to a recent report by the Web Foundation.

EIGE is calling for gender equality to be part of all future EU youth strategy and policies, especially digital policies, and wants more research on how the internet can be made a safer space for both young women and young men. It wants online violence to be recognised as a form of gender-based violence and to be included in EU definitions of cybercrime. The organisation is also calling for more support for young people, to help them become aware of the risks of being online, and says men and boys needs to be involved in efforts to combat violence against girls and women.

This generation of young people is the most digitally-skilled ever. These young people socialise online daily – which makes it even more pressing to address digital gender inequality, as much as in every other form of daily life.

EIGE paid for flights and accommodation in Vienna for the reporting of this story

Most viewed

Most viewed