Tuesday [was] the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and the beginning of 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. It's a global call to action by the United Nations to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls.

This year's theme—"End digital violence against all women and girls"—aims to draw attention to the rapid rise of hate directed at women online. Sadly, this problem is all too common in today's political world.

Why do we need attention drawn to this issue in politics?

Technology-facilitated gender-based violence is a serious and growing threat to women and girls. It's defined by the UN as:

"Any act that is committed, assisted, aggravated, or amplified by the use of information communication technologies or other digital tools that results in or is likely to result in physical, sexual, psychological, social, political, or economic harm, or other infringements of rights and freedoms."

It includes hate speech, violent threats, cyber-harassment, doxxing, image and video-based abuse, astroturfing, gendered disinformation and defamation.

Silencing prominent women
Marginalized women and women with public-facing roles—especially politicians, journalists and activists—often bear the brunt of attacks, with the intent to silence and push them out of the public arena.

While popular assumptions about online misogynists view them as "bearded white dudes in a basement" ranting about women on their computers anonymously, some political leaders are also unfortunately spreading misogyny openly online.

What motivates leaders to spread gendered hate online?

Politicians who are most likely to use misogynistic rhetoric are those who seek to uphold a "masculinist strongman ideal," according to research by British scholar Nitasha Kaul. She explains how public figures like Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi have all used misogyny to assert their power.

By positioning women (and men who do not conform to dominant masculine norms) as inferior, strongmen are signaling their dominance to their followers and to other "strong" men.

When it's directed at women in the public eye, political misogyny serves to suppress the voices of political opponents and people with differing views, posing threats to freedom of expression and fundamental human rights.

American public policy scholar Suzanne Dovi explains how political misogyny unfolds through an evolving process, and includes three stages...