UNVEIL - Understanding violence, exclusion, and intimidation faced by women leaders

Although we have seen that women have recently made substantial progress in democratic politics globally, this progress has been uneven, and a substantial gender gap remains in practice. In Europe, only Sweden, Norway, and Finland get close to equal representation (over 45%), followed by Denmark, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Austria (over 40%). However, the Widening countries, except for Portugal and Slovenia, perform poorly – women are largely underrepresented in politics and public life. 

At the same time, in countries where women’s political representation has increased, this progress has often been accompanied by a growing backlash and escalating violence against them. Compared to their male colleagues, women face a much more hostile environment. While there has been an emerging body of research examining the extent and impact of gender-based violence and hostility against politically active women, the studies have focused on the situation in the United States (US) and Western Europe. A similar geographical bias exists in research on gender and political representation, with more than 70% of studies on this topic focusing on the US and Western Europe, particularly the UK. However, the findings from these contexts are not universally transferable to other political and social environments.

In this project, we aim to address this gap and shift the attention to the selected Widening countries, advancing understanding of the relationship between the low descriptive representation of women and the violence and hostility they encounter, and how much the latter prevents them from entering politics or contributes to the decision to leave it. To achieve this goal, we conduct a pilot survey in Greece, Poland, Portugal, and Slovakia and distribute it to women who were or are politically active in these countries, including ministers, high-level public servants, parliamentarians, journalists, and civic activists.

The key research questions UNVEIL project aims to answer are:

1. What forms and intensity of gender-based violence and hostility do politically active women in selected Widening countries experience?
2. How do intersecting identities such as gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status shape this violence and hostility?
3. If and how it translates into low descriptive representation of women in politics and public life in some countries?

For more information about the EUI Widening Europe Programme, please visit the official webpage.