What Explains Gendered Political Violence? A Cross-Regional Comparison

Harassment, threats, and physical attacks against politicians occur frequently both in democratic and non-democratic countries. Previous research has analyzed to what extent political violence is gendered, investigating whether the scope, forms, and consequences of violence differ for men and women politicians. So far, we however lack comparative evidence on when and why there is variation in gendered political violence across countries. In this article, we theorize that a state’s degree of political gender equality and its general level of political violence condition the causes and consequences of men and women politicians’ exposure to political violence. We suggest that this is due to two central mechanisms: masculine politics conditioning larger gender differences in exposure and self-selection leading to smaller gender differences in reactions. Our empirical analysis draws on simultaneous candidate surveys (N = 2827) in four countries in Europe and Africa (Ghana, Ireland, Norway, Uganda). Through pairwise comparisons, we show that gender differences in exposure to political violence are largest in countries with low levels of political gender equality. Women politicians tends to be targeted more frequently in these contexts and are more exposed to sexualized forms of harassment. In contrast, gender differences in reactions to violence are smaller in countries where violence is normalized. In these contexts, men and women politicians appear to react more resiliently to experiences of violence.