Violence Against Women in Politics

Issue Date January 2017
Volume 28
Issue 1
Page Numbers 74-88
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Reports of physical attacks, intimidation, and harassment aimed at female politicians, activists, and voters have grown as women have become more politically engaged around the world. Often dismissed as the “cost of doing politics,” such acts pose a serious threat to democracy and raise questions about the progress that has been made globally toward incorporating women as full political actors. Drawing on a diverse range of quantitative and qualitative data, as well as academic research on gendered and political violence, this essay maps the contours of this phenomenon and proposes emerging solutions.

About the Author

Mona Lena Krook is associate professor of political science at Rutgers University and the author of Quotas for Women in Politics: Gender and Candidate Selection Reform Worldwide (2009). She served as a technical advisor to the National Democratic Institute on its #NotTheCost initiative to stop violence against women in politics.

View all work by Mona Lena Krook