CELSI Frontiers webinar that took place on May 17, 2024, 10:30-11:30 CET (at CELSI and online), dealt with master thesis research of Miss Kristína Gotthardová titled: Experiences of online gender-based violence of women in the public sphere in Slovakia.

Abstract:

"American prostitute", "Soros' slut", "teenage girl from an apartment block", "murderer", or wishes to get diagnosed with vaginal cancer are but few examples of obscenities and remarks that Slovak politicians and journalists have received.

Recent years have been marked with an increase in vulgarity in both the parliament and on social media directed at different women in the public sphere, resulting in a number of resignations, career breaks or decisions not to continue in their careers. How do experiences of online gender-based violence by female politicians and journalists impact their motivation and presence in the public sphere?

This research analyses the workings and dynamics of gendered online violence in the context of democratic backsliding and anti-gender movement currently on the rise in Slovakia and explores how do the women affected make sense of their experiences, what are the possible effects on women's representation, and the policy and regulatory implications for the future.

This master thesis research applies (feminist) critical discourse analysis on qualitative data from 14 elite interviews and a corpus of publicly available texts.