The Cost of Debating Harassment against (Women) Politicians

Politician harassment is a growing issue in both democratic and non-democratic contexts, as highlighted by previous studies. This problem threatens gender equality in political representation, with women politicians facing more severe and frequent attacks than men, often motivated by sexism. One essential question is how violence in politics might harm descriptive representation. While previous research has delved into effects on women’s political ambition, far less is known about whether and how political recruiters’ assessment of candidates is affected by political violence. This study explores the impact of a candidate’s association with violence against politicians on how appealing they are to party recruiters, using a conjoint survey experiment with selectors from six major Swedish political parties. We find that among selectors, debating any salient or non-salient topic in the media is mostly seen as positive or neutral. The only issue that generates a negative likelihood of selection is debating the problem of harassment of politicians. While it is seen as better than not appearing in the media at all, having media visibility related to violence against politicians does not strengthen a candidate’s appeal to selectors. The most likely outcome for such candidates is that they are rejected. Furthermore, we find that it is viewed as slightly more negative for men than women politicians to be associated with the issue of violence against politicians. This study enhances our understanding for the gendered consequences of violence against politicians. We demonstrate that in the eyes of political recruiters, it is not more negative for women than men to be associated with harassment of politicians. This suggests that women candidates’ experiences of violence may not be directly harmful for women candidates’ appeal to selectors. However, being associated with this issue is negative for women’s as well as men’s prospects for political selection. This may hamper politicians’ willingness to raise the issue of harassment in politics, which can impede policy attention to the issue. Inadequate policy to tackle harassment in politics has severe ramifications for women’s representation since the problem is more urgent for women than men.