'More Visible and Vulnerable to Attacks' - The 'Costs of Doing Politics' for Women Local Councillors in Wales (UK)

This paper draws from a wider feminist institutionalist analysis of women elected councillors’ experiences in Welsh local government (Hibbs 2023) and explores the ‘costs of doing politics’ for women local politicians. Drawing on interviews with eighteen women local councillors, it will examine their experiences related to incidences of violence against women politicians and other forms of resistance to women’s electoral presence both from within local councils and in the public-facing aspects of their elected roles. This paper will discuss the suggestion that sexism from fellow councillors has become more veiled and subtle in comparison to the late 1990s. However, it will further explore interviewees’ stories of sexual harassment and everyday ‘micro-machismos’ and gender-based discrimination, and feelings of vulnerability whilst carrying out political work. Finally, the increasingly worrying and salient issue of abuse of women politicians online and its impact on women’s descriptive representation and participation in local-level politics is explored, something mentioned by the majority of interviewees as a key barrier, particularly by those who had received death threats and similar ‘trolling’ online.