Understandings of violence as a gendered hurdle in political institutions – norms and mechanisms for handling violence in the Swedish parliament

Recent research identifies violence targeting politicians as a major hurdle for gender equal political power and influence. Previous studies demonstrate distinct gendered and racial patterns in this violence, and that it has a gendered impact on different aspects of political representation (Håkansson 2024), including MPs’ career prospects and influence. Violence does not only lead women to consider leaving politics more than men, it also has a substantive impact by silencing feminist debates and obstructing women politicians’ policymaking activities. In this study, we turn to the Swedish parliament to explore what the parliament, and political parties do to combat this urgent problem. Drawing on policy documents as well as interviews with MPs, and all the political parties’ security and communications officers, we analyze formal regulations, as well as the informal norms and ideas that shape the management and measures taken by political parties and parliament in this area. We find that in spite of agreement on the urgency of the problem of threats and harassment against politicians, the dominant problem understanding as well as the mechanisms in place, are directed towards physical threats. The extensive harassment and hate crimes facing women and ethnic minorities are to a large extent deprioritized. Moreover, the problem understanding tends to emphasize MPs’ engagement in certain policy issues as increasing the risk of violence, rather than MPs' gender or ethnic background. We argue that this understanding and handling of the problem hampers MPs’ career prospects and policy influence in gendered and racialized ways. On the basis of these findings, we discuss the role of discursive constructions, as obstacles or enablers for change, in order to make parliaments more diversity sensitive.