Violence against women in politics (VAWIP) is a global problem that poses a threat to representative politics. Existing scholarship on VAWIP in the Canadian context studies women in politics who are targets of violence due to their gender but pays little attention to what other factors affect the severity, frequency, or type of violence. Some literature, mainly coming out of the United Kingdom, has begun to account for “intersectional violence” (Yaquoob 2024; Gorrell et al 2019), but unfortunately no such parallel exists in the Canadian context. As a result, we know little about how violence is shaped simultaneously by race and gender in Canadian politics. This paper, which is apart of a larger dissertation project, addresses that gap by asking what are the experiences of racialized women in Canadian politics with online VAWIP? To answer this question, I am conducting interviews with racialized women (formerly or presently) elected to Canadian federal office. The interviews focus on identity, political institutions and settings, partisanship, types of harassment, and policy recommendations, to gain insight into the actual experience of being a racialized women in Canadian politics. Research reflects that hesitancy to speak out about VAWIP can be due to partisan concerns and fear of party reprimand or backlash (National Democratic Institute 2018; UN Women 2014; Krook and Sanin 2019) indicating the unique value of interviewing previous politicians. The interviews will emphasize both formal and informal practices that functionally facilitate or do little to deter VAWIP. Feminist institutionalist perspectives inform this analysis by emphasizing that informal practices can be as impactful as those that are formal and enshrined, and critical race theory informs the understanding that oppression is inherent to societal institutions, including government and politics. This paper uses qualitative methods to better understand lived experiences of racialized women in Canadian politics. Ultimately it provides insight into an issue which is critical to address for many reasons, not least of which include given the propensity for online violence to translate to offline violence (Khan 2023; Kuperberg 2022; Tenove and Tworek 2020), and the increased racist and sexist hate crimes (Statistics Canada 2024).
