Gendered Priorities in Digital Political Participation: Insights from Youth Focus Groups and Surveys in Nigeria

Research suggests that young people increasingly favour social media over traditional forms of media because digital platforms are more flexible, interactive, and responsive to their informational and communicative needs (Gaskins & Jerrit, 2012). In Nigeria, where traditional political structures often feel distant or exclusionary, digital platforms have become important spaces for youth engagement, providing opportunities for information-seeking, public discussion, and civic mobilisation (Goodman et al., 2011; Diesing, 2013). However, access to these spaces is not equal. Gendered norms, safety concerns, and cultural expectations shape how young men and women participate online, what they are willing to express, and how comfortable they feel being politically visible. This paper draws from fieldwork conducted in Nigeria, combining pre- and post-surveys with youth focus groups organised across two communities. While the broader project explores youth political engagement and technology more generally, this paper focuses specifically on the gendered dimensions that emerged from women-only focus groups, designed to understand women’s online political experiences and the features they prioritise for safer and more inclusive participation. Across the focus groups, young women consistently reported that online political engagement exposes them to risks such as cyberbullying, moral judgment, misinformation, and reputational harm. These concerns often shape how they navigate digital platforms, leading to selective visibility, limited engagement in political debates, or reliance on private channels rather than open forums. While young men also face challenges, women’s experiences are more layered due to cultural expectations around respectability, public expression, and the policing of women’s voices. A key component of the study was a participatory exercise where women ranked and discussed the digital features they would prioritise in platforms intended to support political engagement. The most frequently prioritised features included: Stronger anonymity and identity-protection tools, Clearer moderation and reporting systems, Easier access to verified political information, Community-based support structures, such as women-only or safe-space discussion groups, Design elements that minimise harassment, such as content filters or controlled visibility options. These rankings provide practical insight into what women believe would make digital participation safer, more meaningful, and more empowering. The pre- and post-surveys reinforce these findings, showing increased willingness to participate when safety, credibility, and supportive community structures are built into platform design. By centring these grounded experiences, the paper argues that digital democratic participation and democratic innovations more broadly cannot be assumed to be inclusive without attention to gendered risks and the everyday realities of young women’s online lives. Rather than approaching feminist critiques theoretically, this study offers a concrete, empirically grounded case that highlights what young women themselves identify as essential conditions for equal engagement. The Nigerian case underscores the importance of infrastructures of safety, access, and belonging in making democratic participation genuinely inclusive. It also demonstrates how listening directly to women’s voices (through focus groups and participatory ranking exercises) can guide the design of digital platforms that redistribute power and reduce exclusion in meaningful ways.