Lead supervisor:
Dr Patrick Bishop 
Other supervisor(s):
- Dr Sara Correia-Hopkins
Start date: October 2022 (Full time)
Award: General
Subject Pathway:
Criminology and Law
Thematic Cluster:
Rights and Governance Cluster
(In)visible Women: experiences of and responses to gender-based online harms
Women are disproportionately targeted by gender-based online harms, such as cyber-harassment and stalking, coercive control, and image-based sexual abuse. High-profile women with a strong social media presence are particularly at risk. While visibility can facilitate self-promotion, connection-building, and career advancement, it also creates opportunities for abuse. For visible women in public-facing professions (i.e., politics, journalism, and academia) online abuse can lead to silencing and self-censorship, threatening women’s equal participation in public life.
In response to these risks, this research aims to deepen our understanding of visible women’s experiences of online harms and to explore adequate responses. Specifically, the research will consider:
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- The risk factors that shape visible women’s victimisation
- The lived experiences of women and how these are shaped by intersectionality
- How online and offline experiences of harm are interconnected
- The efficacy of existing policy and legislative responses in addressing women’s needs
Employing a qualitative design and drawing from feminist-informed approaches to victimology, this research will shed light on the understudied issue of visible women’s experiences of gender-based online harms and their subsequent support needs. In the first phase of research, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with women from a range of professions. The insights from these interviews will then inform a desk-based analysis of existing policy and legislation.