Affiliations: [a] School of Social Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand | [b] School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Sarah Hendrica Bickerton, Public Policy Institute, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand. Tel.: +64 21808669; E-mail: sarah.bickerton@auckland.ac.nz.
Abstract: Public engagement is a gendered experience, whether offline or online, something which is reflected in women’s experiences of social media. In this article, we seek to systematically explore the experiences from politically engaged women Twitter users in New Zealand in order to draw some lessons, through a thematic and interpretative analytical approach, at four different strategic levels on how to deflect intimidating and aggressive behaviour. We conclude that understanding strategically how structural social locations like gender effect the ability to contribute to political participation and engagement, if addressed, can produce more inclusive and productive online political and policy spaces. Further, this strategic approach involves connecting together different levels of response to online negativity such as platform tools, space-curation, and monitoring, having these made coherent with each other, as well as with this strategic understanding of how structural social location plays into access and use of online political and policy spaces.
Keywords: Gender, sexism, women, online political participation, online political engagement, online abuse, online harassment, social media, Twitter, New Zealand
