Backlash and Crisis: When Pushback is Not About Policy

• In Event: Gender, Crisis and Political Power (Pre-Recorded)

Abstract

Crises— emergencies in which the public is at risk— often require public officials to make and communicate decisions which can save lives and decrease the economic toll. Yet an official’s identity can shape how the public responds to these decisions. How does the nature of a crisis reveal underlying inequities, exposing gendered and racialized leadership expectations that are less visible, but not less important, during non-crisis times? Previous research on North America (Calasanti and Gerrits 2021) finds that when racialized women officials communicate COVID-19 information on Twitter, they face targeted gendered and racialized harassment, which undermines their message, sows distrust, and challenges their authority in a way distinct from their male colleagues. Building on this, I collect and analyze 2021 Twitter responses to a diverse assembly of 46 women Members of Parliament in the UK. Using an intersectional lens, I examine what types of pushback occur when different women leaders not only hold, but wield their power, and theorize how this may represent an increased burden for racialized women leaders. I also analyze targeted pushback faced by women MPs based on age, sexuality, disability, and religion. This has implications for scholars of gender, race, and ethnicity; representation; and political.

Author

• Anna Calasanti, University of New Mexico