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Menace grows for women in politics.
The threats arrive by mail, email, voicemail and social media. Hateful comments are shouted out of a car window or in line at the grocery store. More than ever before, the threats come home, in the form of protests or strangers circling the block.
As women make significant inroads and their numbers grow in politics, so too have the number of threats and acts of intimidation against them. Threats have long been an troubling aspect of elected life. But in interviews, women throughout Minnesota politics described a rise in vitriol and a worsening atmosphere.
"Women in elective office have become the go-to target," said Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., who has served at the local, state and federal levels during more than three decades in public life. "Women in this country still do not get the equal respect that their male colleagues do. In other words, women are easier targets, they're softer targets. And I think that that puts all of us in a much greater place of danger."
The COVID-19 pandemic and falsehoods about the 2020 election have increased hostility toward politicians overall, culminating in the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6. But the violence and threats directed at women in politics are distinct and threaten the progress they've made in government, said Mona Lena Krook, a Rutgers University professor who wrote a book about violence against women in politics.
https://www.startribune.com/women-in-minnesota-politics-face-growing-threats-and-intimidation/600126206/
As women make significant inroads and their numbers grow in politics, so too have the number of threats and acts of intimidation against them. Threats have long been an troubling aspect of elected life. But in interviews, women throughout Minnesota politics described a rise in vitriol and a worsening atmosphere.
"Women in elective office have become the go-to target," said Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., who has served at the local, state and federal levels during more than three decades in public life. "Women in this country still do not get the equal respect that their male colleagues do. In other words, women are easier targets, they're softer targets. And I think that that puts all of us in a much greater place of danger."
The COVID-19 pandemic and falsehoods about the 2020 election have increased hostility toward politicians overall, culminating in the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6. But the violence and threats directed at women in politics are distinct and threaten the progress they've made in government, said Mona Lena Krook, a Rutgers University professor who wrote a book about violence against women in politics.
This article is focused mostly on local politicians but it's clearly a national problem.
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