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News & Events Event Reports

Women Mayors on the Frontlines: Gender-Based Hate, Harassment and Democratic Resilience in European Cities

Publication Date:
11/06/2026
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Empowering Women LeadersGender-based harassmentgender-based threatsGender-Based ViolenceWomen Mayors

— 15 minutes reading time

This report provides a summary of discussions during the webinar and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Strong Cities Network Management Unit, Strong Cities members, event sponsors or participants.

Summary

On 11 June 2026, the Strong Cities Network convened the first of two European consultation webinars under the Strong Cities Women’s Caucus initiative on Addressing Hate and Harassment Targeting Women Local Leaders.

The session, titled Threats, Experiences and Emerging Responses, brought together women local leaders, municipal practitioners and experts from across Europe to discuss the growing levels of gender-based hate, harassment and intimidation faced by women in local public office, both online and offline.

The discussion explored how these threats affect not only the safety and wellbeing of individual women leaders, but also democratic participation, public trust, civic debate and local governance capacity. Speakers emphasised that women local leaders are often expected to absorb abuse as part of public life, while institutions, political systems, law enforcement agencies and digital platforms too often lack the protocols, resources and accountability mechanisms needed to respond effectively.

The webinar forms part of a broader Strong Cities initiative to Safeguard and Elevate Women Local Leaders in Building and Maintaining Strong Cities. Insights from the consultation will inform a forthcoming Strong Cities toolkit to support responses to gender-based hate and harassment targeting women local leaders at the individual, city government and community levels.

Threat Landscape Snapshot

Women Local Leaders in Conversation

Key Takeaways

Key Themes

Opening the consultation, Charlotte Moeyens, Chief of Staff of the Strong Cities Network, framed the discussion within Strong Cities’ broader initiative to Safeguard and Elevate Women Local Leaders in Building and Maintaining Strong Cities. She noted that women mayors, councillors and other local leaders are often on the frontline of responding to community tensions, rebuilding trust and maintaining social cohesion. At the same time, many face escalating levels of hate, harassment and intimidation, both online and offline. These attacks are often deeply personal, rooted in misogyny, sexualised abuse and threats to family members.

Charlotte stressed that the issue cannot be treated only as a matter of personal resilience. Hate and harassment targeting women local leaders affects democratic participation, public trust, civic debate and local governance capacity. The consultation was designed to better understand what women local leaders across Europe are experiencing, how these dynamics are evolving, what responses are emerging and where critical gaps remain.

The webinar built on an April 2026 Strong Cities in-person convening at the Annenberg Trust Foundation at Sunnylands in California, United States, where women local leaders from North America and beyond discussed similar challenges. A clear message from that convening was that women leaders are too often expected to absorb harassment, adapt their behaviour or become more resilient, while responsibility should instead sit with institutions, systems and communities.

Understanding the Threat Landscape

Anne Craanen, Senior Research and Policy Manager at ISD, provided an overview of trends shaping the threat landscape for women local leaders in Europe. Drawing on ISD’s research across multiple linguistic and national contexts, Anne explained that online misogyny and gender-based harms are not confined to English-language spaces. Manosphere narratives, anti-feminist rhetoric and misogynistic content are localised across different European contexts, with national influencers adapting global narratives to local political, cultural and social environments. She also highlighted the role of algorithmic amplification and monetisation in spreading harmful content. ISD’s research has shown how users can be quickly drawn into misogynistic online ecosystems, while some influencers profit from content that normalises hostility toward women.

Anne placed particular emphasis on the rise of technology-facilitated gender-based violence, including non-consensual intimate image abuse, AI-generated sexualised content and deepfakes. These forms of abuse disproportionately affect women in public life and can be used to undermine women’s credibility, authority and legitimacy as political actors. She also shared findings from ISD’s monitoring of the 2024 European Parliamentary elections, noting that women candidates received significantly more harmful comments than their male counterparts on TikTok. She stressed that abuse faced by women in political roles is not only a form of gender-based violence, but also an attack on democratic participation and representation.

Anne further underlined the importance of understanding the relationship between misogyny, targeted hate and violent extremism. She explained that some threats against women in public office may sit across multiple categories of harm, including cyber harassment, doxxing, targeted hate and extremist intimidation. Understanding this full spectrum is essential to identifying the right legal, policy and platform responses.

Turning to the European policy landscape, Anne highlighted the Digital Services Act, the EU Directive on Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, and the Terrorist Content Online Regulation as relevant frameworks. She stressed that a common misconception is that most technology-facilitated gender-based violence in Europe is legal, when in fact many forms of abuse may fall within existing or emerging legal frameworks. The challenge is ensuring that these frameworks are understood, enforced and used effectively.

Experiences from Women Local Leaders

The panel discussion began by asking women local leaders to reflect on the main forms of hate, harassment and intimidation affecting them and their peers.

Councillor Arina Aamir of Oslo City Council (Norway) described becoming involved in Norwegian politics at the age of 15 and receiving large volumes of hateful and threatening messages after speaking out against Islamophobia. She reflected on the intersectional nature of abuse, noting that being young, female, Muslim and from a minority background had made her a target for multiple forms of hostility. Councillor Aamir described abuse that included death threats, misogynistic insults and racist attacks. She noted that women in public life are often met not with constructive disagreement, but with threats and attempts to silence them. Despite this, she emphasised the importance of continuing to speak out, arguing that elected women represent not only themselves, but also those who voted for them and those who may follow them into public life.

Councillor Kelly Parry of Midlothian Council (Scotland, UK) reflected on the role of social media and mainstream media in escalating abuse. She noted that while social media remains a major source of harassment, mainstream media can also contribute by singling out younger women leaders or using images and framing that expose them to disproportionate hostility. Councillor Parry described receiving escalating threats, including around budget decisions, and noted that abuse often targets appearance, clothing and perceived femininity. She linked this to wider misogynistic narratives and the normalisation of sexualised attacks against women in leadership. She also highlighted the impact on family members, noting that while elected women may develop coping mechanisms, their families are also affected by seeing them targeted.

Bailie Annette Christie of Glasgow City Council (Scotland, UK) described a clear escalation in abuse since she was elected in 2017. She characterised this as an attack on democracy, designed to silence women and restrict their participation in public life. She noted that while male politicians also face abuse, the attacks directed at women are often different in nature, including sexualised threats and abuse targeting appearance, family and legitimacy. Drawing on her international work through Eurocities and other networks, she said the same patterns are visible across European cities. Councillor Bailie also highlighted that abuse can come from within political systems themselves, including from other politicians and, at times, from within the same party. She warned that reckless comments by political opponents or peers can fuel online abuse and create further risk for targeted women.

Impacts on Participation, Leadership and Democracy

Speakers agreed that harassment and intimidation have a direct impact on women’s participation in local public life. Councillor Bailie warned that women continue to be underrepresented in politics and that abuse is deterring women from standing for office or remaining in office. She linked the rollback of women’s rights more broadly with attacks on women politicians, arguing that both must be understood as part of wider anti-feminist and anti-democratic dynamics. She called for policies and decision-making to be viewed through a feminist lens, and for women’s perspectives to be treated as a first thought, not an afterthought. She also emphasised the importance of men as allies, arguing that women cannot and should not be expected to address these challenges alone.

Councillor Parry reflected on how threats can affect the practical ability of women leaders to do their jobs. After receiving death threats, she said the first institutional response was to consider cancelling her public engagements. While this was motivated by concern for her safety, she felt that withdrawing from public-facing duties risked reinforcing the message that intimidation works. At the same time, she acknowledged the very real personal and family pressures involved. Women local leaders must constantly balance public duty, personal safety and family wellbeing. This balance becomes especially difficult when family members are affected by threats or fear. Councillor Parry also highlighted a positive example from Midlothian, where women held key leadership roles following the 2022 election, including council leader, chief executive and provost, alongside a gender-balanced cabinet. She argued that changing structures locally can make a tangible difference and can help make it easier to recruit and support future women elected members.

Councillor Aamir reflected on the balance between freedom of expression and unlawful hatred or threats. She noted that while freedom of expression is a fundamental right, it cannot be used to justify threats that restrict the freedom of women leaders. She described restrictions on her own freedom and safety, including the need for constant caution in public spaces, while stressing the importance of continuing to lead and speak out.

The discussion also pointed to ongoing efforts in Scotland to strengthen responses to councillor safety, including engagement with police and civic partners. Participants stressed, however, that abuse and intimidation are affecting not only women elected representatives, but also women officials and staff working in local government. This was identified as a wider governance and workforce issue, with potential implications for recruitment, retention and public service delivery, particularly in rural and remote areas where capacity is already stretched.

Anne Craanen reinforced that these experiences point to a wider democratic problem. She warned that when incidents are treated as isolated or individual, societies fail to recognise the scale and pattern of attacks on women’s democratic participation. She suggested that better tracking and connecting these incidents across cities and countries could help demonstrate the scale of the challenge.

Emerging Responses and Support Mechanisms

The discussion also explored what forms of support currently exist and where responses remain inadequate. Councillor Bailie Christie highlighted the disparity between the support available to national-level politicians and local elected officials. She noted that while members of parliament may be able to access home security assessments and enhanced protection, local councillors may receive only limited safety measures, such as panic buttons. This creates a serious gap for local leaders, who are often highly visible and accessible to the public. She also pointed to the need for stronger crisis protocols for social media platforms. While crisis mechanisms exist in relation to some forms of online harm and public disorder, she argued that the scale of abuse targeting women politicians should itself be recognised as a crisis because of its impact on democracy.

At the local level, Councillor Bailie identified several practical responses. These included coordinated efforts to debunk misinformation before it escalates, involving elected members, community leaders, police, community councils and local organisations. She also referenced examples from Nordic Safe Cities, where supporters responded collectively to negative online content with positive engagement to shift the tone and visibility of online conversations.

Councillor Parry emphasised the importance of peer support and women’s networks. She noted that having other women leaders to contact during difficult moments had been critical, particularly when those women understood the realities of councillor safety and abuse. She also pointed to the role of Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) and women in senior municipal association roles in recognising and responding to the issue. However, she also highlighted inconsistent responses across local areas. In Scotland, she noted, different councils and local police divisions may respond differently to threats against councillors. In one example, she described receiving limited short-term security support after threats, compared with the much more extensive staff and security resources available to national parliamentarians.

Anne Craanen noted that existing life-threatening incident policies and crisis protocols are often not applied to serious threats of sexual violence or gender-based abuse, even where such protocols could be relevant. She called for more attention to how existing legal and safety frameworks can be applied to gender-based threats against women in public office.

Gaps and Priorities for Action

When asked to identify the biggest gaps in existing responses, speakers pointed to several recurring challenges:

Advice for Cities and Local Institutions

In closing reflections, speakers offered advice for other cities, councils, municipal associations and local institutions seeking to better protect and support women local leaders.

Councillor Bailie called for evidence-led action, listening directly to women and strong political leadership. She argued that when women are at the centre of decision-making, issues of safety, equality and inclusion are more likely to be recognised and addressed. She also urged cities to maintain a positive and aspirational message for young women, ensuring that they see public life as a space where they belong.

Councillor Parry emphasised the importance of continuing to show up, support one another and push for structural change. Drawing on advice she had once received from Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney, she encouraged women leaders to “proceed until apprehended” – continuing to act, lead and participate despite attempts to silence them.

Anne Craanen underlined that responsibility must not fall only on direct victims. She called for funding, police protection, institutional allyship and clearer guidance on what colleagues should do when women leaders are attacked. She also stressed the importance of engaging men and boys as part of the solution.

Additional Resources

Contact Information 

For more information about the Strong Cities Women’s Caucus and this initiative, please contact Lara Petricevic, Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Strong Cities Network, at [email protected].

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