Female politicians fear a normalised “toxic environment” of gendered abuse is stopping women from wanting a seat at the decision-making table.
Now, National Party deputy leader and Finance Minister Nicola Willis is calling for people to join her in “belittling the trolls” as she shares a message for an online harasser: “Stuff off”.
Willis spoke at a gathering for women in local government, ahead of the LGNZ SuperLocal conference on Wednesday.
She announced the Ministry for Women was working with Netsafe on a toolkit for workplaces supporting women in leadership positions, including for local council candidates.
Willis said gendered harassment had become normalised, and provided examples of social media posts from anonymised accounts.
She had screenshots saved to a “folder of doom”.
Willis read a “particularly spicy” one: “Eff up bitch, you ruin lives, that makes you an effing rhymes-with-munt.”
Willis went on to say it was as though some believed her to be a “defective mother” for daring to be in such a public role.
“I share it with you to say it is real, we all get it.”
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Willis said gendered harassment had become normalised and provided examples of social media posts from anonymised accounts.
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