Hate and Threats Forcing Women Out of Politics and Top Jobs

Stockholm: Often labeled as bad mothers, insulted for their looks, and threatened with physical violence, female politicians face a barrage of criticism and hate. Many are stepping down out of fear. Sweden, long considered a progressive country, is sounding the alarm.

According to Deutsche Welle, the Swedish government’s equality agency says there has been an increase in “hate, threats, and harassment against female politicians,” forcing many women to censor themselves or retire from public life altogether out of fear.

One recent prominent example is the case of the Swedish politician Anna-Karin Hatt. She resigned as leader of Sweden’s Center Party in October 2025, after only five months on the job. She said that she had received so much hate and so many threats that she didn’t feel safe anymore, not even in her own home. In Germany, the resignations of Green Party politician Tessa Ganserer and the vice president of the Bundestag Yvonne Magwas of the Christian Democrats made headlines. Both stepped down af
ter outright smear campaigns and hostility.

Numerous studies indicate that women in prominent positions in other European countries are particularly vulnerable to hate speech. In the Netherlands, for example, Sigrid Kaag, a former finance minister and deputy prime minister, withdrew from national politics after she and her family were repeatedly threatened with violence.

Although hate also affects men in public life, the form and extent seem to differ. Last year, HateAid, a Berlin-based non-profit that provides counseling to victims of hate speech, and the Technical University of Munich in southern Germany, conducted a survey of 1,114 people in public positions, within the areas of politics, academic life, and the media.

According to the results, which the researchers said were not representative but could paint a picture of the situation, almost a quarter of women had received threats of sexual violence such as rape – eight times more often than their male colleagues (3%). In addition, more than two-third
s of the women said they had faced gender-specific violence such as sexism and misogyny.

Significantly more women (66%) than men (53%) had restricted their use of social media after experiencing digital violence, according to the findings. They had also adjusted their tone and content, considered reducing their public appearances, or even taken a break from their political work.

In a briefing at the end of November 2025, the European Parliament wrote that women in EU countries continue to be underrepresented at all levels of political decision-making and in political parties. It said that the causes of this situation were complex, but one reason stood out in particular: violence against politically active women deters many from entering politics in the first place. EAF Berlin, a non-profit organization that offers advice on diversity and equal opportunities, has also analyzed this issue, looking not only at Germany but also the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, and Slovakia.

One problem from her point of v
iew was that gender-based violence against female politicians is not independently recognized by the legal systems that EAF Berlin examined. And yet, Robinson said, an EU directive exists, which requires, by 2027, the “consistent implementation of preventative and protective measures for women in public life – such as politicians, journalists and human rights defenders, as they are particularly at risk.”

She explained, for example, that people’s private addresses should be better protected, and there was often a lack of advice centers, particularly at a local level. Hate and violence should not be accepted as “part of the job of politics,” Robinson said. “None of us should accept being attacked for working on behalf of society as normal.”