Women in the Digital World

Women’s existence in the digital world has been closely studied by scholars and attracted the attention of activists worldwide. Women, like men, early on saw the Internet as a potentially powerful and liberating tool that would help them find groups or communities with similar aims and interests. Today there is more awareness of the deleterious effects of unconstrained online speech such as online violence, ridicule, silencing, and threats against women.

Women in the Digital World brings together the latest academic research on women online and includes chapters on political speech, gendered online violence, dealing with sexual assaults, marginalization of women politicians, and how women participate (or don’t) via online environments.

The interdisciplinary research in this volume brings together communications studies, gender studies, sociology, politics, and computer science and is essential reading for those seeking to understand a growing field. The book should be of interest also for activists and NGOs who seek to deepen their knowledge on the place of females online. It was originally published as a special issue of the journal Information, Communication & Society.

Anya Schiffrin is Director of the Technology, Media and Communications specialization at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. She writes on journalism and development, the media in Africa and the extractive sector. Her most recent book is Media Capture: How Money, Digital Platforms and Governments Control the News.

Karolina Koc-Michalska is Professor at Audencia Business School and Affiliated Researcher at CEVIPOF Sciences Po Paris, France, and University of Silesia, Poland. She studies the strategies of political actors in the online environment and citizens’ political engagement. She employs a comparative approach focussing on the United States and European countries.

Michelle Ferrier is Founder of TrollBusters and currently serves as president of the International Association of Women in Radio & Television. She is the executive director of the Media Innovation Collaboratory and an internationally recognized, award-winning technologist, journalist, and scholar in digital journalism, technology, media innovation, diversity, and entrepreneurship.