95bFM Study finds that Female MPs in New Zealand are subjected to harassment, death threats, and assault
16 April, 2025
Interview by Caeden Tipler, adapted by Lydia Brassil
A new study from the University of Otago, Wellington, has found that female MPs in Parliament have experienced harassment, misogyny, and racism throughout their careers.
The study, led by Dr Rhiannon Watson and Dr Lucy Hammans, asked eleven MPs across the political spectrum about their experiences with gender-based harassment, with several receiving death threats, threats of rape, and two participants reporting being assault with weapons. This harassment has also extended to the MPs' families.
Associate Professor in Politics at the Victoria University of Wellington, Dr Lara Greaves, told 95bFM’s The Wire that these findings show big concerns for democracy, especially for marginalised communities.
“If you're from a marginalised group or many marginalised groups and you're looking at the politics and seeing people get harassed, people hav[ing] their children targeted, people hav[ing] their partners targeted, then that is actually something that you weigh up in terms of going into politics or not and when you're there in office, it's something that you weigh up as to whether to stay or not.”
Greaves says the principle of representative democracy is harmed if there is a risk that certain voices are not at the decision-making table.
She highlights the report has found the levels of vitriol experienced by female MPs were impacted by different political contexts, which found that the level of harassment of female MPs lessened after former Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern’s resignation.
The report also found that the severity of harassment increased when women were in Government as opposed to opposition roles and when women rose to positions of seniority in Government.
Considering what motivates this harassment, Greaves has a range of speculations.
“There's those broader structural theories around misogyny, you know, sexism, racism; all the prejudice, and the way that our institutions uphold those systems of power. So there's that broader structural context.”
Another theory Greaves says is misogyny and whether politicians are adequately holding sexism to account.
“Some studies have shown that, if a young man thinks that other men in his life would support his actions, he is more likely to harass someone online.”
Greaves says this issue is not endemic to New Zealand but a worldwide problem exacerbated by social media and increased access to public figures.
“Now it's just a couple of clicks and you can harass someone.”
Speaking on what can be done to address the issue, Greaves cautions against imposing individual responsibility on the victims of the harassment to keep themselves safe, as this will add to their burden.
Instead, she says strategies could include the screening of emails, the creation of legal sanctions, and a culture of calling people out for their behaviour.
