How women in politics are being harassed with a sinister tactic akin to stalking

With women in politics facing harassment and violence, election campaigns that highlight where candidates live are problematic

Gregg Wallace is a symptom, not a cause. Masterchef’s gabby grocer has outraged people with what is sure to go down in PR history as an example of the worst non-apologies in which he suggested the allegations against him came from "middle-class women of a certain age".

His follow-up attempt at humility – “I wasn't in a good head space when I posted it, I've been under a huge amount of stress, a lot of emotion, I felt very alone" – was couched in the language of victimhood.

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I expect there were a number of women who could relate, with the feeling if not the sentiment. Wallace’s behaviour resonated with me as I have recently been living in the middle of visceral examples of misogyny.

For context, I was an election candidate for the Scottish Green Party in July. For this, I was required to choose between a ballot paper displaying a home address, “an address in the constituency”, or “an address in Highland Council region”.

Not horror, but terror

A fellow (female) candidate pointed out, quite conversationally, that she had never known a woman display their address, never known a man not to do so.

At home, I asked my partner, Rebecca, who recently stood to be a councillor. She froze, her face a mask of horror. Except, it wasn’t horror. It was terror.

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In my constituency, there had been six candidates, all male. Interestingly, those who lived in the constituency, which did not include me or the eventual Liberal Democrat winner Angus MacDonald, chose to display their addresses.

The neighbouring constituency, Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, had a five-two female/male ratio: the men displaying addresses; the women, not.

Votes cast in July's general election are counted in Glasgow (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell)Votes cast in July's general election are counted in Glasgow (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell)
Votes cast in July's general election are counted in Glasgow (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell) | Getty Images

‘Where do you live?’

Fast-forward a few months, and my partner stood as an SNP candidate for Highland Council. Despite having previously lived in the ward, despite being a former headteacher there, almost from the day of her announcement, online trolls swarmed questioning her address.

Immediately, people were on her posts: “Do you live in the ward?” Then came the private messages: “Can you tell us more about yourself? Where do you live?”

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Demanding women’s addresses as part of elections has a long and unpleasant history. The Electoral Commission found that 43 per cent of candidates reported experiencing some kind of abuse or intimidation, with 10 per cent describing it as a serious problem. Female candidates were particularly concerned, with 56 per cent avoiding campaigning alone, compared with 19 per cent of men.

Moves have been made to try and allow candidates to withhold their addresses from ballot papers because of the harassment. One of the biggest supporters of this, somewhat ironically, in the context, were the Liberal Democrats, with their president, Mark Pack, writing in favour of the change.

‘How can I be a misogynist?’

We all know the consequences of misogyny. We remember the murdered Labour MP Jo Cox, we remember the vigil for Sarah Everard, murdered by a police officer. But the only lessons which seem to have been learnt are the techniques of how to harass, not how to protect.

My partner replied privately. She tried blocking some. Muting others. Many of the names were ones I had engaged with during the general election.

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There is hyper-online cabal of pensioners, radicalised by a campaign against a new national park and supporting the Lib Dems. Some of the most vitriolic were women. “How can I be a misogynist, I’m a woman?” For avoidance of doubt, it is a phenomenon, and it is entirely real. In the eye of the storm, it felt like a coordinated plan.

Then a man private-messaged me asking about my partner’s address. When I stood no one had messaged my partner asking for the same information about me. When Lib Dem leaflets arrived in people’s houses, the locality of the SNP candidate was a key issue.

Informally, I showed the messages to an experienced police officer. They agreed the frequency, the tone and the intent, especially as it was focused on only one candidate, could cross the threshold of harassment. It certainly seemed like stalking behaviour at times.

Middle-aged, male entitlement

The focus on candidates’ addresses echoed the Lib Dems’ strategy in Edinburgh’s Collinton/Fairmilehead by-election where a leaflet went out with a map of their homes on it. The fact that Louise Spence, the Lib Dem who won the seat, was forced to resign (selling her oh-so-local house in the ward to move to Dubai) was scant consolation to the candidates endangered in that campaign.

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This week, Labour’s Jess Phillips, the UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, introduced tougher sentences in England and Wales for stalking, citing official statistics showing one in seven people aged 16 and over have been a victim of stalking, often women and young people.

A man has just been convicted of saying he was going to kill and “skin” MP Kirsty Blackman. He escaped jail with a community payback order.

In that context, the walnut-faced greengrocer is a symptom, not a cause. He’s a symptom of middle-aged, male entitlement in which women don’t matter.

The Lib Dems are often accused of being pale, male and stale and they have now shown they are nothing but monied misogynists intimidating women in the political process for tawdry gains.

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Women are treated like public property in a way that men are not. Even a celebrity cooking show is not safe for them, let alone the political process.

Peter Newman is a teacher, a member of the SNP, and a former Scottish Green election candidate

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