Since December 2019, the coalition of five ruling parties has appointed five women at their head, four of whom are under the age of 35, with Sanna Marin, 34 when she started, leading the alliance.

She became the youngest head of government in the history of Finland, the third woman in the country to become Prime minister, and the youngest Prime minister in the world.

The development and growth of social media is in many respects very positive, however, social networks, and Internet in general, also have a much darker side, characterized by cyberviolence and cyber harassment, which consist of intentional and repetitive threats and insults.

They are often the mirror but also the extension of violence against women and girls in the public space or within the private sphere. Internet enables and amplifies the expression of a sexist culture and of male domination, which are part of a continuum of violence.

Some women who are victims of such violence, bashing, and defamatory campaigns are sometimes afraid for themselves, or for their families, and some of them adopt or are considering avoidance behaviors and stop expressing their opinion on different subjects. This is the case for several women ministers in the Finnish government as well. Victims of insults, smear campaigns, slanders, online threats, the internet has, for them too, become a place of insecurity. This appears to be discouraging for younger women who were tempted by the experience and political commitment, according to Stratcom, NATO’s Center of Excellence for Strategic Communication.

In Europe, 9 million women and girls as young as 15 have experienced some form of online violence.

In addition, cyberviolence is aggravating as it often occurs anonymously, with a reinforced feeling of impunity, a dissemination of content that is difficult to control, and little pauses for the victims.

Therefore, we must put up legislation against cyberviolence at all political levels. This is why  ECICW is asking European Members of Parliament and European leaders to act and include this form of gendered based violence in the new directive and contribute to reduce online violence.

The ECICW also stresses the fact that in our democracies having fun, listening to music or dancing is not contrary to or antagonistic with political functions. That extremists target a liberated woman, young Prime Minister, having fun in her private life -without breaking any laws-, can only reinforce our commitment, our pledge, to fight for equality between women and men, until all women are free and equal.