Online Violence Against Women: Reports From the COVID-19 Pandemic Experience

Abstract

After the pandemic of COVID-19 was declared by the World Health Organization in March 2020, a set of health measures were adopted internationally to control the spread of the virus. Among these, the lockdowns and isolations resulted in the widespread adoption of communication technologies as mediators in all daily situations involving physical contact, from work to leisure. In addition to the several unprecedented conditions that the pandemic brought, this widespread adoption brought about an unparalleled context regarding online gender violence, focusing on women. This study focuses on how women experience the nature, prevalence, and impacts of online violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. By using critical thematic analysis, this qualitative approach resulted from in-depth interviews with 30 women victims/survivors of online violence during the pandemic. The data enabled the identification of 10 types of dynamic and hybrid modalities of online violence against women. The results of this study contribute to deepening the knowledge about this specific period and, above all, to the solidification and typification of a lexicon related to online violence, helping to fill an existing gap in Portugal.