Attacked Gender Identities: The Enigma of Cyberbullying in Sri Lankan Workplaces

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to explore in-depth the distinctive experiences of cyberbullying at work among women in a culturally value-laden backdrop. We were particularly interested in understanding how women employees’ gender identity is attacked through cyberbullying and how they try to regain it through various means. Drawing from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 25 working women in Sri Lanka, we found how societal gender constructs and gender roles have shaped the participants’ cyberbullying experiences and their reactions by placing the ideological notion of ‘respectable woman’ at the very core of the experiences. Cyberbullying was thus seen to be manifested in different ways such as cyber sexual harassment, faking and swapping, sextortion, flaming, hacking and denigration, to attack the gender identity of a ‘respectable woman’, as a means of settling a score, or a response to jealousy. Distraught and distressed with their experiences, the participants were found to engage in relentless efforts to regain their reputation through numerous means. These findings highlight the need for understanding workplace cyberbullying as a cultural and gendered construct.