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Periodicals
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Prispevki za novejšo zgodovino

This work by Jure Skubic, Milica Antić Gaber is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
The present study explores the escalating concern regarding violence against women in politics within the realm of social media. Rather than contributing to the further democra-tisation of public and political space, social media platforms have become conduits for the dissemination of hate speech, aggression, violence, and misogyny against women engaged in politics at various levels, be it local, national, or international. This study endeavours to address the critical questions surrounding violence against women in politics on social media and examines the related risks and consequences for women at various stages of their politi-cal careers, including parliamentarians and those only setting out on their political journeys.Employing critical discourse analysis and social network analysis, our research delves into the discourse on the X network during the two months leading up to the Slovenian par-liamentary election in April 2022. Through the meticulous examination of over 300 hand-collected posts in the Slovenian language, we aim to elucidate the impact of the discourse on the X network on the pre-election events and assess the extent of violent and misogynistic content directed at women actively participating in the election campaign. Our findings reveal that misogynistic and violent attacks published on X manifest themselves in diverse forms of expression, targeting women with high prospects of achieving favourable election results and those expressing critical views towards the government. The overarching objec-tive of these violent and misogynistic activities transcends mere psychological harm and the instillation of fear; instead, they aim to induce a sense of inferiority and dissuade women from active political participation, compelling them to retreat from the public sphere into the private domain.