Disability And TFGBV: A Call For More Research And Support For Women And Girls With Disabilities In The Fight Against Online Harassment

As technology has evolved over the past decades, it has become increasingly intertwined in everyday life. While there are benefits to new innovations, technology has also created new ways for women and girls to experience harassment and violence.  Technology Facilitated Gender Based Violence (TFGBV) is a growing area of research and practice that examines how technology intersects with Gender Based Violence (GBV).  

The term TFGBV encompasses a wide range of activities, such as sending threatening or sexually explicit messages and stalking. TFGBV manifests in a variety of ways and is shaped by the regional, cultural, and legal contexts in which it appears. Some of these activities exist solely in the online space, but they can often lead to ‘real world’ consequences.  For example, it is not uncommon for abusers to use technology to stalk survivors (Please note that the term ‘survivors’ is also meant to include those currently experiencing abuse). Researchers are constantly seeking to better understand this issue and how to best manage it, but it is clear that a woman’s race, class, and disability status, among other identities, plays a role in how they experience TFGBV. A discussion of TFGBV and intersectionality could be an entire book, but this writing will seek to explore one piece of that puzzle: how TFGBV impacts women and girls with disabilities.

Read the full article on the COFEM Blog