University of Galway to conduct survey about online abuse of female academics

Former television presenter Gráinne Seoige spoke to the Oireachtas media committee in January on the harm caused by artificial intelligence (AI) tools and social media. File picture: Ray Ryan

A two-year survey is being undertaken to establish the prevalence of gender-based online abuse of female academics in Ireland.

The research project by Dr Mary McGill of the University of Galway is being conducted against a background of increasing gender-based online abuse of women in roles, including politics and journalism.

Ms McGill told the Irish Examiner: “The research has been undertaken in light of similar studies in other jurisdictions (the US, the UK and Europe) and recent studies here in Ireland exploring female politicians' and female journalists' experiences of gender-based online abuse.” 

In January, former general election candidate for Fianna Fáil and  television presenter Gráinne Seoige spoke to the Oireachtas media committee on the harm caused by artificial intelligence (AI) tools and social media. 

She was drawing from her own experience of having had an image of herself manipulated and spread online during her election campaign.

In 2022, the National Women’s Council published its Toolkit on Social Media Policies for Political Parties, as part of a campaign to increase women’s political participation by tackling social media abuse. 

The campaign followed a survey of Irish political parties on how they deal with online abuse. However, there has been no corresponding research done on the prevalence of online abuse of female academics.

Female academics

Dr McGill said that like politicians and journalists, “academics are generally now expected to build online profiles and utilise digital tools as an integral part of their work.

“The study aims to capture female academics' experiences of gender-based online abuse and to develop policy recommendations from them so that the university sector can better understand and respond to the phenomenon.” 

The research project is being funded by Research Ireland and is being carried out under the Centre for Global Women’s Studies at the University of Galway.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

The centre outlined: “A growing body of international scholarship on gender-based online abuse demonstrates that women in public-facing roles are particularly vulnerable to such attacks, including female academics.

"As yet, no study has comprehensively explored female academics' experiences of gender-based online abuse. 

"This is despite the increased emphasis on outreach and impact activities as a pathway to academic career advancement and the central role digital technologies like social media now play in these activities for scholars and HE (higher education) institutions.” 

Rape of UCD student

The study comes as thousands of UCD students protested on its campus on Wednesday to call for systemic change in how UCD responds to sexual violence and gender-based harm.

The protest was sparked by the experience of a student who was raped in 2023 and whose image was widely shared across the university, showing her “naked, bruised and unconscious”. 

Gardaí told the student her image had been shared to 171 UCD staff email accounts last year, while it was also shared last November in her year group’s School of Medicine WhatsApp chat.

She has claimed she received no support from UCD in relation to the alleged image-based sexual abuse, and her case was raised in the Dáil last week by People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger.