"They don't challenge my political statements, but my body" – study on gender-based political violence paints grim picture

Of the five European countries examined, the proportion of female lawmakers who have experienced online, sexual, or psychological violence is the highest in Hungary, where 91 percent of those who participated in the study have reported such experiences. This was one of the findings of a study commissioned by the JÓL-LÉT Foundation and conducted by Kata Keveházi, Burtejin Zorigt, and Bernadett Szél, who currently works as a researcher but is well acquainted with the subject, given her own experience as a former lawmaker.

According to this interpretation, gender-based political violence means acts and structures which limit or prevent women’s political participation solely because of their gender. For example, researchers define online violence as hateful comments posted on social media or harassing messages sent via direct messages. Sexual violence includes sexual harassment—ranging from sexually suggestive jokes to unwanted physical contact—as well as sexual assault. The category of psychological violence includes, among other things, sexist remarks, the publication of humiliating images, intimidating behavior, and threats of violence.

The research titled “The Limits of Tolerance: The Experiences of Female Parliamentarians with Gender-Based Political Violence” is based on comparative findings from five European countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Slovakia, and Germany). The Hungarian portion of the study was conducted among the 31 female members of the Hungarian Parliament serving in the 2022–2026 term, with the involvement of all parliamentary factions. (Bernadett Szél was not a member of Parliament during the period under review, but between 2012 and 2022.)

In 2022, three months after the fifth Orbán government was formed, the answers given to a Telex survey revealed that nearly every female member of the Hungarian Parliament had a personal story related to sexism (see our article titled “What Are You Blabbering About, Little Lady?”). However, gender-based political violence against women in Hungary has so far only been studied to a limited extent, which is why this latest survey—based on 11 in-depth interviews with female members of the Hungarian Parliament, an online questionnaire, and analyses of documents and social media—fills an important gap. The lawmakers reported very similar experiences:

“Being a politician, receiving abusive, sexist, and degrading comments online every day has become part of my job.”

“They don't challenge my political statements, but rather my body, my femininity, and my appearance.”

“Since I became an MP it’s as if people feel authorised to hurt me more, to make more hurtful comments—so this is a really open playing field where they feel they are free to pick on anything. When I was a local representative, if people had questions or criticized me, they did so within the context of a specific issue. Here in Parliament, it’s completely different.”

According to the researchers, all of this is not completely unrelated to the fact that the illiberal Orbán government regularly used gender issues to create enemies, thereby reinforcing a “hypermasculine politics” that prioritizes order, control, and hierarchy, while regarding women as either deviants or threats. This not only led to questioning the legitimacy of female political actors but also made violence a part of political life.

Researchers identified four Hungarian peculiarities that stand out even in a European comparison.

• Media concentration and coordinated smear campaigns: In Hungary, attacks on female politicians often took place in a media environment where coordinated smear content spread rapidly and widely. Researchers did not observe this phenomenon at such a high level in any of the other countries studied.
• Institutional obstacles: A disproportionately high number of Hungarian female lawmakers face obstacles such as restrictions on their opportunities to speak or the withholding of resources.
• Failure to report sexual violence: Hungarian victims do not trust legal or institutional protection mechanisms.
• Failure to ratify the Istanbul Convention: Hungary is not a party to the convention and therefore does not participate in its international implementation and monitoring system (GREVIO), which provides regular monitoring and recommendations for addressing violence against women.

Some of the research data illustrate the severity of the problem in more specific terms:

• 96.8 percent of respondents have experienced online violence (based on combined data from four EU member states: the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ireland, and Hungary);
• 64 percent of Hungarian female lawmakers have experienced physical violence (the combined average for the four EU member states is 33.7 percent);
• 0 percent—this is the percentage of Hungarian female politicians who have reported sexual violence (the combined average for the four EU member states is 8 percent);
• 64 percent of the surveyed Hungarian female lawmakers reported having had their work hindered by institutional measures—this rate was 0 percent in the Czech Republic and 11 percent in Slovakia;
• 39 percent – this was the response rate in Hungary: opposition lawmakers were more open to participating, while the overwhelming majority of ruling-party representatives declined to participate.

Comparable data based on figures from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, and Slovakia

Types of gender-based political violence

According to researchers, there are several forms of gender-based political violence, ranging from direct physical and sexual violence to verbal sexual harassment and sexist, humiliating remarks. Psychological and informational violence refers to intimidation, tactics used to damage a person's reputation, and misogynistic narratives that portray women as untrustworthy or incompetent. Cyberviolence includes online harassment and hate speech, as well as the disclosure of personal data—these also affect women in disproportionately high numbers in Hungary, particularly those critical of the previous government.

Researchers refer to gender stereotypes and sexist language as symbolic and discursive violence, which are used to delegitimize female politicians by portraying them as oversensitive or unfit for leadership, or by reducing them solely to their physical appearance. There is also structural and institutional violence, which seeks to exclude women from decision-making, while preventive violence involves using threats and smear campaigns to deter them from pursuing a political career.

These forms of violence build upon one another, reinforce each other, and, by operating as a systemic mechanism, ultimately lead to women being excluded from politics in the long term.

One has to get used to it

Additionally, women are particularly underrepresented in Hungarian politics; their participation has consistently stagnated at around 10–15 percent since the transition to democracy, and stood at 15.6 percent during the 2022–2026 term—an exceptionally low rate compared to the EU average of 33.6 percent. There are several mutually related factors behind this. According to cultural explanations, the causes include, for example, traditional gender role perceptions, negative attitudes toward feminism, and the legacy of the quota system from the communist-socialist era. On the other hand, institutional and party-level factors are also at play: according to researchers, party elites typically favor male candidates, especially in individual constituencies, while often placing women toward the bottom of party lists. Gender-based political violence also acts as a significant deterrent, acting as a tool for exercising power within an authoritarian political system.

According to the authors, the most important finding of the research, conducted in five countries, is precisely that gender-based political violence is not a series of isolated incidents, but a pattern embedded in the functioning of the political system. “It is not the exception—but the norm. Gender-based political violence is not a series of events, but a self-perpetuating system that shapes the conditions for the political participation of women in the long term,” —stated the researchers, who noted that the female lawmakers they interviewed did not describe sexist, degrading, or aggressive behavior as an exception, but rather as an everyday part of their political work, something they “have to get used to.”

According to them, all of this shows that in order to ensure the safety of women participating in public and political life, as well as to prevent gender-based political violence and establish institutional mechanisms for handling complaints, specific policy measures need to be introduced. This is especially true since the recently formed Hungarian Parliament includes far more female representatives and government officials than previous ones did, so the safe participation of women in public life should be given greater emphasis in legislation and decisions on public policy. With this in mind, 16 civil society organizations sent an open letter to Péter Magyar in May, asking the Prime Minister to ensure that the government establishes an institutional framework with appropriate authority, which will be dedicated to gender equality.