Earlier this year, an international study confirmed an alarming trend: the online treatment of female politicians is far worse than their male counterparts.

By analysing social media conversations about female and male political leaders in the UK, South Africa and Chile, the study found that the women were three times more likely than the men to receive sexist comments.

Three-quarters of Twitter posts about politicians’ appearance or marital status were directed towards women, rather than men. And, of course, all of the posts were entirely negative.

Even though male and female politicians received similar levels of derogatory comments overall, women were “three times more likely to see derogatory comments directly related to their gender”.

Both PM Theresa May and Labour’s Diane Abbott have been heavily subjected to online abuse. Before the election in 2017, half of all tweets Abbott was sent were abusive. And May received three times as many comments on her physical appearance than Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn.

Unfortunately, online abuse is now deterring women from entering the field today which is why a global network for female MPs could help to improve, protect and encourage women to enter the

Watch Stylist’s video here on the types of abuse female politicians face online today.

Images: Getty

Why female MPs are calling for a “powerful global network” in 2018