Abstract
Online harassment against women in professional settings remains a pervasive form of technology-facilitated gender-based violence. Although widely acknowledged as a social problem, limited research has critically examined how language functions as a mechanism through which such harassment is normalised and justified. This study therefore investigated how online harassment directed at professional women was linguistically and ideologically constructed in digital spaces. Guided by Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis and Lazar’s Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis, the study analysed one hundred (100) comments from ten feminist-centred discussions across TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. Purposive sampling was employed to select comments that contained explicit or implicit gendered expression, high engagement, and relevance to harassment. The analysis was conducted at textual, discursive, and socio-ideological levels to explore how linguistic choices reflected patriarchal power. Findings revealed four dominant discursive patterns: economic and class-based exclusion, moral and religious policing, sexual and marital control, and delegitimisation of professional authority. Across these themes, harassment was frequently disguised as humour, moral advice, or rational critique, enabling users to police women’s autonomy while denying misogynistic intent. Women who challenged these expectations particularly those occupying political or public leadership roles were rhetorically silenced, mocked, or framed as incompetent. The study concluded that online harassment operated as a systemic and ideological practice that reinforced patriarchal hierarchies by restricting women’s digital visibility and professional voice. It recommended enhanced platform for governance, gender-responsive digital literacy initiatives, and institutional support for women in public roles, and sustained feminist digital activism to strengthen resistance against misogynistic discourse.
Keywords: Online harassment, Feminist discourse,
Professional women, Gendered power, social media
DOI: 10.36349/sojolics.2026.v02i01.019
author/Abosede Grace Mayadenu
journal/Sokoto JOLICS 2(1) | June 2026 |
