Choosing Peace Under Pressure: Women’s Leadership in Conflict and Digital Crisis Environments

What would you do if a woman candidate narrowly won an election and a wave of disinformation and gendered online attacks suddenly threatened her safety, credibility and the peaceful transfer of power?

In this fast-paced, 90-minute simulation, you will step into a live political crisis, take on one of the key roles shaping the response, and work with others to decide what happens next. Every choice involves difficult trade-offs. Should you respond publicly or avoid amplifying the attacks? Who should act first? How can you protect the candidate without silencing her or further undermining public trust?

Drawing on real patterns of technology-facilitated violence against women in politics, the workshop explores how online attacks can exclude women, deepen polarization and destabilize democratic processes. A facilitated debrief will connect the experience to practical action by young peacebuilders, activists, researchers, public-interest technologists and civil-society organizations.

No specialist knowledge is required, only a willingness to participate, make difficult choices and examine their consequences. Participants will leave with practical insights that they can adapt to their own work.