ABSTRACT –

This article examines women-only closed Facebook groups and how they can be used as a tool to combat misogyny. In particular, it focuses on how these groups foster an environment for empowerment, knowledge transfer and collective problem-solving. Statistics show that over 40% of women have experienced online sexual harassment, highlighting the prevalence of gender-based “online hate” targeting women. This report showcases how history repeating itself is not always a bad thing. Used as far back as the 16th century, “safe spaces” for women are resurfacing in the digital wave of feminism. It explores alternative online forums like Reddit and how similar platforms do not meet the requirements for women-focused communities to thrive, compared to Facebook. Furthermore, written below examines how online communities promote empowerment by providing a comfortable space for members to share their experiences, knowledge, and collaborate on solutions to combat misogyny collectively.

Downloadable PDF: Empowering Women The Benefits of Facebook Groups for Knowledge Sharing and Problem-Solving Against Misogyny

KEYWORDS –

Social Media, Facebook, Women, Misogyny, Knowledge Transfer, Facebook Groups, Online Communities, Empowerment

Women throughout history have experienced misogyny throughout all facets of their lives, whether it be going to markets, using the bathroom or trying to get an education. It has not stopped in the digital world. According to statistics (Ging & Siapera, 2018), 41% of women have experienced online abuse or harassment. The statistics show that the internet is a breeding ground for gender-based hate speech, particularly directed towards women. Following trends from second-wave feminism in the 1970s, women have opted to create “safe spaces” in the form of closed female-exclusive Facebook groups. This paper argues how these online communities create a sense of empowerment, making other members feel comfortable to share experiences, and knowledge and work together to problem-solve, combatting misogyny as a collective. 

 

Spaces that prioritize the needs of women offer a supportive and inclusive environment where women can feel empowered and valued (Huval, 2022). There have been reports of women safe spaces dating back as early as the 16th century. The Mother’s market in the Indian province of Manipur was “reserved solely for the use of women to act as a sexual harassment free zone from men. It was created for local women to gather, commune and do their shopping.” (Ford, 2016) The first wave feminist movement in America (1910/20s) saw campaigns for women’s public restrooms, to allow them to be able to use the bathroom when on outings. Throughout the late 20th century, during the second wave feminist movement, women were faced with sexist classroom practices from men. An example of this is, a university education group in the United Kingdom. They challenged these practices by creating multiple initiatives to promote gender equality. It included formulating a policy aimed at eliminating sexist attitudes and behaviours, arranging staff training sessions to promote anti-sexist educational practices, establishing courses specifically designed for women, and creating dedicated women-only spaces during lunchtime for students. (Leathwood, 2004).
There are also many current-day examples of women-only spaces. One example is women-only gyms that give women the confidence to engage in physical activity without the onlookers of men. Another example is online women empowerment/advice Facebook groups, which allow women to communicate their problems, thoughts and feelings without the judgement of men.

 

Throughout history, women-only spaces have been designed to shield them from misogyny and judgement, giving women a safe space to feel confident, give advice and problem-solving. Social Media Platforms are great vessels for the forming of online virtual communities. Facebook users have the ability to create groups. Groups have the following privacy settings: secret, closed and public. “In closed and secret groups (interchangeably referred to as “private groups” from now on), members are vetted by administrators before being allowed to join the group, and, crucially, the conversations on the group’s page are invisible to non-members.” (Pruchniewska, 2019)
Usually, private Facebook groups are about specific topics, this is the same for women-only groups. In a research article, which interviews 26 different women, Pruchniewska explores how private groups create spaces reminiscent of the second-wave feminist movement and awareness-raising groups. Similar to the typical women’s space of the late 20th century, which was a physical brick-and-mortar building, a private Facebook group offers boundaries to the “outside world”, creating an online space to effectively foster a community. 
But what defines an online community?
Delanty explores this ideology by arguing that with the emergence of the industrial revolution in the 19th century, societal norms encouraged communities to represent themselves with an expression of authenticity. (Delanty, 2018) In the online sense, the argument that Delanty presents can be applied. He also further discusses that community is simply a different expression of associative structures. Facebook groups in the current day are considered a place for like-minded individuals to commune/gather, as mentioned above by Pruchniewsha, additionally, Delanty also concludes that “community sense is not merely a matter of traditional values but forms of belonging.” (Delanty, 2018)

 

Knowledge transfer is the “process by which knowledge, ideas and experience move from the source of knowledge to the recipient of that knowledge.” (Schwartz & Te’eni, 2010). This can refer to the exchange of life experiences and practical or technical knowledge among various organisations and age segments. Although knowledge transfer is usually associated with physical work processes and functions, in more recent years, researchers have been able to apply this fundamental theory in the context of social media. As identified in previous studies on the subject, (Brown & Duguid, 2001) knowledge transfer exists along two dimensions (Leonardi & Meyer, 2014). The first dimension is the relationship between the seeker and the source, the second dimension is the ability to understand and identify to ask for the knowledge they need. (Leonardi & Meyer, 2014) Citizenship behaviour a term that is used to describe the involvement or behaviour in an online forum, explains the process of interpersonal relationships online. What motivates citizenship behaviour and how does this influence social media knowledge transfer? Citizenship behaviour includes the enjoyment of helping other community members, thus showcasing the commitment to the community (Workman, 2014). The readiness to offer help to others fosters trust-based relationships, which play a crucial role in maintaining cohesiveness among the members of the online community. This influences social media knowledge transfer as members are more willing to share knowledge and experiences as they build these interpersonal relationships with the members that demonstrate citizenship behaviour. An example of online citizenship behaviour was investigated by Rabon in relation to work-related Facebook groups. In a sample size of 190 participants, they found that online citizenship behaviours were best understood when including context and interpersonal factors. Rabon discussed that ideally the employee-only Facebook groups would be used to seek advice, fulfil requests and provide support for their organisation. Rabon’s research indicates that online citizenship behaviour includes, helping, loyalty, friendship and spreading positivity. (Rabon, 2021) 

 

For many women, a Facebook group is a virtual escape. These groups provide an opportunity to virtually escape the confines of their homes/workplaces and engage with individuals who share similar interests and experiences. The discussions in these groups range from casual conversations to seeking support and solidarity in virtual sisterhood, covering topics such as mental health concerns, infidelity, and average errands of daily life.
Why not other forum-based platforms like Reddit?
What is Reddit?
Reddit is a forum-style social network. It is primarily structured as follows, users create posts in subreddits, (topic-based communities) users then “converse” in the comment threads. Unlike Facebook where the intention is to create a profile based on yourself, Reddit does not that have intention. The faceless identity of Reddit although has the upside of allowing users to discuss and deal with complex topics and issues safely, it also opens the forum to a negative discussion about complex and sometimes sensitive topics. For example, Reddit is known to have the approach, of content on the site “anything goes” (Copland, 2020).
Why not Reddit?
In a case study conducted by Simon Copland with the Alexander von Humboldt Insitute for Internet and Society, Copland investigated the subreddit r/Braincels. This subreddit is comprised of men known as incels. These men are, by and large, not in a relationship with women but want to be (although some hold the more extreme view that they are owed sex by women), and come to manosphere forums to complain about women in general. (Copland, 2020).
A manosphere forum “encompasses a large range of misogynistic communities.” (Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2022)
Many subreddits like r/Braincels have been identified to contain literature that presents high levels of misogynistic and other hateful language. Yes, there are rules, regulations and even moderators of subreddits – however, not all are monitored and are created with the sense of community in mind. In the past because of anonymity, anyone could post anything with minimal restrictions. Reddit has attempted to “crackdown” on this behaviour by imposing bans and restrictions on certain subreddits, but they still have the image that the platform does not harbour a safe space for women because of the entrenched misogyny.
The term “affordances” in social media and digital studies refers to the features that the technology invites users to partake in (Davis and Chouinard 2016). Closed Facebook groups offer a sense of seclusion from outsiders, compared to other platforms like Reddit. Facebook puts an effort into humanising the digital profile, making it feel like there is real support between community members. The platform provides several affordances, such as its extensive global popularity and user base, the ability to form and participate in groups based on shared interests, and the promotion of user engagement and content sharing (Maslen & Lupton, 2019).
While Reddit can offer freedom of speech and anonymity, on the other hand, Facebook offers closed groups which are far safer for those that need the affordance of being able to showcase their digital identity, to gain entrance into these secluded female-only online communities. Facebook puts a lot of effort into humanising digital identity. This is particularly clear as platform rules indicated that users must use their real names when creating an account. 

 

Empathic experiences do occur online, but like other emotions, context is important when conveying. Empathy is important in women-only support/advice/safe groups as many users, use this to escape the real world.
A case study titled: The Internet and Health Communication: Experiences and Expectations, observed that gender balance does play a role in influencing empathic communication online. “A chi-square test suggests there is a relationship between empathy and the proportion of females in the group,
(x3 = 130.1, df=1, p < .001)”.(Rice & Katz, 2001) The case study also reported that empathy appears to occur naturally in support communities and that it is important to encourage empathy to reduce hostility online.
Taking into account these factors women-only Facebook groups foster an empathic environment, that allows others to be free to speak their minds and not be afraid to ask questions, furthering the knowledge transfer chain. It can also link to why these closed Facebook groups present a prime environment to combat misogyny compared to open and free-range Reddit forums.

 

The role that female mentorship plays in problem-solving can be described as the following: Female mentorship plays a crucial role in problem-solving for women-only Facebook groups by providing guidance, support, and valuable insights that help members overcome challenges and achieve their  goals, fostering a sense of community and empowerment. Traditionally, mentorship involves the provision of guidance, patronage, influence, or direction by an experienced individual known as a mentor. This mentor assumes the role of a teacher or advisor and offers help and counsel to a less experienced, often younger person referred to as a mentee. Within an organizational context, mentorship is instrumental in influencing the personal and professional development of the mentee.
For an online group context, the traditional definition of mentorship is stretched, there is no set role on who is a mentor and who is a mentee, it can be considered more of a round table discussion. There are some individuals who may be considered more knowledgeable on the topic but as it is more of a support and advice environment, they do not necessarily fit the mould of being “instrumental in influencing” the personal or professional development of the poster. An example of online mentorship or e-mentoring is discussed by Knouse in their article: Virtual Mentors: mentoring on the Internet. They showcased examples such as the Women in Transition Sharing Strength or WITSS provides an online mentorship program, designed for women who are re-entering the workforce after childbirth, with the goals to share knowledge about career options and support the process of restarting their careers. (Knouse, 2001)

 

In the current day online culture is heavily engrained in our society. There is a complex relationship between online culture/technology and misogyny. How have online anti-women spaces transformed this discourse? (Ging & Siapera, 2018) What are women today doing to combat this online gender based violence, similar to how they did in the 16th century, and mid to late 20th Century?
A survey carried out in 2017 by the Pew Research Center in the United States discovered that although men also face online abuse, women are significantly more prone to encountering severe gender-based violence such as sexual harassment. The broader concept of misogyny, encompasses various forms of harm, such as psychological, professional and reputational, this translates similarly to the online space, thus making the internet less safe and inclusive for women and girls.
According to a 2017 survey conducted by Amnesty International, 41% of women who had experienced online abuse or harassment reported feeling physically threatened at least once due to their online experience. (Ging & Siapera, 2018)  There are many ways in which women-only online Facebook groups can combat misogyny. For example, through providing a safe and supportive space for women to discuss their experiences by sharing stories of sexism and behaviour. Another example is educating members about what is misogyny and its harmful effects on women and society as a whole.
However, one of the most well-known examples of how women in online support groups combat misogyny would be the hashtag MeToo movement. Although this did start on myspace in 2006, throughout 2017 this spread across all social platforms. “According to Facebook, nearly 50 percent of US users are friends with someone who posted a message about experiences of assault or harassment.” (Tambe, 2018) In addition, hundreds of thousands of posts documenting experiences of misogyny were shared on the 4 million plus member Facebook group Supermajority formerly Pantsuit Nation (Tambe, 2018).
This was rather confronting in the media and entertainment industry, as a large number of cis-gendered males were swiftly forced to resign after public allegations of sexual misconduct stemming from the hashtag MeToo Movement. The #MeToo movement was responsible for changing how the world viewed sexual harassment at the time. It tilted public sympathy in favour of survivors by changing the default to belief rather than suspicion, this hashtag revealed how widespread sexual coercion was (Tambe, 2018). Women in these exclusively gendered Facebook groups use the platform to combat misogyny in a number of knowledge-transferring ways: sharing experiences, bringing awareness to the topic (in and outside of the groups), being supportive of other group members’ experiences, offering advice and assisting in problem-solving.

 

Women-only spaces have been created throughout history with the purpose of protecting women from misogyny and criticism, providing them with a secure environment to feel empowered and find solutions to their problems. Facebook groups represent these women-only spaces in a digital context, it establishes virtual boundaries that create a space online for building a community. Unlike other online forums, Facebook encourages you to create a profile that is based on yourself, removing the barrier of faceless cyber trolls – allowing women to feel more at ease knowing that they are interacting with like-minded people who have real lived experiences to share. The theory of knowledge transfer plays a large part in these groups. The way knowledge is transferred between users is because of citizenship behaviour. Citizenship behaviour is built from trust, empathy and being involved in the community. Without this, advice would not be passed around and awareness would not be brought to topics such as misogyny. Without these Facebook groups, women all over the world could not connect and don’t have this sense of community and belonging at their fingertips. Being able to empower other women to stand up for how they feel, offer advice and problem-solve as a group, and shuts down misogynistic comments and actions ingrained in society, there is strength in numbers.

 

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