Gender in Cyber policy, is it really necessary? : A critical analysis of gender in EU’s cybersecurity policy

Abstract: Cyberspace offers many opportunities but is also a very hostile place for women. Studies claim that women are disproportionally affected by certain cybercrimes and suffer frequent rights violations in cyberspace. The aim of cybersecurity policies is, among others, to protect citizens from different cyberthreats and the EU has a vital role in designing such policies. This involves portraying what issues are seen as cyberthreats and in extension, which issues are prioritized over others. Therefore, it is important to problematize what key EU bodies depict as cybersecurity threats and how they incorporate gender in their cybersecurity policy and strategy. This study uses post-structural feminist theory to analyze the EU cybersecurity discourse and its implications for women’s rights. This is because the theory emphasizes the deconstruction of discourse to showcase hidden gendered power dimensions. It is a qualitative case study that uses the framing method to identify the discursive construction of threats, priorities, and key issues, and McPhail’s feminist policy analysis framework to investigate how gender is incorporated in the discourse. The findings confirm previous research, which states that cybersecurity is mainly state-centric and securitized and gender is silenced in the overall discourse. Among the five distinct frames that I identified in the discourse on cybersecurity, none includes a gendered perspective. No official EU document adopts or argues for a gender-sensitive approach to cybersecurity. Gender is only mentioned with regard to empowering women in the STEM sector, although the European Parliament stresses the need to target cyberviolence against women. The study concludes that a gender-neutral approach to cybersecurity has negative implications for women’s rights, as cybercrimes and violates women endure are overlooked and deprioritized in comparison to a gendered approach. This is because it is more likely that political measures can be taken if the policies and actors acknowledge the gendered issues, which then have positive implications for the protection of women’s rights in cyberspace.