Misogyny and the manosphere insights to build a trade union response
Acknowledgments
With thanks to Dr Olivia Brown, University of Bath, for writing this literature review.
Trade unions have long highlighted misogyny as a workplace and societal issue. At our statutory conferences and Congress, as well as through our direct engagement with affiliates, we are hearing increased concern about how online influencers and content are shaping society, as well as the rise of misogyny in workplaces and the links to the broader far right movement. Following the 2025 motion to Congress from our Women’s Conference, the TUC has committed to raise awareness of and track the extent and influence of incel and misogynistic ideology in the UK including online and work with unions to challenge this.
In addition, as part of the TUC’s work to tackle the rise of the far and populist right in our workplaces and communities, we have committed to gathering further evidence on several priority areas to ensure our response is impactful and enable us to focus our support for affiliates in the most strategic way.
This briefing, commissioned by the TUC and written by Dr Olivia Brown at University of Bath, considers the current complex, interconnected online ecosystem that makes up the manosphere. The insight here considers the distinct communities under this umbrella as well as high-profile influencers, and the role these movements play in influencing public perceptions and the rise of misogyny. The findings detailed here look at examples of extreme misogyny, as well as the role seemingly innocuous content (such as gym, gaming and dating) plays as an entry point to more extreme content.
The evidence considered in this report demonstrates how engagement with manosphere content online is shifting people’s attitudes and beliefs around the roles of men and women, contributing to increased acceptability of misogynistic, hateful language and contributing towards the growing and pressing challenge of tackling violence against women and girls. The report highlights how the same misogynistic narratives and communities are also harming men and boys.
Dr Brown’s analysis exposes the links between the manosphere and other online communities that produce and promote far-right ideology. The risk highlighted here is that this misogynistic content online serves as a radicalisation pipeline, increasing the likelihood of exposure to more extreme and harmful content which academic analysis suggests can be linked to violence in our communities. Hostility to women and gender equality acts as a gateway to far-right ideologies.
Trade unions have a long history of tackling violence against women and girls including our instrumental campaigning in achieving the Worker Protection Act in 2024. This paper is a continuation of that work. For trade unions, understanding the context in which the manosphere exists, the ways in which content reaches different groups, how it influences beliefs and behaviours and the threat of links to broader far right messaging, is crucial. Growing misogyny and misogynoir 1 in workplaces and communities poses a threat to our members and makes it harder to tackle discrimination and violence against women and girls in our workplaces, in particular those who experience intersecting forms of oppression, such as Black women 2 , disabled women and LBT+ women. But trade union members also hold a unique role to question views, change minds and build workplaces safe for everyone.
It is particularly vital, that as a movement we recognise the varied issues the far right uses to spread division and hatred – this includes both misogyny and the faux concern for women and girls’ safety. From racism, homophobia, transphobia, ablism and xenophobia, far right actors will use these wedge issues to gain consensus around their views. As a movement, we must respond based on our principles of equality, solidarity and justice. Our core work in ensuring workplaces are safe, and that no worker faces discrimination or unfair treatment, means we must prioritise tackling misogyny where it arises, whether that’s online or in the staff room.
Using this briefing, we encourage trade unions, working with the TUC, to:
- Continue to gather evidence on misogyny in workplaces, specifically the impact of online misogyny, an under-researched area.
- Deepen understanding amongst reps and members of what misogyny and misogynoir are, how they operate in workplaces and how they can be tackled.
- Deepen understanding of reps and members of the manosphere and the misogyny and misogynoir of far right and how these groups are connected. If we are to tackle the far right, tackling misogyny is at the heart of that.
- Support reps and activists to ensure they have the skills and expertise to have difficult conversations to counter misogyny in the workplace, focusing on what unites us, and combating misogynistic behaviour by exposing how far-right ideologies exploit sexism and racism to divide workers.
- Build alliances with progressive movements to use collective strength to counter hate.
- Highlight the harm caused to women by anti-immigration and racist rhetoric.
Tackling misogyny and misogynoir are key elements of our wider work of tackling sexual harassment in workplaces and the trade union movement. Trade unions should continue to refer to the recommendations in the Congress 2024 General Council Statement and the TUC report ‘And then it Clicked…. Black women's experience of sexual harassment in the workplace’ and build preventative cultures that eradicate misogyny, misogynoir and everyday sexism from within our movement.
To support the recommendations above the TUC are developing a new toolkit and training on tackling misogyny in the workplace and continuing to ensure misogyny is incorporated into our wider work on tackling the far right.
Download the full report [PDF]
- 1 Misogynoir is defined as anti-black misogyny that specifically targets black women.
- 2 ‘Black’ – with a capital B– is used to indicate people with a shared history. ‘Black’ is used in a broad political and inclusive sense to describe people in the UK who have suffered from colonialism and enslavement in the past and continue to experience racism and diminished opportunities in today’s society”.
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