Who gets to "speak up" in politics? Whose voices are silenced? We conducted two field experiments to understand how harassment shapes the everyday experiences of politics for men and women in the US today. These experiments randomized the names campaign volunteers used to text supporters reminders to participate in a protest and call their representatives. We find that female-named volunteers receive more offensive, silencing, and withdrawal responses than male-named or ambiguously-named volunteers. However, supporters were also more likely to respond and agree to their asks.

In association with Creation Theatre, we will be presenting a workshop-performance of Meerut (1931), one of the most important of the Workers’ Theatre Movement’s early agit-prop sketches. Meerut describes the trial and imprisonment of a group of trade union leaders in India through ‘mass declamation’ and was described by Ewan MacColl, founder of the Red Megaphones, as ‘quite the most exciting bit of theatre’ he ever saw. Following the performance, discussion of the play’s context will be led by Nicholas Owen, Associate Professor of Politics.