Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence in The Workplace: Patterns and impact on women employed in the hospitality sector in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) is an emerging and less explored dimension of workplace violence. This is particularly so in the hospitality sector, where women often occupy vulnerable, customer-facing roles. Despite increasing global recognition, little empirical evidence exists from low- and middle-income countries such as Zimbabwe, where digitalisation intersects with entrenched gender and labour inequalities. This paper investigates the patterns, impact, and institutional responses to TFGBV among women employed in Zimbabwe’s hospitality sector. A mixed-methods design was used, combining survey data from women working in the hospitality sector with document and policy analysis. Interpreted through feminist political economy and intersectional lenses, our findings demonstrate how digital technologies reproduce structural inequalities in feminised labour sectors, transforming existing vulnerabilities into new sites of control and exploitation. Unwanted sexual messages, online slander, and non-consensual image sharing were the most prevalent forms of TFGBV, frequently perpetrated by supervisors, colleagues, and clients. Further analysis showed that these digital abuses are embedded in workplace hierarchies and gendered power relations, resulting in psychosocial and economic harm, at the same time silencing women through fear of retaliation and weak institutional redress. Current workplace and national frameworks insufficiently address TFGBV, lacking specificity, enforcement, and survivor-centred safeguards. As such, TFGBV is both a digital rights and labour rights concern requiring gender-responsive reforms in Zimbabwe’s labour industry.