Foreword: Towards a Safer Web for Women - First International Workshop on Protecting Women Online

The first international workshop on protecting women online, Towards a Safer Web for Women (TSWW), was held in conjunction with the Web Conference 2025. The workshop addresses the urgent and growing issue of online violence against women and girls, identifying and addressing the current challenges. As online and digital environments become increasingly hostile due to the proliferation of hate speech, deepfake abuse, and algorithmic gender bias, there is an urgent need for international and interdisciplinary collaboration to develop effective solutions and mitigation strategies. This workshop brings together researchers primarily from the computer science domain (e.g. natural language processing and machine learning experts) alongside experts in other domains (e.g. legislation and human behaviour experts), recognising the critical role of interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing this complex issue and encouraging knowledge exchange and innovation across fields. In this paper, we present an overview of the inaugural edition of the TSWW workshop.