Women Political Leaders And The Media

This book analyzes how the media covers women leaders and reinforces gendered evaluations of their candidacies and performance. It deals with current transformations in political communication that may change the nature and scope of leadership in contemporary democracies with implications for relations between female leaders, media and citizens.

In particular, the strategies which women employ to gain some control over the ways in which they are presented and reported on by journalists are discussed, making explicit the tension between publicity and privacy but also making clear that women are not irrevocably positioned as "victim." The critique offered here also factors in the ways in which political parties themselves, their elites as well as their rank and file, are seriously implicated in supporting processes which attempt to undermine the potency and potential of women's political contribution through a variety of convert and overt mechanisms." "This is an important book as it integrates the debates about women, media and politics in ways which give equal voice to the embodied political woman and her views as well as discussing the representational image of "women politician" as the subject and object of research on mediated discourse."--BOOK JACKET.

Ms. Prime Minister offers both solace and words of caution for women politicians. After closely analyzing the media coverage of former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell; two former Prime Ministers of New Zealand, Jenny Shipley and Helen Clark; and Australia’s 27th Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, Linda Trimble concludes that reporting both reinforces and contests unfair gender norms. News about female leaders gives undue attention to their gender identities, bodies and family lives. Yet equivalent men are also treated to evaluations of their gendered personas. And, as Trimble finds, some media accounts expose sexism and authenticate women's performances of leadership. Ms. Prime Minister provides important insight into the news frameworks that work to deny or confer political legitimacy. It concludes with advice designed to inform the gender strategies of women who aspire to political leadership roles and the reporting techniques of the journalists who cover them.

Over the past several years, the fields of Leadership Studies and of Women's Studies have grown tremendously. This book, which is a series of case studies of women who have headed governments across the globe, will discuss the conditions and situations under which women rose to power and give a brief biography of each woman . A special chapter on why no U.S. woman has risen to the top, and a review of the political campaigns of Hillary Clinton, Michele Bachmann and others will be included. This book will be of interest for courses in women and leadership, global politics and gender studies.

Gender is one of the primary fault lines running through contemporary American politics. The political agenda has become deeply polarized by such issues as affirmative action, abortion rights, and welfare reform. In short, gender politics, once regarded as marginal, has emerged as one of the core dividing lines in identifying politicians, parties, issues, and voters in America. Not surprising, the way media covers gender politics has long been a matter of contention. The issue at the heart of this book is whether, as critics suggest, media coverage of women in America reinforces rather than challenges the dominant culture, thereby contributing towards women's marginalization in public life. This collection of original essays by twenty-one top academics and journalists is the first book to systematically examine the impact of the media on women's power in America. It focuses on how the role of American women as citizens, political leaders, and feminist activists has been influenced by the media, for better or worse, in recent decades. Using multimethod approaches involving surveys, content analysis, focus groups, interviews, and personal experience, the authors analyze the role of women as journalists, the impact of campaign coverage, images of women in power, and coverage of women's movement and feminist policy issues. Women, Media, and Politics will be an important resource for students interested in contemporary political and social debate.

Although women constitute half of the world's population, their participation in the political sphere remains problematic. While existing research on women politicians from the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada sheds light on the challenges and opportunities they face, we still have a very limited understanding of women's political participation in emerging democracies. Women in Politics and Media: Perspectives From Nations in Transition is the first collection to de-Westernize the scholarship on women, politics and media by: 1) highlighting the latest research on countries and regions that have not been 'the usual suspects'; 2) featuring a diverse group of scholars, many of non-Western origin; 3) giving voice through personal interviews to politically active women, thus providing the reader with a rare insight into women's agency in the political structures of emerging democracies. Each chapter examines the complex women, politics and media dynamic in a particular nation-state, taking into consideration the specific political, historic and social context. With 23 case studies and interviews from Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Russia and the former Soviet republics, this volume will be of interest to students, media scholars and policy makers from developed and emerging democracies.

All American politicians face the glare of media coverage, but for women seeking or holding high public office, the scrutiny by newspapers and television can be both withering and damaging - a fact that has changed little over the decades despite the emergence of more women in politics and more women in the news media. Maria Braden's pioneering study takes a sweeping look at how the media have influenced - and skewed - public perceptions of women seeking governorships and national office over the past eighty years, from Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to the U.S. House, through the disastrous vice presidential bid of Geraldine Ferraro. Throughout the decades, Braden traces a persistent double standard in media coverage of women's political campaigns. Her personal interviews with recent women politicians - including Margaret Chase Smith, Bella Abzug, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Nancy Kassebaum, and Ann Richards - reveal their agonizing struggles to get across to the public the message that they are competent candidates capable of holding high office and shaping our nation's course.

Discourse, Politics and Women as Global Leaders focuses on the discourse practices of women in global political leadership. It provides a series of discursive studies of women in positions of political leadership. ‘Political leadership’ is defined as achieving a senior position within a political organization and will often indicate a senior role in government or opposition. The volume draws on a diverse collection of studies from across the globe, reflecting a variety of cultures and distinct polities. The primary aim is to consider in what way(s) discursive practice underpins, reflects, or is appropriated in terms of women’s political success and achievements within politics. The chapters employ differing theoretical approaches all bound by the discursive insights they provide, and in terms of their contribution to understanding the role of language and discourse in the construction of gendered identities within political contexts.