Articles Archive - 2009

The Persona is Politico: Media and barriers to women's participation in politics

Written by Matthew Johnson, Media Education Specialist, Media Awareness Network

Nearly a century has passed since women won the right to vote in most western countries, yet in the majority of those same countries women remain under-represented at all levels of government. According to a 2006 report by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, women make up an average of 20 per cent of deputies elected in parliamentary governments worldwide, with nine of those countries having no women in government whatsoever. In Canada, the current federal Parliament is only 22 per cent female.

Any number of reasons can be advanced for this shortfall in female representation: institutional sexism, the still-disproportionate amount of childcare and housework performed by women or a lack of access to the "old boys" network by which candidates are chosen. The reality is, however, that few women even get so far as to encounter these barriers. Most are conditioned, from an early age, by society and the media not to think of themselves as political actors. They are rarely portrayed as politicians, and generally not shown in a very favourable light when they are.

It was with these concerns in mind that Media Awareness Network (MNet), Canada’s largest media education organization, with the support of Equal Voice, a non-profit group dedicated to ensuring more women are elected to every level of government in Canada, developed lesson plans for intermediate and secondary classrooms that explore how media can create barriers to women's participation in politics. The bilingual lessons, which are available on MNet’s Web site, deal with two different media effects: stereotypes that keep women from seeing themselves as political actors and portrayals of female politicians that make them seem like unattractive models to young women.

Young women's failure to define themselves as political is more complicated than just media gender stereotypes. It's not simply that the female stereotype is a negative and limiting one, though it often is, but that it is incompatible with the media stereotype of politics and politicians. While most politicians portrayed in movies, television and other popular media are men, the stereotype goes beyond that: the qualities associated with politicians in media are those considered to be masculine – and certainly absent from the female stereotype delivered to young women. Consider the qualities associated with politicians in the media: confidence, combativeness, ruthlessness, organization, commitment – even to the detriment of family or personal life – and the ability to inspire. Not all of these are necessarily positive characteristics, but they are common to nearly all portrayals of politicians, whether it's the U.S. President in blockbuster movies such as Air Force One or Independence Day or a more realistic portrayal such as Mayor Carcetti in the TV series The Wire.

Now consider the qualities a young woman will be told she should possess by the media she consumes, such as teen and tween movies, pop music, sitcoms and magazines. Will any of the qualities attributed to politicians, as described above, appear on the list? It’s more likely that the list will contain characteristics directly opposite – that she will see portrayals of women as being ditzy, wanting to please others and placing family and personal relationships above ambition. These are not necessarily negative qualities, but the mismatch between the two stereotypes is almost absolute. The messages young women receive from media are very clear: women and politics don't mix.

Some women do overcome these stereotypes, of course, and in the last thirty years there have been some notable accomplishments: Canada and the U.K. each had their first female Prime Minister, while in the U.S. the 2008 election featured a woman who very nearly became the first-ever female candidate for President and another who was only the second female nominee in history for Vice-President. Surely Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin’s forays into presidential politics provide positive role models to young women, showing them that politics does not have to be a man's domain? Evidence suggests that even these historic accomplishments have made little difference; the 2009 Girl Scout Research Initiative study “The New Leadership Landscape: What Girls Say About the Election 2008,” showed that while girls recognized the importance of the role these two women played in the presidential race, it made no difference in whether girls were likely to consider a career in politics. One reason for this may be that the media provide young women with an unattractive picture. It's not that the media are harder on female candidates so much as that they are viewed through a "female" media lens. Would a political commentator say of George Bush that he "has a bad figure… bottom heavy and [his] legs are short?" Or would it be said of John McCain, notorious for his temper, that "when [he] gets angry, [he] comes across as hard and bitchy and intense?" Surely not –yet both comments were made, by “style guru” Elsa Klensch and inspirational speaker Tony Robbins respectively, about Hillary Clinton on CNN's Larry King Live.

But going beyond the comments themselves, would a "style guru" even be asked to give his or her opinion about a male politician? (Perhaps the only example of this was in the 2000 election, when the news broke that author Naomi Wolf had advised presidential nominee Al Gore on how he should dress; but this was only considered newsworthy because Gore was seen as showing an inappropriately feminine concern with his appearance.) Media portrayals like these may be part of why 24 years passed between the first female nominee for Vice-President and the second, and why the first female Prime Minister of Canada and the U.K. have also been, to this date, the last.

While young women may not follow the political press, they nevertheless are exposed to stereotypes of female politicians. Portrayals of female leaders are as rare in school as they are in the mass media, and when they do appear they have a similar bias. In History class, for example, a young woman might come across descriptions such as these relating to Hatshepsut, the first female pharaoh of Egypt: "In comparison with other female pharaohs, Hatshepsut's reign was long and prosperous" (Wikipedia.) and "As a favorite daughter of a popular pharaoh, and as a charismatic and beautiful lady in her own right, she was able to command enough of a following to actually take control as pharaoh" (Web site The Story of Hatshepsut). Note how in the Wikipedia entry it is only in comparison with other female pharaohs that she may be judged – no comparison with men is possible – and that The Story of Hatshepsut attributes her rise to power as being due to her parentage and those quintessentially female qualities, charm and beauty. Never mind that her reign was one of the most peaceful and prosperous of all the pharaohs, or that she owed her position to her ruthlessness in keeping her nephew, the legitimate heir, from taking the throne (his anger at this is a much more likely reason for the destruction of all her monuments than Egyptology Online's contention that "her reign was perhaps considered by some to have been inappropriate and contrary to tradition").

What is perhaps most insidious about these stereotypes is not just that they discourage women from entering politics, but that they prevent young women from imagining themselves as political actors: the mismatch between stereotypes, between CNN and Disney Princesses, is simply too large. The other great political story of the 2008 U.S. election, the election of the first African-American President, shows us that negative representations can be challenged and overcome: in the Girl Guides Research Institute study, both boys and girls said that the candidacy and election of Barack Obama was the most inspirational factor of the political race. If we can encourage young women and men to recognize, question and speak out about media stereotypes that make politics seem like foreign ground, perhaps it will not take another hundred years to get more women into government.

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Media Awareness Network (MNet) is a Canadian not-for-profit centre of expertise in media literacy. Its vision is to ensure children and youth possess the necessary critical thinking skills and tools to understand and actively engage with media. MNet's programs are funded by its public and private sector sponsors and partners, who include: CTVglobemedia • Canwest • TELUS • Canadian Internet Registration Authority • CTV • National Film Board of Canada • Government of Canada.

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