Women Political Leaders and the Media

156 Pages·2013·0.723 MB·English

by  Donatella Campus

Women Political Leaders and the Media
PalgraveStudiesinPoliticalLeadership
Serieseditors:
LUDGERHELMS,ProfessorandChairofComparativePolitics,Universityof
Innsbruck,Austria
ROBERTELGIE,PaddyMoriartyProfessorofGovernmentandInternational
Studies,DublinCityUniversity,RepublicofIreland
TAKASHI INOGUCHI, Professor Emeritus, Universities of Tokyo & Niigata
Prefecture,Japan
BARBARA KELLERMAN, James MacGregor Burns Lecturer in Leadership,
CentreforPublicLeadership,KennedySchool,HarvardUniversity,USA
GILLIANPEELE,FellowandTutorinPolitics,UniversityofOxford,UK
BERT A. ROCKMAN, Professor and Head of Department, Department of
PoliticalScience,PurdueUniversity,USA
Palgrave Studies in Political Leadership seeks to gather some of the best work
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seriespublishescutting-edgeresearchthatreachesouttoaglobalreadership.
Titlesinclude:
MarkBennister
PRIMEMINISTERSINPOWER
PoliticalLeadershipinBritainandAustralia
DonatellaCampus
WOMENPOLITICALLEADERSANDTHEMEDIA
LudgerHelms(editor)
COMPARATIVEPOLITICALLEADERSHIP
KevinTheakstonandJoukedeVries(editors)
FORMERLEADERSINMODERNDEMOCRACIES
PoliticalSunsets
PalgraveStudiesinPoliticalLeadership
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Women Political Leaders
and the Media
Donatella Campus
AssociateProfessorofPoliticalScience,UniversityofBologna
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Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
1 GenderandModelsofLeadership 10
Power:Amaleconcept? 10
Thefemalestyleofleadership 14
Transformationalleadership 18
2 TheMediaandRepresentationofLeadership 22
Themediatizationandpersonalizationofpolitics 22
Popularcultureandleadership 28
Newmedia,newleaders? 31
3 MediaCoverageofWomenLeaders 39
Visibility:Quantityandqualityofcoverage
ofwomenleaders 39
Takingcareandcleaningup:Lightsandshadows
ofthepositivestereotypes 44
Viabilityandthehorserace:Arethemediaeducating
futurefemaleleaders? 50
4 TheDoubleBind 54
Thenatureofthefemininity-competencedoublebind 54
IronLadiesandmothersofthenation 60
Whenwomenleadersaretoofeminine:Thecase
ofSégolèneRoyal 65
Whenwomenleadersaretoostrong:Thecase
ofHillaryClinton 69
5 TheAppearanceofPower 73
Womenleadersandthepersonalfactor 73
Thedresscodeofwomenleaders 82
Powerandseduction 88
v
vi Contents
6 TheFamilyFactor 94
Thegoodwifeandthegoodmother 94
Goingpersonalforwomenleaders 98
Dynasticpolitics:Whendaughtersandwives
enterpolitics 104
7 Conclusion:InSearchofaNewStyleofPolitical
Leadership 111
Thecrisisoftraditionaldemocraticleadership 111
Timefordegenderingleadership 115
Mediaasagentsoftransformation 120
Notes 126
References 129
Index 142
Acknowledgments
The book has its origins in a paper I presented at the 31st Annual
Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychol-
ogy in July 2008 in Paris. The content of the paper, titled “Women
RunningforPresident:FemaleLeadersandCampaigning,”ispartially
reproducedinchapters3and4.Ifoundthetopicsointerestingand
stimulating that I decided to organize a seminar on female leader-
ship and media at the University of Bologna, held on 13 November
2009(proceedingsoftheconferencehavebeenpublishedinItalianin
Campus (2010c)). I am indebted to all those who presented papers,
the discussants, and the participants for their invaluable contribu-
tions.Thisbookgrewoutofmanyofthereflectionsandsuggestions
theyadvancedonthatoccasion.IwouldliketothankAmber Stone
GalileeatPalgraveMacmillan,whoworkedwithmeonthisproject,
and to the anonymous referee for precious comments. I also thank
TomFinneganforeditorialassistanceinpreparingthemanuscript.
vii
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Introduction
Theavailableliteratureonfemalepoliticalleadershipshowsalimited
amount of research. There are a few analyses of some particular
women, but, partly due to the paucity of female national leaders,
gender-specific studies of political leadership are still rare, especially
if we limit our focus to presidents and chief executives.1 Moreover,
itshouldbeobservedthattheprevailingtrendinstudiesofpolitical
leadershiphasbeenthatofanalyzingtheissuewithoutpayinggreat
attentiontogenderdifferences.2
Recent electoral success of women leaders such as Angela Merkel
in Germany, Michelle Bachelet in Chile, Christina Kirchner in
Argentina, and Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma, and the candidacies of
SégolèneRoyalinFranceandHillaryClintonintheU.S.representan
exciting novelty. The number of women political leaders is growing
ontheinternationalstage,withseveralexamplesalsoindeveloping
countries.Womeninpowerremainasmallclub,buttheycannotany
longerberegardedastrueexceptions.Asaconsequence,theissueof
female political leadership is especially topical and deserves further
discussionandinvestigation.
If gender is an important factor in interpreting the nature and
the scope of contemporary democratic leadership, a key issue is the
relationship between women leaders and the media. An important
sourceofinspirationforthisbookhasbeenKathleenHallJamieson,
whoseBeyondtheDoubleBind:WomenandLeadership(1995)provides
a framework for understanding how far stereotypes and the media’s
useofthemmayworkagainstwomeninpolitics.Thereisalargebody
of literature on media treatment of women candidates’ campaigns
1