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One Smart Politician: Gendered Media Discourses of Political Leadership in Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2018

Angelia Wagner ,
Linda Trimble  and
Shannon Sampert
Angelia Wagner*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, 10-16 HM Tory Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2H4, Canada
Linda Trimble
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, 12-26 HM Tory Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2H4, Canada
Shannon Sampert
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3B 2E9, Canada
*
*Corresponding author. Email: angelia@ualberta.ca
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Abstract

Which leadership qualities are most likely to be emphasized in news reports about leadership competitions, and are they attributed differently to women and men candidates? To answer this question, we conducted content and discourse analyses of 2,463 articles published by the Globe and Mail newspaper on 10 women and 17 men seeking the leadership of Canadian political parties since 1975. Our results show that women candidates were subjected to more negative and gendered assessments of their communication skills, intellectual substance and political experience than were men candidates. We also found little evidence that gendered media discourses about political leadership have changed over time, especially in the case of women in the strongest position to become the country's first national party leader or prime minister.

Résumé

Quelles qualités de leadership sont les plus susceptibles d'être soulignées dans les reportages sur les campagnes à la direction, et sont-elles attribuées différemment aux femmes et aux hommes ? Pour répondre à cette question, nous avons procédé à des analyses du contenu et du discours de 2 463 articles publiés dans The Globe and Mail sur 10 femmes et 17 hommes briguant le leadership des partis politiques canadiens depuis 1975. Nos résultats montrent que par rapport à leurs homologues masculin, les candidates ont été soumises à des évaluations plus négatives et sexospécifiques tant sur le plan des aptitudes à la communication que de la substance intellectuelle et de l'expérience politique. Notre étude a également trouvé peu de preuves que les discours sexués des médias sur le leadership politique ont changé au fil du temps, surtout dans le cas des femmes les mieux placées pour devenir le premier chef de parti ou le premier ministre du pays.

Keywords

Political leadershipgendered mediationpolitical partiesCanadanewspapers
Type
Research Article/Étude originale
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , March 2019 , pp. 141 - 162
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 2018 

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