An ‘attractive alternative way of wielding power’? Revealing hidden gender ideologies in the portrayal of women Heads of State during the Covid-19 pandemic

Bibliographic Data

ID6784730
AuthorsCarolin Debray (0000-0001-8652-6887, University of Basel, corresponding author), Stephanie Schnurr (0000-0001-5601-7491, University of Warwick), Joelle Loew (0000-0001-8491-6494, University of Basel), Sophie Reissner-Roubicek (University of Warwick)
Year2024
Volume21
Issue1
Pages52-75
Publication date2024-01-02
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritical Discourse Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1740-5904 • E-ISSN: 1740-5912
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17405904.2022.2101499
OpenAlexW4319828691
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited33

This paper explores the gendered discourses of the – seemingly favourable – media coverage that certain Heads of State received for their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking at media reports published in different English-speaking outlets in the US, the UK, India, Bangladesh, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, and Ireland, and using multimodal feminist critical discourse analysis, we identify and describe strategies that on the surface appear to challenge hegemonic – and largely masculine – discourses of leadership. Upon closer scrutiny, these superficially complimentary reports rather reinforce and naturalise discriminatory gender ideologies, and, as we demonstrate, they do so to different degrees along a continuum of essentialising, contextualising, and problematising. We critically discuss the discursive and visual processes involved and show that complimenting these leaders on their performance compares them against a masculine norm to construct their leadership as ‘alternative’, exceptional, and hence marked. This gendered portrayal of political leadership in times of crisis illustrates how the discursive construction of identities, responsibilities, and relationships during COVID-19 largely hinges on power relations and political ideologies that systematically disadvantage and undermine women. The purportedly positive form in which this occurs makes it particularly difficult to challenge and subvert these discriminatory discourses and their underlying gendered ideologies

Critical discourse analysis · Disadvantage · Discourse analysis · Hegemony · Ideology · Linguistics · Political science · Politics · Scrutiny · Sociology · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law

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