Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 196

Thematic Session (Papers belonging to this Thematic Session)

Discourse, Politics and Women as Global Leaders

Authors: Wilson, John; Boxer, Diana
Submitted by: Wilson, John (University of Ulster, United Kingdom)

The proposed panel focuses on the role of women in political leadership via their discourse practices. Just over 100 years ago there were no politically elected women in the UK parliament. In the UK today 22% of MPs in the House of Commons are women and 20% of the House of Lords are women. In 2011 women hold 90 or 16.8% of the 535 seats in the 112th US congress. 17, or 17% of the 100 seats in Senate are women, and in the House of Representatives 16.8%, or 73 seats are held by women. Nationwide 23% of state legislatures are women.

This increase in access to political power has challenged the previously male dominated field of politics where feminine traits and politics were viewed as incompatible. The stereotype of politics is one that is tough and ruthless, and hence more suited to males' aggressiveness and competitiveness, as opposed to the cooperation, and sensitivity of women. Such views can permeate voting patterns and affect the kind of jobs women in politics come to be associated with: the family, welfare, schools and health (Kahn, 1996; Koch 2000; Dolan 2004). How then are women to operate in the political environment? And how do they maintain their own political and gender values while at the same time tackling the stereotyped prejudices that attend to their sex rather than their policies?

Research into media representation of women across the globe shows they have faced a difficult challenge in achieving this balance (Scharer, 2002). Even research which has been sympathetic to women’s roles in politics still refers to gender differences as simply inevitable socialization outcomes; it is women’s different social experiences that produce differing political priorities and leadership styles (Cowell-Myers, 2003; Ndambuki and Janks, 2010).  

Much of this rehearses debates found within sociolinguistics, for example in the difference vs. dominance argumentation (e.g. Tannen, 1990; Freed, 1992). The distinction, that is, between arguing that men and women talk differently because the adopt alternative styles, topic preferences, conversational strategies etc, and the view that ‘gendering,’ from definition to access to resources both economic and linguistic, results from the differential access to power. Along with Eckert McConnell-Ginet, (2003) however, we argue that the complex context of social roles is best considered within a framework of ‘interactional practice’.

The aim of this panel, therefore, is to explore women as world political leaders via their discursive practice, which will be considered in terms of its own objectives, goals and contextual achievements. The papers will look at women leaders and their discursive behaviors across a range of states and cultures, from North and South America to Eastern and Western Europe.

The core questions to be explored include: 

1. How do women leaders use discourse for political action and interaction? 

2. What features of women’s political discourse are culture-bound or what features transcend cultural or other social boundaries? 

3. In what sense can we see a women’s political discourse as opposed to simply a leader's political discourse?

 4. In what ways do women’s political discourse reflect and/or challenge gender stereotyping?  

References

Cowell-Meyers, Kimberly (2003) Women legislators in Northern Ireland: Gender and Politics in the New Legisative Assembly .Occasional paper 3. Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics, School of Politics. Queen’s University Belfast.

Dolan, Kathleen A. (2004) The impact of candidate sex on evaluations of candidates for the U.S. House of representatives. Social Sciences Quarterly 85 (1) 206-217

Eckert, Penelope and Sally McConnell-Ginet (2003) Language and Gender, Cambridge University Press.

Freed, Alice (1992). We understand perfectly: A critique of Tannen’s view of cross-sex communication. In Locating Power (Berkeley Women and Language Proceedings).

Kahn, Kim Fridkin (1996) The Political Consequences of Being a Woman: How Stereotypes Influence the Conduct and Consequences of Political Campaigns. Colombia University Press: New York

Koch, Jeffrey W. (2000) Do citizens apply gender stereotypes to infer candidates ideological orientations? The Journal of Politics 62 (2), 414-429

Ndambuki, Jacinta and Janks, Hilary (2010) Political discourses, Women’s voices: Mismatches and Representation. Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis across Disciplines. 4 (1) 73-92

Scharer, Erica (2002) An “improbable leap”: a content analysis of newspaper coverage of Hilary Clinton’s transition from first lady to Senate candidate. Journalism Studies 3 (3) 393-406

Tannen, Deborah (1990) You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation.

Sociolinguistics Symposium 19

Programme: accepted abstracts

Discourse, Politics and Women as Global Leaders