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Sociolinguistics Symposium 19: Language and the City

Sociolinguistics Symposium 19

Freie Universität Berlin | August 21-24, 2012

Programme: accepted abstracts

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Abstract ID: 615

Part of Session 196: Discourse, Politics and Women as Global Leaders (Other abstracts in this session)

Much Ado about Nothing?: The Discourse Style of the Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt

Authors: Millar, Sharon Louise
Submitted by: Millar, Sharon Louise (University of Southern Denmark, Denmark)

In September 2011, Denmark could greet its first ever female prime minister, the leader of the Social Democratic party, Helle Thorning-Schmidt.  The media bustled with speculation about what difference having a woman as prime minister might make; for instance might it encourage greater focus on gender equality in politics, an issue generally considered to have stagnated in recent years in the country despite female leadership of a number of political parties?  Might it change the tone of political debate to something less masculine?  Such questions have particular resonance given that nine of the twenty-three ministers in the new coalition government are women. 

The issue of a feminine style (Blankenship and Robson 1995) or feminised political culture (Jones et al 2009) is neither new nor uncontroversial. Historically, it is unclear, at least in the American context, whether women’s political rhetoric was especially different from that of men (Meijer Wertheimer 1997) and indeed some argue that so-called feminine rhetoric, which emphasises consensus, cooperation and inclusion, and tends towards inductive reasoning, is not necessarily an expression of female identity, but rather a rhetorical tool available to men and women (Campbell  1989); and the same applies to ‘masculine’ rhetoric, with its emphasis on competition, personal agency and deductive reasoning.  This paper will explore the discourse style of the Danish prime minister in order to a) identify the rhetorical strategies she uses for self-presentation as prime minister, party leader and female, and b) to ascertain if these can and/or should be classified in gendered rhetorical terms.  Using Atlas.ti software, the analysis will apply aspects of Bystrom et al’s (2004) framework for gendered analysis, but will complement content and structural considerations with those of discursive forms. The primary data is a television interview given the day after Helle Torning-Schmidt held her New Year speech, a speech which was subjected to widespread attack.  Secondary data are media criticisms of the speech, which will be analysed as possible responses to the Prime Minister’s rhetorical choices.

References

Blankenship, J. and Robson, D. 1995. “A ‘Feminine’ Style in Women’s Political Discourse: An Exploratory Essay”. Communication Quarterly 43: 353-366.

Bystrom, D. et al. 2004. Gender and Candidate Communication. New York: Routledge.

Campbell, Kohrs K. 1989. Man Cannot Speak For Her. Vol.1. New York: Praeger.

Jones, S. et al. 2009 “Transforming masculinist political cultures? Doing politics in new political institutions”, Sociological Research Online, 14:2-3

Meijer Wertheimer, M. (ed.) 1997. Listening to Their Voices. The Rhetorical Activities of Historical Women.  Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.

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