CHALLENGING THE PATRIARCHAL STRUCTURE IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THROUGH THE ROLE
FEMALE POLITICIANS PLAY TODAY
By Antonia Lorenz
A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
MASTER OF ARTS IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
at the
LEIDEN UNIVERSITY
JULY 2015
Table of contents
INTRODUCTION ...... 2
1. GENDER IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS ...... 4
2. 20TH CENTURY WOMEN PARTICIPATION IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS ...... 6 3. FEMALE POLITICAL LEADERS IN THE 21ST CENTURY ...... 8
4. FEMALE POLITICIANS AND THE MEDIA ...... 15
5. REFLECTING ON CHANGE ...... 22
CONCLUSION ...... 25
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 26
1 Introduction:
Too often the great decisions are originated and given form in bodies made up wholly of men, or so completely dominated by them that whatever of special value women have to offer is shunted aside without expression. - Eleanor Roosevelt1
When J. Ann Tickner started her college education in international relations (IR) in the early 1960s, she was one of only three women in her class to study such an important field.2 Gradually, during her career as a professor, the numbers of female IR students rose but never to an extent that would suggest equal interest and career options. She deduced that 20th-century IR is a patriarchal world, women have rarely been portrayed as actors on the stage of international
3 What would she say if she saw gender ratio of IR students? When my class politics. started studying IR in 2014, the number of today swomen compared to men was 29 to 21. Even though this is only one university and therefore can hardly be a legitimate comparison, this means that the balance of IR students at least in Leiden is heavier on the female side and therefore offers a different picture compared to the one at the beginning of the 1960s in Harvard.
This thesis will analyse if IR is moving towards a less patriarchal structure by looking at the discourse on female political leaders. The reason for evaluating this change is that in the last 20 years, the number of females in high political positions has not only risen, but their performance has proven time and time again that women are as capable of running international and national affairs as men. By looking at the discourse, it will be examined what the different perspectives on female political leaders are in the beginning of the 21st century. Furthermore this thesis will investigate if this means a change in the approach to international relations from a dominant patriarchal world to a study that not only includes female perspectives but also values them for their additional insights.
The topic is situated in between different fields of literature. On the one hand, there is feminist literature that deals with the position women have in the field of IR; on the other hand literature on the relationship between female politicians and the media makes up a substantial part of this research. Both handle to some extend the role female politicians play and have played in politics, but there is no mentioning if this means a challenge to the patriarchal structure in IR. This gap in the literature will be analysed in this thesis. The reason for evaluating this hypothesis lies in the
1 Tickner (1992) p.1. 2 Ibid p. 1. 3 Ibid preface.
2 opportunities for growth that are created by highlighting the situation as it is right now, so new incentives for future improvements can be created.
The method used in this thesis to analyse the mentioned hypothesis will be a discourse analysis. As a form of critical theorizing, the goal of discourse analysis is to demonstrate and explain the relationship between social and textual processes.4 It can be divided into spoken and written discourse analysis; both will be applied here in the form of speeches, newspaper articles, and surveys. By implementing an analytical view on the discourse surrounding female political leaders in the beginning of the 21st century, it will be examined if the discourse has changed from the way it has been portrayed by previous IR scholars.5 The discourse itself reflects and reinforces the knowledge, and therefore portrays what Foucault explained as the relationship between knowledge and power. By looking at the narratives, the structuring of the world becomes obvious, which at first seems random, but turns out to be manufactured. words, intersubjective meanings quasi-causally affect certain actions not by directly )n other or inevitably determining them but rather by rendering these actions plausible or implausible, 6 The acceptablediscourse analysisor unacceptable, highlights conceivable this undercurrent or inconceivable, and therefore respectable is the or perfect disreputable, tool to etc. unveil a change when it is still in its beginnings and therefore potentially fragile and hard to grasp.
The first chapter is concerned with the theoretical background of the subject and will introduce the feminist discourse on gender in international relations. The second chapter will summarize the
last century s female participationfeasible. The in third positions chapter of will power, portray so thatand compare a comparison three to female this century sleaders in situationpower today will and be how their achievements reflect back on the IR discourse. The fourth chapter will analyse the representation of the discourse in the media in relation to the three leaders, and the fifth chapter will contemplate the findings of the previous chapters in relation to their relevance for the thesis question. The thesis question is: Considering the role female political leaders have played in recent international events, can we say that international relations is moving to a less patriarchal structure?
4 Jackson (2007) p. 395. 5 in chapter 1. 6 YeeExamples (1996) would p. 97. be Elshtain s , Enloe , Tickner , Sylvester , explained further
3 1. Gender and International Relations
7 Jill Steans sums )nternational up the starting Relations point has of beenthe thesis described with this as astatement. crudely patriarchalSylvia Walby discourse defines .patriarchy as ate, oppress and exploit
8 a system She of argues social structuresthat in the last and century practices there in has which been men a change domin in some areas and ways in women. which the patriarchy manifests itself. From reducing the gap in wages between men and women to having equal chances in educational access, there has been improvement in some degrees. This might have led to some commentators arguing that the patriarchy has been eliminated.9 Walby argues that instead of eliminating patriarchy, the movement has gone from a private to a
10 public form of patriarchy. This form of patriarchy is based principally in public sites such as employmentFrom a feminist and perspective, the state. there have been multiple scholarly examinations of gender in IR in the last 30 years that analyse how IR is influenced by the gendered structures that dominate our thinking, acting and reacting in our social and political world. The study of feminism in IR started during the 1980s with remarkable works like Cynthia Bananas, Beaches and
Bases. Suddenly the following question needed answering: Enloe s Where are the women in international relations?11 Other scholars like J. Ann Tickner, Christine Sylvester and Rebecca Grant discussed gender issues, which are deeply engrained into the habits of conventional IR.
. Some might even go so far as)n everyday to say that custom, gender gender differences and sex are are rooted often in used natural interchangeably differences between men and women. Feminists claim that these gender stereotypes are socially constructed and not something one is bornhistorically with. Through the use of this common knowledge , servedpeople to who justify are forms different of social were 12 discrimination.characterized Feminists as pointed queer , out and that therefore rather than the viewreflecting the personality traits of men and women, ideas about gender were used to justify unequal treatment and thus provided an 13 Unfortunately those ideasimportant were ideological deeply ingrained justification in society,for a specific institutions form of and social practises, inequality. so a whole new way of thinking had to be characterized. The state, as a patriarchal power, served as the means to ensure gender inequalities, therefore the change also had to involve the way women are represented in state institutions.
7 Steans (2006) p. 1. 8 Walby, S. (1990) p. 20. 9 Steans (2006) p. 23. 10 Ibid p. 24. 11 Ibid p.24. 12 Ibid p. 8. 13 Ibid p. 9.
4 Different forms of feminism emerged: Liberal feminism highlights the underrepresentation of women in positions of power, and the need for women to start putting their interests on the 14 Standpoint feminism tries to articulate the experiences and perspectivesinternational relations of women agenda. in IR and criticises the mainstream approaches of realism and neorealism that exclude the feminist perspectives. Critical feminism shares similarities with Marxist-feminism as it focuses on gender as a social relationship of inequality. However, the focus of critical feminism lies more in the power of ideas and ideologies in reproducing gender dichotomies.15 Poststructuralist feminism can be perceived as the most radical approach in the field since it questio d meaning are always in doubt and forms of identity in ns question, the very so possibility sovereign of claims )R : Truth to shape an human identities, construct linear 16 From a historiespoststructural and impose feminist social perspective, and political any attempts boundaries to reconstruct are necessarily IR theory problematic. in a more gender balanced version can only lead to a marginalization and displacement of a range of important other feminist perspectives and is therefore inherently flawed.
Critiques on feminism hold that the charges are exaggerated and that the gender inequality portrayed by feminists has been solved in recent years. Furthermore they argue that feminists therefore enhance and create the gendered nature they claim
17 produceto suffer knowledge from. The primaryabout )R focus and on the micro level, the critique further argues, to grasp the bigger picture either, since the IR system not only consists of numbersdoesn t and quotas, serve but of a complex, hierarchical system that calls for different qualities in different sectors. Equating the numbers would not change the prob s most basic
18 expectations of what women can and cannot do. lems that are rooted in society
In the course of this thesis, different feminist lenses will be applied to look at the topic. Since the subject matter is on female politicians in power, a liberal feminist viewpoint seems the best starting point, from where an analysis of current trends in leadership positions can lead towards deeper insights into the patriarchal natur Furthermore it will be analysed how female political leaderse supported of today s internationalother women relations. to get into higher positions and what their overall feminist agenda is.
14 Steans (2006) p.12. 15 Ibid p. 15. 16 Ibid p. 16. 17 Ibid p. 5. 18 Peterson (2003) p. 36-37.
5 2. 20th-century women participation in IR
Considering that IR only emerged as a study and academic discipline in the last century after the First World War, . Of course, a more thorough analysisit is sensible could lookto start back looking at different at women s times and participation societies where since women were part of the decision-making process in politics or even represented the highest position as the chosen leader. Unfortunately, the Cleopatras and Boudiccas of the past will not be included in this thesis, but they should not simply be forgotten, as has often been the case in the 20th-century discourse about female participation in IR, because always been on the sidelines.
The typical housewife of the 1960s had little in commonwomen with haven t a warrior queen who led an attack against the Roman invaders, but regrettably politicians then put women easily in neatly packed categories of housewives and child bearers. Donald Regan for example, the White House chief of staff in 1985, stated to the Washington Post in relation to the superpower summit in Geneva that women were not capable of understanding the issues that mattered at the meeting, from what was happening in Afghanistan to human rights concerns.19
The outcry in feminist ranks following this remark showed that many women were no longer content to be reduced to such stereotypes.20 Reality demonstrated however how even women in higher-ranking positions in politics were more often not taken seriously. Jean Kirkpatrick was appointed ambassador to the United Nations (UN) in 1981, and yet despite her visibility and strong stance on political issues, she complained later that she did not receive respect by her fellow UN representatives and foreign policy peers, that they rarely listened to what she had to say,
21 and that she failed to have any effect whatsoever on the course of American foreign policy. Women who defied these societal expectations and rose above their status were the exception, and were often categorized in new stereotypes fit into the old ones: iron lady . Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir, Indirasince Ghandi, they didn t Benazir Bhutto and so manythe other female image leaders that defied the odds and made it to the top only to be characterized as strong- willed, manly and stern.22 It seemed as if the only way for these female politicians to become successful in a male-dominated area was to become just like men. Cynthia Enloe phrases it The national political arena is dominated by men but allows women some select accordingly:
19 The Stanford Daily, Volume 188, Issue 44, 21 November 1985. 20 Ibid. 21 Tickner (1992) p.7. 22 Steinberg (2008) p. 37.
6 access; the international political arena is a sphere for men only, or for those rare women who 23 canAccording successfully to Tickner, play at beinghis celebration men, or at ofleast male not power, shake masculineparticularly presumptions. the glorification of the male 24 t Until today, these stereotypeswarrior, produces persist, morethe best of example a gender being dichotomy the most than powerful exists person in reality. in the world, according to the Forbes ranking, Vladimir Putin.25 One look at his campaign photos reveals overwhelming pes: He presents himself as a hunter, bare-chested with an axe in one
26 malehand; leader sas a warrior, stereoty engaging in martial arts; even on horseback. By holding on to those kind of male leader stereotypes, it is hard for women leaders to stake their claim in IR, since they could never fit this portrayal of leadership without losing credibility. A new image of leadership would have to emerge. So how far does the acceptance of females as equally competent political leaders go discourse about leadership? Is it still constrained by pre-determined social structures,in today s with a few outstanding exceptions, or are the old stereotypes finally starting to change? In the following it will be analysed if and how the discourse of women in political leadership positions has changed by analysing how other leaders, the media and the public perceive them.
23 Enloe (2000) p. 13. 24 Ibid p.8. 25 26 Sperling, Valerie (2015, February 17) Why Putin and some of his female fans go shirtless. The World Post.Forbes. The World s most powerful People. – – 7 3. Women in power in the 21st century
After highlighting the situation in the 20th century for women in politics, the next chapter will deal with three female politicians today that represent through their performance the situation in IR for women in the political world. Various scholars, namely Steinberg and Genovese, have compared female politicians before. The following comparison will focus on their background and rise to power, how they are perceived by the public and other politicians and how the glass ceilings restricted them in their position. Examples from other politicians in similar situations will broaden the scope of the paper to make it more accessible to the reader.
If Putin is the most powerful person in 2014 according to the Forbes ranking, then which women make the list? For the tenth year running, Angela Merkel was rated the most powerful woman in 2015; she is ranked number five in the overall ranking that includes both sexes.27 Reasons for Mrs. Merkel are her part in the handling of the Euro crisis28 and her position s as continuously chancellor of highest one of ranking the strongest economies in Europe. When she was elected chancellor in Germany in 2005, it was only against a slight majority to the Social Democratic Party. Her rise to power came unexpected since her quiet demeanour led many people to underestimate what she was capable of.29 That changed quickly when she separated ties with her former mentor Helmut Kohl and took control of the party. Gradually, she outmanoeuvred her political opponents to acquire her position today; a position she holds with a firm hand. Her approval rate among the German voters is consistently around 70%30, a number that other heads of state can only dream of.31 Most Germans think she did competent political work trying to save Greece from leaving the Euro-zone32, her tactics of taking small steps and not letting herself be pushed into a corner by the other EU leaders and the USA helped her keep control of the situation. She is considered an essential leader in Europe.33 One of her biographers even 34, a title that does not come without problems for a German headcalled of her state the Chancellor of Europe considered to be that she is calm and an, considering analytical thinker the country s who calculates past. Merkel s all outcomes best asset before is making any moves and without any pretentious behaviour traits she probably learned as a physicist before her
– 27 28 Even though at the moment the Euro crisis is having new/old problems considering the Greek, Mrs. MerkelForbes. is asThe of World ssummer 2015 most still powerful in the midst Women. of it trying to save Greece from leaving the EU. 29 Packer, George (2014, December 1). The quiet German. The astonishing rise of Angela Merkel, the most powerful women in the world. The New Yorker. 30 Ibid. 31 -50 %, Hollande rates in the 20s, Cameron reached 37 % at the last elections in 2015. 32 Freiburg,Obama s approval Friederike ratings (2012, range August between 2) Umfrage in Euro-Krise: Spitzenwerte für Merkel. Spiegel Online. 33 Social Europe. 34 (ill, Steven , August Angela Merkel: The World s Most Valuable Leader . Forbes. The World s most powerful Women. 8 political career.35 In this way she seems non-threatening despite her powerful position and can mediate in difficult situations, like the Ukraine crisis.36
On the other hand, some southern European countries, especially
population, have a different image of the German chancellor.much During of Greece s, heated Spain s moments and Portugal sof discussion in the EU crisis in 2012 when Merkel visited Greece, she was greeted by demonstrators who showed her their open disliking for her austerity measures. They called her Hitler-Merkel , greeting her with swastikas and Hitler-moustaches.37 A big part of the Greek
population, according to population polls, accused her of trying to ruin the southern European states and benefitting from the new savings policy.38 Their anger is rooted in a consistent decline in economics, increased unemployment and no hope of change in sight. Greek population surveys asked whether they wanted more politicians like Merkel, the majority declined.39 And Spanish and Portuguese newspapers have a similar rhetoric. Merkel is a symbol of all the political mistakes that have affected our country, said Joao Camargo, an activist who studied economics at the London School of Economics. Of course, debt is a big problem for Portugal and many European countries. But Angela Merkel's policies are not only a threat to Portugal, Spain and Greece, but for all of Europe. 40
Nevertheless Angela Merkel is a good example of a female political leader who challenges the discourse of patriarchy in IR. She has been leading her country towards prosperity and security through all her terms and has been re-elected twice for this. Feminist perspectives on national security claim that
41 therefore not as muchwomen s centred definition on the realistof security perspective is more multidimensionalof each state for themselves. and multilevel, But and is Angela Merkel a feminist? The answer is not very likely, if you ask feminist spokespersons in Germany about their chancellor.42 When it comes to equal payment for women or female participation in politics, she has changed little since the beginning of her first term. Her interests lay in the general improvement of the German economy, reduction of unemployment, health
35 Packer, George (2014, December 1). The quiet German. The astonishing rise of Angela Merkel, the most powerful women in the world. The New Yorker. 36 Barkin, Noah (2014, March 7) Cold War shapes complex Merkel-Putin relationship. Reuters. 37 Spiegel Online (2013, March 24) Europäisches Deutschlandbild: Bewundert, beneidet, belächelt. Spiegel Online. 38 at Germany. Spiegel Online. 39 Blome,Ibid. Nikolaus et al. , March The Fourth Reich : What Some Europeans See When They Look 40 sit. Die Deutsche Welle. 41 Tickner (1992) p.66. 42 Dowling,Wagner, TiloS. (2009, , September November 24) Does Portuguese Angela Merkelprotest deserve ahead of to Merkel s be a feminist vi icon? Spiegel online international.
9 care reforms, and the future of the s energy development.43 The only time her gender plays any role seems to be during electioncountry year, when she suddenly talks about shopping lists and cooking recipes, to appear more attractive to the female voters who are statistically the bigger voting group in Germany.44 was first introduced by rivals in theThis conservative stereotype party of Mutti , to mock a German her, but endearment was later embra for mother ,ced by Merkel as well as the German public.45 Like Putin, Merkel created a stereotype that was easier embraced by the public, but nevertheless has little to do with the actual person that is portrayed. In her speeches, she is neit ike many female leaders before her,
her affectionateis not associated nor motherly . with motherly L tenderness and charm, but with willpowerthe title as andthe iron strength. chancellor not necessarily negative )n(or referringindeed positive) to gender for stereotypes, women and itmen; is worth rather emphasizing it emphasizes that the this role is of cognitive shortcuts which function to facilitate judgements where citizens lack extensive 46 information. It is interesting to observe that the most powerful woman of our time is not really considered feminine47; she appears almost asexual, her rhetoric calm, without any charisma or eloquence.48 And even though she is married, she has no children. In an aging society like Germany where less and less children are born to the academic upper class, what kind of a role model is she for aspiring young women who want to follow in her footsteps? Does a political career like hers demand a sacrifice for other parts of life? If equal participation of women in politics is desirable, does the system first have toone s change, so that women can be successful politicians and have children at the same time? Is this even possible? On the other hand, if we look at the age at which female heads of state get elected into office, they were all past the conventional time of child a
Ferrnandezbearing. de Merkel Kirchner was was 54 when when she she became moved chancellor, into office, Argentina s and Brazilian president president Christin Dilma Rousseff was 63. The latt irreconcilable with having anotherer two life both as a have mother children, after all. so maybe the highest office isn t when one gets elected president; it is only the apogee when Butall thea political hard work career of thedoesn t previous start years comes together. Merkel started working in politics at age 35, a latecomer compared to women like Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the Scottish National Party who joined the party at age 16. Sturgeon never had children either, even though she claims she never made the conscious
43 Packer, George (2014, December 1). The quiet German. The astonishing rise of Angela Merkel, the most powerful women in the world. The New Yorker. 44 Ibid. 45 Müller-Vogg, Hugo (2013, September 20) Mutti ist die beste. Cicero. 46 Pippa Norris, in Murray (2010) p. Xvi. 47 Packer, George (2014, December 1). The quiet German. The astonishing rise of Angela Merkel, the most powerful women in the world. The New Yorker. 48 Ibid.
10 decision against it. Her work was just too demanding, keeping her too busy for other commitments.49
Returning to the discourse about female political leaders in the 21st century, another name appears in the headlines of all important newspapers frequently: the world second most
50 powerful woman, Hilary Clinton. The former Secretary of State during President s term is currently the candidate with the highest chances of becoming president ofObama s the USA first in next .51 What does it mean that one of the most powerful (and historically
52 patriarchalyear s elections) countries in the world might be finally ready to have it s first female president? When Clinton was running against Obama for the presidential candidacy of the democrats in 2008, people were speculating what would come first: a female president or a black one.53 Both are marginalised groups in society facing discrimination and a lack of representation in the world of politics, but in 2009 the US was more ready for an African-American president than a female one. Is it because African-American men had voting rights 50 years before women of any colour could vote as well? Maybe an African-American male president was considered still more competent than a female one. And how much does it influence the current development for females in politics that Hilary Clinton is the wife of the former president Bill Clinton? Statistically, more female politicians made it to high leadership positions who have a husband or 54 As a former First Lady, Hillary was introduced familyinto the member world ofin politicspolitics duringthan those her whohusband don t.s candidacy and presidency, but started her own career only two years after his resignation as the first female senator of New York. From there one, she climbed the political ladder, running for the presidential candidate of the republicans in 2008 and again 2015.
Rainbow Murray analyses in his book Cracking the Highest Glass Ceiling: A Global Comparison of Women’s Campaigns for Executive Office how gender stereotypes shape the course and outcome of an electoral campaign for women running for Office. In one of his case studies he explains how
(ilary Clinton s first campaign failed through stereotypes that limit women s perceived credibilityAmerican electoralas national candidates, leaders. Theseare one stereotypes, of the reasons which why have there been has widely never notedbeen ain U.S studies woman of
49 Kelly, Mary (2015, April 21) Is not having children the price women such as Nicola Sturgeon pay for political success? Belfast Telegraph. 50 Again this is based on the 2015 Forbes magazine rating. 51 52 The analysis of the patriarchal discourse in America is for example: Dowler (2002) Women on the frontlines:Forbes. The Rethinking World s war narrativesmost powerful post Women.9/11. (illary Clinton. 53 Debate.org Clinton vs. Obama: Is the first female president more important than a black president? 54 Murray (2010) p. 21.
11 55 Nonetheless her strong appearance during her time as Secretary of State on issues president. like supporting smart power and diplomatic ties to the Middle East have helped her keep up a high profile as the next presidential candidate for the elections in 2016.
The negative perspectives on her potential as the next president get almost as much attention as the positive ones. Many question her overall achievements as a Secretary of State56. The Whitewater controversy is also one of the arguments people voice when it comes to questioning her credibility.57 Furthermore she often gets criticized for only saying what people want to hear instead of having her own opinion on political issues.58
The fact that she gets so much attention, both positive and negative, means she is on people radar, which in turn helps her for her presidency. The question will be whether her positive s image will outweigh her negative ballast and if the old stereotypes about female leadership will potentially outweigh her campaign once more. Other than Merkel, Clinton has a strong stance supporting women Together with her husband she launched the Full
Participation Project, s rights an initiative and equality. of the Clinton Foundation, which examines the progress considering female participation in the two last decades and identifies where there is still work to do.59 A progress report highlights the findings of the project and thus is supposed to encourage the next generation of young females to develop to their full potential.
Comparing Merkel and Clinton, it becomes obvious that they are different kinds of female leaders. Merkel is unapproachable, almost cold in her relationship with the media. Clinton has a complicated relationship with the media, because of her past dealings that involved her 60, but nevertheless she engages to a far greater extend with the media than
61 husband sthe German scandals chancellor. Merkel has much more experience with the actual handling of international affairs, since she is in office for her third term now; Clinton still has to reach the aspired position at the top of the US. Both women are the first to reach this kind of position in their countries nario, which might not come true. With, althoughthis, they in send Clinton s a signal case to thethis world is still that a hypothetical things are changing sce in IR, that women are ready and able to take their place as leaders in a patriarchal domain. The signal is answered in many places around the world and others claim their firsts as well, as Dilma Rousseff became
55 Ibid p.3-4. 56 Forbes. 57 Washington Post timeline of Whitewater. 58 Adesnik, David , October (illary Can t Name Top Accomplishment As Secretary Of State. only 42 percent want her to. The Washington Times. 59 Andersen,(arper, Jennifer Erika (2012, , March 26) The(illary Results Clinton: Are In: percent Women of Are Americans Better Leaders. say she ll Forbes. run for president, 60 Engel, Pamela (2015, April 13) How Hillary Clinton dealt with the Monica Lewinsky scandal when she was in the White House. Business Insider UK. 61 ss.
National Public Radio , March Clinton Seeks a New Relationship With the Pre 12 the first female president of Brazil in 2010, Christina Fernandez de Kirchner became the first elected female president of Argentina in 2007 and South Korea elected its first female president, Park Geun-hye, in 2013.
Another interesting female political leader is Helen Clark. Even though Mrs. Clark has been only the Prime Minister of the small country New Zealand, her achievements overall make her a worthy candidate in the portrayed leadership profiles. She was the first female elected Prime Minister of New Zealand in 1999 and was re-elected for two terms. After losing the fourth term in 2008, she moved on to become the head of the United Nations Development Programme (she is the first women to head this office as well) and therefore, according to Forbes62, became the most powerful woman in the United Nations (UN). Additionally, she is rumoured to be one of the more likely candidates to become successor to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon next year.63 Like Merkel, she is married to a professor who teaches at a university and has no children, a fact that was used by the media and from her colleges as a source to challenge her credibility as a woman.64 She went through difficult times when, after taking over the labour party in 1993, she had a personal poll rating of just 2%.65 She recovered from this low point by not giving up when she had almost no support from the public. 66 was her motto when she doubted if there was ever going You ve to be just a better got to time keep for standing her party. there, She ended up becoming Prime Minister in an election that featured another women as her competing candidate. During her terms, she supported the promotion of women in politics. When she left o , and cabinet secretary and speaker
67 wereffice, all New women Zealand s (a number governor that has general, unfortunately attorney slowly general declined since then).
Clark has been compared to Margaret Thatcher and Angela Merkel for her tough political stance and maybe
even more, her unfeminine behaviour. To succeed, (elen Clark felt she had to be 68 tough : )f women are seen to be emotional,here they wasare almost a lot of written very gender-basedoff as unfit to do criticism. the job , Youshe noted. Furthermore Clark specified, T know, Your voice is too low, your teeth are too crooked . They don t like your hairstyle, they 69 don tup to like your clothes. )n fact, they don t really like anything about you, and maybe this all adds [the notion] that they don t really like a woman doing what you re doing.
62 63 Ibid. 64 Martinson,Forbes. The Jane World s (2014, January most powerful 27) Will HelenWomen. Clark (elen be theClark. first woman to run the UN? The Guardian. 65 NZ Herald (2013, August 5) Helen Clark: Self-belief the winning ingredient. NZ Herald. 66 Martinson, Jane (2014, January 27) Will Helen Clark be the first woman to run the UN? The Guardian. 67 Ibid. 68 Skard (2015) p. 492. 69 Clark quoted in Martinson, Jane (2014, January 27) Will Helen Clark be the first woman to run the UN? The Guardian.
13 Scholarly examinations of female leade find it difficult to strike the appropriatership balancebehaviour between explained being how strong women and leaders effective may (e.g.,also 70 For women like
Clark,Thatcher Merkel while and also Clinton, meeting who societallive in a demandstime where for old warmth leader andstereotypes likeability. clash with new female empowerment, it is hard to walk a fine line between giving the voters what they expect but also distinguishing themselves from their male counterparts as competent leaders. Former -doing
Australianthere politician Cheryl Kernot phrases it accordingly: ) think with respect to deal underlying s an expectation underlying of expectation male pol of female politicians which is a bit different from our be women first and politicians seconditicians. but maleThat s politicians around the are issue allowed that tofemale be politicians politicians firs shouldt and 71 Merkel, Clinton, and Clark all had to deal with this kind of gender- behavespecific instereotyping this position. during their careers; however, the degree to which this influenced their chances as leaders can hardly be measured.
70 Pippa Norris, Foreword to Murray (2010) p. xvi. 71 Smith, Julian & Coch, Lukas (2012, February 10) Cheryl Kernot on politics, the media and female leadership. The Conversation.
14 4. Female politicians and the media
In her book Women Political Leaders and the Media, Donatella Campus dissected how the two subjects relate to each other. She divided her analysis into quantity (how often are the female leaders visible) and quality (what is said about them). Campus found out that older studies showed a visible discrimination in terms of visibility and subject, even with prominent politicians like Margaret Thatcher.72 This discrimination has declined in recent years, a study by Falk in 2010 showed that Hillary Clinton received only slightly less attention from the press than her competitor Barack Obama.73 On the other hand, even in the first months when she was still leading in polls before Obama, she received less media coverage than Obama, which does not correlate to the attention given to her.74
Overall, Campus concludes, Clinton overcame the barricades experienced by female candidates before her.75 Even though this cannot be said for the 2007 French presidential campaign, where Ségolène Royal received considerab analysed all over the world supportly less the media view thatcoverage the gapthan inSarkozy, the quantity the majority of coverage of cases is 76 This was also evident in the amount of media coverage during the German chancellor
77 closing .elections in 2005, 2009 and 2013 for Merkel and in New Zealand for Clark (even though Clark is a special case, since she ran first against another women).
The quality of the coverage is a different subject altogether. The general belief that female politicians have to deal more with subjects like gender, marital and parental status, and physical appearance, finds much evidence in different studies.78 Furthermore, the media has a preference
79 to link stereotypically male issues economy,, healthcare, military, family foreign and politics youth) toto malefemale candidate candidates.s and stereotypically female issues education 80 This goes in line with the hypothesis that gender stereotypes on personal traits drive expectations that women and men have different areas of expertise. When Merkel was first elected into the Bundestag, she was appointed as Minister for Women and Youth, even though she claimed that, with a doctorate in physical chemistry, she had no idea
72 Campus (2013) p.40. 73 Falk (2010) p. 153. 74 Ibid p. 154. 75 Campus (2013) p. 40. 76 Ibid p.40. 77 Ibid p.40. 78 Bystrom et al. (2004) 178-79; Fowler and Lawless (2009). 79 Campus (2013) p. 41. 80 Ibid p. 41.
15 81 Nevertheless, for a woman to start her political career, the abouttypical thewomen-areas subject s fine were issues. often the only option. Later on she was promoted to Minister for the Environment and Nuclear Safety, a subject more closely related to her original expertise. Helen Clark served through all her terms as Prime Minister also as Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage. Before she became Prime Minister, she served first as Minister of Housing, then as Minister of Conversation, followed by the post of Minister of Health before becoming Deputy Prime Minister. During her time as a Senator, Hillary Clinton served on five Senate committees: the Committee on Environment and Public Works; the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on the Budget and the Special Committee on Aging.
The examples show how all three women served in positions associated more commonly with women expertise, at least in the beginning of their political careers. Even though this pattern is not found consistently (Clinton served on the Committee on Armed Services, for example), the trend goes in the general direction and therefore a stereotypes shaping expectations on what women and mencknowledges are better Campus at. hypothesis about
The preference of the media to cover female politicians appearance instead of their political issues is also evident in the following examples: During the 2008 US presidential elections, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler impersonated Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton in a sketch about female 82
83 politician s media representation. )n the sketch, the - two politicians to diminish complained them, aboutinstead the of media s use of stereotypes like harpy , shrew , or boner shrinker seeing the political agenda they were campaigning for. Discussions about Clinton s masculine featurescontenders and for Palin s public attractiveness office, and distractprevent votersvoters from perceiving evaluating the the candidates women based as leg onitimate their 84 The tion to the sketch was very positive85, which shows that many qualifications. people are aware thatpublic s reac female politicians have to deal with the media s scrutiny in a way that male politicians don t. When Angela Merkel visited Oslo for the grand opening of the new opera house, national and international newspapers were excited to see the normally up-tight chancellor in a feminine
81 Packer, George (2014, December 1). The quiet German. The astonishing rise of Angela Merkel, the most powerful woman in the world. The New Yorker. 82 YouTube (2013, September 23) Saturday Night Live Palin/Hillary Open. 83 Poehler, quoted in Murray (2010) p. 3. 84 Murray (2010) p. 3-4. – 85 This is rated on the comments the video received on Y
outube and the likes . 16
86 readevening a newspaper dress that headlineshowed in a fairLondon amount on the of cleavage.day after Merkel sthe event. weapons As a response, of mass the distraction German
87 chancellor tried to downplay the event Murray by pointing criticises out there as well certainly how wouldn t be a discussion 88 andlike thisframe with them a man as sexual as chancellor . and the media objectify women visual rather than powerful and intellectual. At least the event in Oslo provoked mostly positive reactions from the press; other images duringoften featured Merkel s her time image as chancellor with a Hitler weren t moustache as welcoming. or with a)n swastika Greece andin the Spain background, demonstrators some newspapers caught on to this rhetoric as well.89 Besides the reference to the past relations of Germany and Greece during the Second World War, those portrayals often underline the masculine side of her leadership style. There are little if any feminine pictures of her from the southern European countries, even though appealing to her female side might have seemed less radical.
e office has not gone unnoticed, either
90 The heavily gendered coverage of candidates for executiv Some journalists have even written pieces byabout the the public overtly or bysexist the comments candidates of themselves. their peers. On the other hand, exposing these comments might draw attention to the subject in an emphasized way and furthermore portray the female candidates as victims. Female leaders often have to walk a fine line between challenging 91 Former Australian negativePrime Minister stereotypes Julia Gillard in the has media been and subjected being portrayed to heavy asnegative sore losers .media coverage, which was often specifically about her gender.92 In a famous speech in parliament that condemned the misogynist behaviour towards her from the leader of the opposition, she put into frank words what many female politicians had to deal with from their colleges and the media on a frequent basis.93 The speech was praised in Australia and abroad for its brave stance, the Australian more encompassing
94 Macquarieexplanation. Dictionary even updated its definition of misogyny to a From the former definition as hatred of women it now included entrenched prejudiceyear, inner against party women . disagreements The reactions led to weren t Gillard all calling positive for though; a re-vote unfortunately that she lostin the to next her
86 Daily Mail (2008, April 14) Weapons of Mass Distraction: German Chancellor Angela Merkel shows off plunging neckline. Daily Mail. 87 Kirschbaum, Erik (2008, April 18) Merkel tries to downplay fuss over opera gown. Reuters. 88 Murray (2010) p. 13. 89 Badkar, Mamta (2012, September 26) Greek Protester Holds Giant Merkel-Hitler Poster. Business Insider 90 Murray (2010) p. 18. 91 Ibid p. 19. 92 Sande, Anne (2013, July 12) The persecution of Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Independent Australia. 93 YouTube (2012, October 8) Gillard labels Abbott a misogynist. 94
ABC News , October Gillard s speech prompts misogyny definition rethink. 17 predecessorunemployment Kevin rate Rudd. under Political Ms Gillard's analysts regime say but that that Australia her feminist has strong stance economy had put the and male low 95 She ended her votersconfident to theirof is it limit. will be easier for the nextterm woman on a positive and the note, woman saying: after What that and ) am the absolutely woman 96 after that… and ) m proud of that… Helen Clark has experience with this kind of treatment as well, both from her colleagues and the media. She chose to look past it, even though it annoyed her a But, you know, if you found all that hurtful then you're probably nott the going beginning to be able of herto survive career. these jobs. You have to be able to dismiss it, and I seem to have developed a style, where [journalists] always knew that I'd get to a point and say 'move on', you know, 'get over it'. 97
Clarke learned early on in her political career the importance of presenting herself right. During the poll-crisis at the beginning of her time as head of the labour party, she had to systematically change her style and looks to appear more attractive to both the media and the public. She on and a lot of strengths in concluded,every respect, You but can ifhave you the appear most brilliant on television ideas and and the people greatest are visi mesmerised by what you're 98 wearing or your hairstyle, they won't hear anything you say at all. Angela Merkel had the same problem at the beginning of her political career. Accustomed to not caring about her looks while working in a physics laboratory, she never stood out in a feminine way and stayed in the background.99 On one of her first foreign affairs trips abroad, accompanying her former superior Lothar de Maiziere, he asked his office manager to take her shopping for new clothes.100 Her plain look helped her at the beginning of her political career, because her male competitors underestimated her ct
101 outmanoeuvred them. Her perseverance in wearingas thea grey same mouse kinds ofwhile pantsuits her sharp with aintelle simple helmet-hair look has forced the media to mostly give up on commenting on her clothes and hairstyle, besides a few exceptions.102
95 Yenko, Athena (2013, June 27) The Irony: PM Julia Gillard Once Feminist Icon for Misogyny Speech, Now Ousted as First Female Prime Minister. International Business Times. 96 Ibid. 97 Martinson, Jane (2014, January 27) Will Helen Clark be the first woman to run the UN? The Guardian. 98 NZ on Screen. Helen Clark: The Road to Power. Television 2013. 99 Packer, George (2014, December 1). The quiet German. The astonishing rise of Angela Merkel, the most powerful women in the world. The New Yorker. 100 Ibid. 101 Ibid. 102 Ibid.
18 103 Feminist Germaine Greer commented on the subject in frank matters: Observing All female her, politic it becomesians and womenevident she in public is following life should her own wear advice. black But and is grey dressing all the as time. plain and simplistic as possible the only solution for a female politician to get her voice heard?
By comparing the overall newspaper coverage of these three female leaders, it becomes evident that they all developed individual strategies to deal with the m issues. Merkel and Clark both try to deflect from gender specific issues,edia s focusMerkel on might gender even specific have managed to perfect the gender-unspecific aura that usually only male politicians get treated with. By comparing the media coverage in five major German newspapers104 on Angela Merkel of the G7 summit that was hosted in Germany, Schloss Elmau, in June 2015, it seems that she was successful. The newspapers covered mostly topics that were discussed on the summit, like the Ukraine situation and the Greek dept crisis. Two of the newspapers also mentioned trivial aspects, like the fact that President Obama planned to buy Lederhosen while he was there.105 For the German Chancellor, this kind of trivia coverage was lacking, one newspaper even pointed this out by comparing her reserved behaviour towards the German public to that of the US president.106
Clinton, on the other hand, plays in a different league altogether. As a former First Lady, she on objectifying female leaders. For a long time, she was
107 knowsonly judged about bythe theAmerican actions media s of her focus husband, former president Bill Clinton, and his affairs.
Especiallyseems to be in thethe normUSA, thisinstead kind of of the boulevard exception. press The mediafact that attention Angela towardsMerkel can the stillpolitical go to elite the convenience store around the corner in Germany without getting harassed (too much) by the 108 In the
Unitedpublic orStates the media that would speaks be for unthinkable. the German After press Hillary treatment Clinton of helda politician s a speech private on her life.goal to fight climate change if she became President on July 27th 2015, most newspapers109 covered how this goal might benefit her for her presidential campaign. The Week, The Guardian and the New York Times all questioned if this goal is even feasible and how much her idea is framed by the current
103 Smith, Julian & Coch, Lukas (2012, February 10) Cheryl Kernot on politics, the media and female leadership. 104 Der Spiegel, Die Welt, Die Zeit, Das Handelsblatt, Bild. 105 Luther, Carsten & Brost, Marc (2015, June 7) Auf ein Bier mit Obama. Die Zeit. , Die Welt (2015, June 7) Demonstration von Einigkeit bei Bier und Wurst. Die Welt. 106 Luther, Carsten & Brost, Marc (2015, June 7) Auf ein Bier mit Obama. Die Zeit. 107 Erin Matson (2015, April 23) The Sexism Is Everywhere, But Handling Hillary Clinton With Kid Gloves
108 Die Welt (2006, March 2) Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel geht immer noch selbst einkaufen. Die Welt. 109)sn t The Feminist; Week, The )t s Sexist.Guardian, The Daily Mail, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post.
19 trend in polls that shows how voters support a climate friendly candidate.110 The Daily Mail went so far as to accuse her of hypocrisy for going on a private jet after announcing she wanted America to become more climate-friendly. It’s that kind of hypocrisy that makes the majority of voters say Clinton is not honest and trustworthy. 111 The Washington Post mentioned her climate resolutions only briefly, and moved on quickly to discuss the still ongoing mail server scandal related to her that has been in the media for the past months.112 Furthermore, the reporter
113 compared this controversy None to her of husband sthe newspapers scandals contemplated and rated if her the lacking US needs behind a president to her husband sthat fights againstpolitical climate skills. change or why Mrs. Clinton would be an ideal candidate for this. The general bias lay in the question if she was just pretending to be climate-friendly to gain more voter support and whether this would matter in the long run since the Republican Congress would most likely hinder those goals anyway.114
Helen Clark has recently received the highest award at the Kea World Class New Zealand Awards 2015. In relation to this, media sources115 have covered the former New Zealand Prime Minister and the role she is currently playing as head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The overall theme in the media was her achievements as head of the UNDP and what her chances were on being elected next year as the successor to Ban Ki-moon as Secretary General of the UN, she would be the first woman in that position as well. Furthermore it was analysed how Clark would reform the UN if she became the next Secretary General116. In an interview with Stuff, she argued for more females in top positions and highlighted to look at the structural supports that we give to families so that everyone canthat reach We theirneed 117 potential. By comparing the three case studies of media coverage of the three politicians a few trends become obvious: First of all, reportage gave appropriate from information the quality about of the the content specific both events Merkel s without and Clark s focusing media on
unimportant side information. )n Clark s case it could be argued that this relates to the fact that 110 Waldman, Paul (2015, July 28) Why climate change will be a doubly tough issue for a President Hillary Clinton. The Week; install half a billion solar panels. The Guardian; Gabriel, Trip & Davenport, Coral (2015, July 27) Hillary Clinton Lays Out ClimateGoldenberg, Change Suzanne Plan. The , New YorkJuly Times. (illary Clinton s climate change policy pitch: 111 Martosko, David (2015, July 27) Exclusive: Video shows Hillary Clinton boarding private jet just hours after launching global aircraft that burns 347 gallons of fuel every hour! The Daily Mail. 112 Gerson, Michael (2015, July 2 The Washington Post. 113 Ibid. 114 Waldman, Paul (2015, July 28) Why (illary climate Clinton, change the Democrats will be a doubly wounded tough queen? issue for a President Hillary Clinton. The Week. 115 NBR, New Zealand Management, Stuff, 3 News. 116 Satherly, Dan (2015, July 3) Helen Clark hints at UN reform. 3 News. 117 Stuff.
Knight, Kim , July (elen Clark says women are still being held back by family duties . 20 she is Prime Minister no longer and therefore gets treated less harsh in the scrutiny of the media. on the other hand was far from neutral. As a presidential(illary candidate, Clinton s her portrayal actions inget the measured media against their potential to contribute to her run for presidency, but in the investigated example this went so far that the original intent (inform climate policy) got little or almost no attention. By comparing this media abouttreatment (illary s with the way other presidential candidates are portrayed in the media, it could be deduced how much of this is related to the heightened attention given to the presidential candidates and how much is related to her being a woman. Overall speaking, her media treatment in this example showed a quality that was subordinate to the reportage on Merkel and Clark and therefore confirms what Campus said about female politicians getting media coverage with a lesser quality, at least in her case; in the other two cases this hypothesis could not be confirmed.
21 Chapter 5: Reflecting on the change
Overall, the percentage of females in parliament has nearly doubled in the last 20 years, but this still means that only 22% of the people in parliament are women.118 A positive trend, but not even close to equality in political ranks. By looking at the female politicians who made it, it becomes apparent that the glass ceilings that hinder women to reach highest political positions are often still present in different forms. elections to high executive offices have been Some marked of the by countriessome form where of political women or have economic won 119 The benefit of the crisis is twofold: the previous candidate may have been discredited crisis. (through scandal or failure) and therefore the public embraces the newcomer more easily. Additionally, gender stereotypes might even work as an advantage, since the women could be 120 A good associatedexample of withthis would change be and the renewal former Nicaraguan and as less president corrupt than Violeta the Chamorroprevious candidate. who rose to power after a civil war. Angela Merkel and Helen Clark benefitted from the parliamentary systems they are in. Both were elected in a system where the emphasis rests more on the party that gets elected and less on the actual candidate, therefore the gender stereotyping gets reduced. Nevertheless, as the
121 race gets closer, campaigns are frequently driven by the image and personality of the party leader. Merkel, Clinton and Clark all come from a generation of women who grew up in a society that had strong patriarchal foundations. Women leaders were extremely rare and often discriminated against. They are the few who defied those stereotypes, who pushed through the expectations of not belonging there and defied the odds against their challengers. Many others never made it this far, therefore the numbers in political ranks today are still low. To answer the question whether IR is moving towards a less patriarchal structure, we would have to look at the number of women in political positions in twenty to thirty years to a different generation of female leaders who grew up in a society where a female chancellor– got re-elected two times, (for example in students who study IR), whereand where the numbers women weren t were encouraged always against to rise their to odds the highest political ranks instead of being discouraged from it. prime ministers yet orBy only looking had towards one, there the is countries often a female that didn t in the have top ranksfemale of presidents the political or parties who might end up having a chance of becoming head of state in the future, if society becomes more embracing towards the image of female leaders. In Great Britain, the leader of the
118 UN WOMEN Facts and Figures: Leadership and Political Participation. 119 Murray (2010) p. 21. 120 Ibid, p. 22. 121 Ibid, p.21.
22 third biggest party is female (Nicola Sturgeon), in France Marine le Pen has proven herself as a competent leader of the far right party. The possibilities of Hillary Clinton becoming president have been evaluated earlier.
On the other hand, people often still talk more about how leading female politicians are dressed than what they have to say. The role of the media in shaping the discourse showed how candidates receive disproportionate attention to their appearance relative to their women male opponents, with media coverage focusing on a range of trivial issues such as clothes and 122 In the media example of Hillary Clinton from the last chapter it became apparent hairstyle. that the quality of the coverage was reduced by the fact that she was compared to her husband s, former President Clinton s, actions and the question whether she was even capable of fulfilling her promises was at the forefront. The support for Hillary Clinton as the first female US president is evident from many ranks in society123, but there are always voices that still think women have nothing to do in those positions.124 Some even go so far as to say that women like Hillary Clinton confirm the patriarchal hegemony in IR125, by
126 therefore reinforcing the cultural dominance of the male leadershipbecoming style. blokes in suits and leadership style has been criticized for being dominant to a degree that kills democraticAngela Merkel s debate, to speak up.127 Thatcher had similar critiques duringsince she her doesn t terms leave and theroom British for the have opposition restrained from re-electing a woman ever since. Will Angela Merkel set back the female participation in politics in Germany in a similar fashion when she leaves? And for every woman who made it to the top, there are others who failed, because the glass ceiling was impenetrable for them. Ségolène Royal in France went from a strong position at the start to being defeated at the end. In Venezuela, Irene Saez went from being front- running candidate in 1998 to becoming third in elections.
Feminists have fought for many years for equality for women in many parts of society. Their achievements have brought IR to the point it is right now, even though their fight is far from over. Nonetheless, to change the discourse away from the president who is a feminist, maybe it is enough to change thepatriarchy system just maybe by being we don tthe example need a of a different way of handling politics and still being successful. That is why women like Merkel
122Murray (2010) p. 12. 123 The Hollywood Reporter (2013, October 30) Team Hillary Clinton: Jeffrey Katzenberg, Lena Dunham and Her 2016 Supporters. 124 Dr. Tublin, Patty Ann (2015, April 22) Women should NOT become President of the United States of America? Really? The Huffington Post. 125 Winkler (2013) p. 1. 126 Smith, Julian & Coch, Lukas (2012, February 10) Cheryl Kernot on politics, the media and female leadership. 127 Packer, George (2014, December 1). The quiet German. The astonishing rise of Angela Merkel, the most powerful women in the world. The New Yorker.
23 and Clark, who are allegedly not feminists, still change our approach to IR just by being a role model to follow. Overemphasizing gender might not even be healthy in letting IR grow to its next level,capable where for the it office. doesn t matter what gender the leader has, as long as he or she is the most
A research study by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman showed that statistically women are better leaders than men.128 If only it was that easy to convince chauvinist voters to give female politicians a chance to prove themselves instead of going for a male candidate by default. Unfortunately many stereotypes about women not being able to make it into high leadership positions still persist and are furthermore rooted in problems that are related to the way our society works. If women have to decide whether they want to become successful political leaders or have children, then we will never have equal numbers in those positions. The sacrifice is not easily made, therefore many women chose family over career, a choice that does not affect men to the same extend.129 On these grounds, the change that has to happen to move towards a less patriarchal society is not only in our heads, but also in institutional settings, in the opportunities we create for working mothers in leadership positions and the importance we give to raising the next generation with the perspective of equal opportunities.
128 Zenger, Jack & Folkman, Joseph (2012, March 15) Are Women Better Leaders than Men? Harvard Business Review. 129 Scott Paul, Jane (2010, December 2) Why do women still have to choose between careers and families? The Guardian.
24 Conclusion
The goal of this thesis to analyse whether we are moving to a less patriarchal society cannot be answered simply by yes or no. The complexity of the issue is reflected in the amount of opinions that exist, gravitating around the question whether we want more female politicians in high- ranking positions and if we think they are capable of handling the job and the responsibilities that come with it. And even if everyone would be objective, there is also the issue with the institutional settings for women to reach those positions that often still lack the appropriate endorsements to include women in all their forms, as single mothers, or families; career women or part time workers. The role of the media to shape the discourse on female politicians has been exemplified in this thesis, from the quantity to the quality of the coverage for three female politicians in power today. It deduced, based on the existing theory by Campus on Murray on the relationship of female politicians and the media, that the quantity of the coverage has been equalized in the three case studies, the quality on the other hand was noticeably worse for . This generates the question if her popularity and previous
(illaryachievements Clinton s will media be sufficient coverage for her to finally become the first female US president in 2016, even though she is the front-runner candidate at the moment. Angela Merkel appropriate in quality, which means that at least in theirand cases (elen the Clark sglass ceilings media thatcoverage are created was through the media have been reduced exampledecisively showed compared nevertheless to the media that treatment this is not at everywhere the beginning the case of their and careers. that pointing Mrs. Gillard out thes objectifying behaviour of the media can have unfortunate results for the politician. Feminist writers and activists still have a lot of work to do until this stereotyping behaviour is condemned as unprofessional, since the message has to reach the general public and not only IR circles. But as long as the general trend goes towards a more inclusive system for female politicians, we can work with the hypothesis that maybe in 20 to 30 years the number of female politicians in power will finally be more representative of the gender ratio that exists in our world.
25 Bibliography: Bernstein, C. (2008). A woman in charge: the life of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Vintage Books USA. • Butterfield, D. A., & Grinnell, J. P. (1999). Gender influences on performance evaluations. Handbook of gender at work. Thousand Oaks, CA. • Bystrom, D. G., Robertson, T., Banwart, M. C., & Kaid, L. L. (Eds.). (2004). Gender and candidate communication: Videostyle, webstyle, newstyle. Routledge. • Campus, D. (2013). Women political leaders and the media. Palgrave Macmillan. • Chaturvedi, S., Zyphur, M., Arvey, R., Avolio, B., & Larsson, G. (2012). The Heritability Of Emergent Leadership: Age And Gender As Moderating Factors. The Leadership Quarterly, 23, 219-232. • Clinton, H. R. (2014). Hard Choices: A Memoir. New York, Simon and Schuster. • Clinton, H. R. (2004). Living history. Simon and Schuster. • Crawford, Alan, Czuczka, Tony (2013). Angela Merkel: a chancellorship forged in crisis. Chichester: Wiley/Bloomberg Press. • Dowler, L. (2002). Women on the frontlines: Rethinking war narratives post 9/11. GeoJournal, 58(2-3), 159-165. • Eagly, A. H., & Karau, S. J. (2002). Role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders. Psychological Review, 109, 573-598. • Engen, Marloes Van (2001), Gender and Leadership: A Contextual Perspective. Tilburg: Tilburg University. • Enloe, Cynthia (2000) Bananas, Beaches & Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics. Berkeley: U of California. • Fowler, L. L., & Lawless, J. L. (2009). Looking for sex in all the wrong places: Press coverage and the electoral fortunes of gubernatorial candidates. Perspectives on Politics, 7(03), 519-536. • Genovese, Michael A. (1993) Women as National Leaders. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. • Grant, R., & Newland, K. (Eds.). (1991). Gender and international relations. Indiana University Press. • Hudson, V. (2007). The Individual Decision maker: the Political Psychology of World Leaders. Foreign Policy Analysis Classic and Contemporary Theory. Lanham Maryland:
Rowman and Littlefield. – • Kittilson, Miki and Fridkin, Kim (2008). Gender, Candidate Portrayals and Election Campaigns: A Comparative Perspective. Politics & Gender, 4, pp 371-392. • Kornelius, S. (2013). Angela Merkel: The Chancellor and Her World. London, Alma Books Ltd.
26 • Lasswell, Harold Dwight (1948). Power and Personality. New York, Norton. • Murray, R. (2010). Cracking the highest glass ceiling: A global comparison of women's campaigns for executive office. ABC-CLIO. • Northouse, P. G. (2007). Leadership. Theory and practice (4th ed.). USA: Sage Publications. • Peterson, V. (2003). Feminist theories within, invisible to, and beyond IR. Brown J. World Aff., 10, 35.
• Post. J. (2009). Political Personality Profiling. In Qualitative Methods in International Relations, Klotz, A. and Prakash, D. Eds., Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave, MacMillan. • Rosener, J. B. (1990). Ways women lead. Harvard Business Review, 119-25. • Skard, T. (2015). Women of power: Half a century of female presidents and prime ministers worldwide. Policy Press. • Steans, J. (2006). Gender and international relations. Cambridge, Polity Press. • Steinberg, B. (2008). Women in power. The personalities and leadership styles of Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, and Margaret Thatcher. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press • Tickner, J. A. (1992). Gender in international relations. Feminist Perspectives on Achieving Global Security. • Walby, S. (1990). Theorising patriarchy. Oxford. • Weyer, B. (2006). Twenty years later: explaining the persistence of the glass ceiling for women leaders. Women in Management Review, 22, 482-496.
• Wiliarty, Sarah Elise (2008) Angela Merkel's Path to Power: The Role of Internal Party Dynamics and Leadership, German Politics, 17:1, 81-96,
• Winkler, P. (2013) Confronting the International Patriarchy: Iran, Iraq and the United States of America, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
• Wishart, I. (2008). Absolute Power: The Helen Clark Years. Howling at the Moon Pub. • Yoder, Jennifer A. (2011) An Intersectional Approach to Angela Merkel's Foreign Policy, German Politics, 20:3, 360-375.
• Yee, Albert S. (1996). The causal effects of ideas on policies. International Organization, 50, pp 69-108.
27 Newspaper articles: (last retrieved July 29, 2015)
Adesnik,Of State. Forbes.David , Retrieved October from (illary Can t Name Top Accomplishment As Secretary http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidadesnik/2014/06/10/hillary-cant-name-top- accomplishment-as-secretary-of-state/ Andersen, Erika (2012, March 26) The Results Are In: Women Are Better Leaders. Forbes Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2012/03/26/the-results- are-in-women-are-better-leaders/ Bachner A., Schuler R., Völkerling J., Voss C. (2015, June 8) So wollen Merkel, Obama & Co. die Welt retten. Bild. Retrieved from: http://www.bild.de/politik/inland/g7- gipfel/g7-gipfel-ticker-41266206.bild.html Badkar, Mamta (2012, September 26) Greek Protester Holds Giant Merkel-Hitler Poster. Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/merkel-hitler-poster- 2012-9?IR=T Barkin, Noah (2014, March 7) Cold War shapes complex Merkel-Putin relationship. Reuters. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/07/us-merkel-putin- insight-idUSBREA260E120140307
Blome,When They Nikolaus Look et at al. Germany. , March Spiegel Online. The FourthRetrieved Reich : from What Some Europeans See http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-power-in-the-age-of-the-euro- crisis-a-1024714.html Daily Mail (2008, April 14) Weapons of Mass Distraction: German Chancellor Angela Merkel shows off plunging neckline. Daily Mail. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1015111/Weapons-Mass-Distraction- German-Chancellor-Angela-Merkel-shows-plunging-neckline.html Die Welt (2006, March 2) Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel geht immer noch selbst einkaufen. Die Welt. Retrieved from http://www.welt.de/print- welt/article201414/Bundeskanzlerin-Angela-Merkel-geht-immer-noch-selbst- einkaufen.html Die Welt (2015, June 7) Demonstration von Einigkeit bei Bier und Wurst. Die Welt. Retrieved from: http://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article142072624/Demonstration-von- Einigkeit-bei-Bier-und-Wurst.html Dowling, S. (2009, September 24) Does Angela Merkel deserve to be a feminist icon? Spiegel online international. Retrieved from
28 http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/letter-from-berlin-does-angela-merkel- deserve-to-be-a-feminist-icon-a-650888.html Dr. Tublin, Patty Ann (2015, April 22) Women should NOT become President of the United States of America? Really? The Huffington Post. Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-patty-ann-tublin/women-should-not-become- president-of-the-united-states_b_7109350.html Emundts, Corinna (2014, July 17) Eine Feministin wider Willen. Tagesschau.de. Retrieved from http://www.tagesschau.de/inland/merkel-portraet-100.html Engel, Pamela (2015, April 13) How Hillary Clinton dealt with the Monica Lewinsky scandal when she was in the White House. Business Insider UK. Retrieved from http://uk.businessinsider.com/how-hillary-clinton-dealt-with-monica-lewinsky- scandal-2015-4?r=US&IR=T Freiburg, Friederike (2012, August 2) Umfrage in Euro-Krise: Spitzenwerte für Merkel. Spiegel Online. Retrieved from http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/ard- deutschlandtrend-merkel-laut-umfrage-beliebteste-politikerin-a-847798.html Gabriel, Trip & Davenport, Coral (2015, July 27) Hillary Clinton Lays Out Climate Change Plan. The New York Times. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/28/us/politics/hillary-clinton-lays-out-climate- change-plan.html?_r=0 The
Gerson,Washington Michael Post. , Retrieved July from: (illary https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the- Clinton, the Democrats wounded queen? democrats-wounded-queen/2015/07/27/c7c33808-3478-11e5-8e66- 07b4603ec92a_story.html Goldenberg, Suzanne (2015, July 27) Hillary Cli
half a billion solar panels. The Guardian. Retrievednton s from: climate change policy pitch: install http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/27/hillary-clinton-climate-change- policy-solar-panels
(arper,for president, Jennifer only , 42 percent March want (illary her to. Clinton: The Washington percent Times. of Americans Retrieved say from she ll run http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/mar/24/hillary-clinton72-percent- americans-say-shell-run-/ Hildebrand, Jan (2015, June 8) Die Merkelisierung der G7-Gemeinschaft. Handelsblatt. Retrieved from: http://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/international/kommentar-zum- gipfel-auf-schloss-elmau-die-merkelisierung-der-g7-gemeinschaft/11887896.html
29 Hill, Steven (2010, Aug Social
Europe. Retrieved fromust http://www.socialeurope.eu/2010/08/angela-merkel-the- Angela Merkel: The World s Most Valuable Leader . worlds-most-valuable-leader/ Kelly, Mary (2015, April 21) Is not having children the price women such as Nicola Sturgeon pay for political success? Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/news-analysis/is-not-having-children-the- price-women-such-as-nicola-sturgeon-pay-for-political-success-31157569.html Kirschbaum, Erik (2008, April 18) Merkel tries to downplay fuss over opera gown. Reuters. Retrieved from http://in.reuters.com/article/2008/04/18/idINIndia- 33113020080418
Knight, KimStuff. , Retrieved July from: (elen Clark says women are still being held back by family duties .http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/69837125/helen-clark-says-women-are-still- being-held-back-by-family-duties Luther, Carsten & Brost, Marc (2015, June 7) Auf ein Bier mit Obama. Die Zeit. Retrieved from: http://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2015-06/schloss-elmau-g-7-gipfel-barack- obama-angela-merkel-kruen Martinson, Jane (2014, January 27) Will Helen Clark be the first woman to run the UN? The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jan/27/will-helen-clark-be-first- woman-to-run-united-nations Martosko, David (2015, July 27) Exclusive: Video shows Hillary Clinton boarding private jet just hours after launching global aircraft that burns 347 gallons of fuel every hour! The Daily Mail. Retrieved from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article- 3176630/Video-shows-Hillary-Clinton-boarding-private-jet-just-hours-launching- global-warming-push-s-using-FRENCH-aircraft-burns-347-gallons-fuel-hour.html McCain Nelson, Colleen (2015, July 27) Hillary Clinton Sidesteps Keystone in Climate Plan Rollout. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/07/27/hillary-clinton-sidesteps-keystone-in- climate-plan-rollout/ Müller-Vogg, Hugo (2013, September 20) Mutti ist die beste. Cicero. Retrieved from http://www.cicero.de/berliner-republik/kanzlerin-mutti-ist-die-beste/55854 NZ Herald (2013, August 5) Helen Clark: Self-belief the winning ingredient. NZ Herald. Retrieved from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10908242
30 Packer, George (2014, December 1). The quiet German. The astonishing rise of Angela Merkel, the most powerful women in the world. The New Yorker. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/01/quiet-german
Parker,Class New Cathy Zealand , Awards. July New(elen Zealand Clark wins Management. the Supreme Retrieved Award from: at Kea s World http://www.management.co.nz/news/helen-clark-wins-supreme-award- kea%E2%80%99s-2015-world-class-new-zealand-awards Sande, Anne (2013, July 12) The persecution of Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Independent Australia. Retrieved from https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics- display/the-persecution-of-prime-minister-julia-gillard,5511 Satherly, Dan (2015, July 3) Helen Clark hints at UN reform. 3 News. Retrieved from: http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/helen-clark-hints-at-un-reform- 2015070311#axzz3hC0OyVKT yet media and politics is still a
Savigny, (. andNewStatesman O Neill D. ,. Retrieved April . from )t s – man shttp://www.newstatesman.com/media/2014/04/it-s-2014-yet-media-and-politics-still- game. man-s-game Scott Paul, Jane (2010, December 2) Why do women still have to choose between careers and families? The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/careers/women-choose-career-or-family Smith, Julian & Coch, Lukas (2012, February 10) Cheryl Kernot on politics, the media and female leadership. The Conversation. Retrieved from http://theconversation.com/cheryl- kernot-on-politics-the-media-and-female-leadership-5304 Smylie, Calida (2015, July 3) Tall poppies celebrated at expat association awards. NBR. Retrieved from: http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/tall-poppies-celebrated-expat- association-awards-cs-175067 Sperling, Valerie (2015, February 17) Why Putin and some of his female fans go
shirtless. The World Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/valerie-– – sperling/putin-female-fans-shirtless_b_6664240.html Spiegel Online (2013, March 24) Europäisches Deutschlandbild: Bewundert, beneidet, belächelt. Spiegel Online. Retrieved from http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/euro-krise-was-europas-intellektuelle- ueber-deutschland-denken-a-901310.html Spiegel Online (2015, June 8) Gipfel in Elmau: Vereint gegen Russland. Spiegel Online. Retrieved from: http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/g7-gipfel-angela-merkel- zieht-positive-elmau-bilanz-a-1037740.html
31 . The Stanford
TheDaily Stanford, Volume Daily 188, ,Issue 44. November Retrieved from Regan s http://stanforddailyarchive.com/cgi- words draw comments bin/stanford?a=d&d=stanford19851121-01.2.56 Waldman, Paul (2015, July 28) Why climate change will be a doubly tough issue for a President Hillary Clinton. The Week. Retrieved from: http://theweek.com/articles/568590/why-climate-change-doubly-tough-issue- president-hillary-clinton Die
Wagner,Deutsche TiloWelle. , Retrieved November from http://www.dw.com/en/portuguese-protest-ahead- Portuguese protest ahead of Merkel s visit. of- merkels-visit/a-16369387 rusade
Watson,Continues. Tom Forbes ,. Retrieved November from Full Equality For Women: (illary Clinton s C http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomwatson/2013/11/20/full-equality-for-women- hillary-clintons-crusade-continues/ Yenko, Athena (2013, June 27) The Irony: PM Julia Gillard Once Feminist Icon for Misogyny Speech, Now Ousted as First Female Prime Minister. International Business Times. Retrieved from http://www.ibtimes.com.au/irony-pm-julia-gillard-once-feminist- icon-misogyny-speech-now-ousted-first-female-prime-minister Zeit Online (2013, Mai 16) Kennen wir die nicht? Die Zeit. Retrieved from http://www.zeit.de/2013/21/biografen-angela-merkel Zenger, Jack & Folkman, Joseph (2012, March 15) Are Women Better Leaders than Men? Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2012/03/a-study-in- leadership-women-do
Internet sources: (last retrieved July 28, 2015)
inition rethink.
ABCRetrieved News from , October Gillard s speech prompts misogyny def http://web.archive.org/web/20130820083309/http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012- 10-17/misogyny-redefined-after-gillard-speech/4317468 BBC NEWS (2014, October 27). Dilma Rousseff.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-11446466Brazil s )ron Lady . Retrieved from Debate.org. Clinton vs. Obama: Is the first female president more important than a black president? http://www.debate.org/opinions/clinton-vs-obama-is-the-first-female- president-more-important-than-a-black-president
32 Erin Matson (2015, April 23) The Sexism Is Everywhere, But Handling Hillary Clinton rom
Withhttp://erintothemax.com/2015/04/23/the-sexism- Kid Gloves )sn t Feminist; )t s Sexist. Retrieved isf -everywhere-but-handling-hillary- clinton-with-kid-gloves-isnt-feminist-its-sexist/
Forbes.http://www.forbes.com/profile/vladimir-putin/?list=powerful-people The World s most powerful People. Retrieved from
Forbes.http://www.forbes.com/profile/angela-merkel/?list=power-women The World s most powerful Women. Retrieved from . Retrieved from
Forbes.http://www.forbes.com/profile/helen-clark/?list=power-women The World s most powerful Women. (elen Clark
Forbes.http://www.forbes.com/profile/hillary-clinton/?list=power-women The World s most powerful Women. (illary Clinton. Retrieved from Gallup Daily: Obama Job Approval. Retrieved from http://www.gallup.com/poll/113980/gallup-daily-obama-job-approval.aspx
NationalPress. Retrieved Public Radio from ,http://www.npr.org/2015/03/29/396128370/clinton-seeks-a- March Clinton Seeks a New Relationship With the new-relationship-with-the-press NZ on Screen. Helen Clark: The Road to Power. Television 2013. Retrieved from http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/helen-clark-the-road-to-power-2013 Presse- und Informationsamt der Bundesregierung (2015). Angela Merkel. Biographie. Retrieved from http://www.bundeskanzlerin.de/Webs/BKin/DE/AngelaMerkel/Biografie/biografie_no de.html The Hollywood Reporter (2013, October 30) Team Hillary Clinton: Jeffrey Katzenberg, Lena Dunham and Her 2016 Supporters. Retrieved from: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/gallery/team-hillary-clinton-jeffrey-katzenberg- 651583/1-jeffrey-katzenberg UN WOMEN Facts and Figures: Leadership and Political Participation. Retrieved from http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/leadership-and-political- participation/facts-and-figures Washington Post timeline of Whitewater. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/whitewater/timeline.htm YouTube (2013, September 23) Saturday Night Live Palin/Hillary Open. Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSOLz1YBFG0– YouTube (2012, October 8) Gillard labels Abbott a misogynist. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihd7ofrwQX0
33
34