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Gender Stereotypes and Media Bias in Women's Gender Stereotypes and Media Bias in Women’s Campaigns for Executive Office: The 2009 Campaign of Dora Bakoyannis for the Leadership of Nea Dimokratia in Greece by Stefanos Oikonomou B.A. in Communications and Media Studies, February 2010, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens A Thesis submitted to The Faculty of College of Professional Studies of The George Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Professional Studies August 31, 2014 Thesis directed by Michael Cornfield Associate Professor of Political Management Acknowledgments I would like to thank my parents, Stella Triantafullopoulou and Kostas Oikonomou, to whom this work is dedicated, for their continuous love, support, and encouragement and for helping me realize my dreams. I would also like to thank Chrysanthi Hatzimasoura and Philip Soucacos, for their unyielding friendship, without whom this work would have never been completed. Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to Professor Michael Cornfield for his insights and for helping me cross the finish line; Professor David Ettinger for his guidance during the first stage of this research and for helping me adjust its scope; and the Director of Academic Administration at The Graduate School of Political Management, Suzanne Farrand, for her tremendous generosity and understanding throughout this process. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………..ii List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………….vi List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………….vii Thesis Statement…………………………………………………………………………..1 Chapter 1: Introduction……..………………….……………………………………....... 1.1 The Inevitable Winner……….…………………………………………………2 1.2 This Woman….……………………………………………………………..…..6 1.3 Research Questions……….…………………………………………………...11 1.4 Thesis Overview………………………………………………………………12 Chapter 2: Gender and Politics……….……………….………………………………… 2.1 Women in Politics……..………………………………………………………14 2.2 Gender Stereotypes in Politics………………………………………………...18 2.3 Gender and Executive Office…………..……………………………………...23 2.4 Pathways to Executive Power…...…………………………………………….35 2.4.1 Shattered Ceilings………………………………………………...35 2.4.2 Institutional Factors………………………………………………36 2.4.3 Familial Connections……………………………………………..38 2.4.4 Environment of Crisis…………………………………………….39 2.5 Practical Implications………….……………………………………………….42 Chapter 3: Gender and Media Coverage……………………………………...………… 3.1 Mediated and Gendered………...……………………………………………..44 iii 3.2 Quantitative and Qualitative Aspects of Coverage……………………...…….49 3.3 Media, Gender, and Executive Office…………………………………………53 3.4 Gendered Frames……. ……………………………………………………….55 3.4.1 Appearance…………....……………………………………….…55 3.4.2 First Name………………………………………………………..58 3.4.3 Family………………...………………………………….……….60 3.4.4 First Woman………………………………………………………62 3.4.5 Emotions………………………………………………………….63 3.5 Practical Implications………….………………………………………………67 Chapter 4: The Case Study of Dora Bakoyannis…………….………………………… 4.1 Women in Greek Politics……………………………………………………...70 4.2 Legal Frameworks, Structural Parameters and Public Attitudes……………...73 4.3 The Political Context………...………………………………………………..78 4.4 Methodology…….…………………………………………………………….88 4.5 Gender Stereotypes in Perceptions of Bakoyannis…………………………….92 4.6 Quantitative and Qualitative Coverage of Bakoyannis………………………...98 4.7 Gendered Frames……..……………………………………………………...109 4.7.1 Appearance………………………………………….………….109 4.7.2 First Name……………………...………………………………112 4.7.3 Family…………………………………………………….…….117 4.7.4 First Woman……………………………………………………118 4.7 Emotions………………………………………………….…….119 Chapter 5: Conclusion……………………………………………………………………. iv 5.1 Summary of Findings…………………………………………………….…..121 5.2 Limitations and Directions for Future Research………………………….….123 5.3 “Women Are Never Front-Runners”……………………..………………….124 Appendices…………………………………………………………………………..….126 Bibliography…..……………………………………………………………………..…140 v List of Figures Figure 1: Voting Intentions for a Woman Prefect, Mayor, President, Prime Minister…..77 Figure 2: Attitudes About Women Leaders of Major Parties……………………………78 Figure 3: Perceptions of Candidates’ Personality Traits…………………………………94 Figure 4: Perceptions of Candidates’ Leadership Qualities……………………………...95 Figure 5: Breakdown of Bakoyannis’ Issue Coverage……...………………………….104 Figure 6: Breakdown of Samaras’ Issue Coverage……………………………………..104 vi List of Tables Table 1: Regional Averages of Women in National Legislatures……………………….15 Table 2: Women in the Greek National Legislature……………………………………..71 Table 3: Method for Obtaining the Bias of a News Story……………………………….91 Table 4: Quantity of Coverage (Paragraph)………..…………………………………...103 Table 5: Quantity of Coverage (Headlines/Bylines)……………………...…………….103 Table 6: Type of Coverage (Paragraph)………………………………….……………..103 Table 7: Tone of Coverage (Article)……………………………...…………………….108 Table 8: Tone of Coverage (Paragraph)………………………………………………...108 Table 9: Tone of Coverage (Headline/Byline)………………………...………………..109 Table 10: References to Candidates’ Appearances………………...…………………...109 Table 11: Forms of Address (Article)……….…..……………………………………...115 Table 12: Forms of Address (Headline/Byline)…………..…………………………….115 Table 13: Forms of Address – Control for Candidate Self-Representation……….…....116 Table 14: References to Candidates’ Families….………………………………….…...116 vii Thesis Statement Women comprise half the world’s population yet they remain dramatically under- represented in political institutions around the world at every level and type of office. In recent years, women leaders like Michelle Bachelet, Julia Gillard, Park Geun-hye and Angela Merkel shattered their countries’ highest glass ceilings to attain elite leadership positions; however, executive office remains extremely masculinized and male remains the default sex of office-holding. Based on a content analysis of an original data set of 811 articles consisting of 4,786 paragraphs, which draws from the analytical framework Rainbow Murray suggests in Cracking the Highest Glass Ceiling: A Global Comparison of Women’s Campaigns for Executive Office, this research examines the ways gender stereotypes and gendered media coverage shaped the contours of Dora’s Bakoyannis campaign for the leadership of one of the major political parties in Greece. Overall, while not implicitly acknowledged in campaign discourse and media coverage, gender operated in the background, influencing the strategies and representation of the candidate, and though not the single driver, it was a contributory factor to her discredit and eventual defeat. Key words: Dora Bakoyannis; Greece; Nea Dimokratia; women in politics; women political candidates; women executives; gender stereotypes; media gender bias. 1 Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 The Inevitable Winner On October 4th, 2009,1 Dora Bakoyannis embarked on a campaign to win the leadership of Nea Dimokratia (ND) and become the first woman at the helm of one of the two major political parties in Greece.2 Earlier that day, the leader of the party and prime minister, Kostas Karamanlis, announced his intention to step down from the leadership of ND following a defeat of historic magnitude by George Papandreou’s Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK). Bakoyannis started the campaign not just as the strong front-runner but basically as the inevitable winner -- having previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in Karamanlis’ cabinets, she had established her presence as the undisputed number two in the party hierarchy and possessed the experience, organizational muscle, resources, and support in the parliamentary caucus that guaranteed a smooth victory in the upcoming party convention. Furthermore, a number of the institutional arrangements and conditions that facilitate women’s ascent to executive office were present3 -- a party 1 The official announcement of Bakoyannis’ candidacy took place on October 12th; however, for reasons of consistency since each candidate entered the race on different dates, the start of the campaign will be considered the night of the general election, when Karamanlis’ resignation created a leadership vacuum and triggered the process of his succession. 2From the 1974 transition to democracy in the aftermath of the collapse of the military junta until 2012, ND and PASOK had been the main poles of a two-party system that held power in rotation: 1974-1981 (ND), 1981-1989 (PASOK), 1989-1993 (ND), 1993-2004 (PASOK), 2004-2009 (ND), 2009-2012 (PASOK). In the general elections of May and June 2012, following the bankruptcy of the Greek economy, the bailout agreements between PASOK’s government and the troika of lenders (EU, ECB, IMF), accompanied by harsh austerity measures, PASOK’s electoral support collapsed and came third in the polls while SYRIZA finished second and emerged as the new main pole of the Left. 3 Farida Jalalzai. 2013. Shattered, Cracked, or Firmly Intact? : Women and the Executive Glass Ceiling Worldwide. New York: Oxford University Press. 2 parliamentary system, an environment of crisis and political transition, as well as familial connections.4 Early polls confirmed the status of the overwhelming favorite -- Bakoyannis dominated the field and leaded her three male opponents by significant margins. At the outset of the campaign, according to a poll conducted for the newspaper Kathimerini, Bakoyannis polled at 28 percent; Antonis Samaras at 15 percent; Dimitris Avramopoulos at 13 percent; and Panagiotis Psomiadis at 6 percent.5 Another poll for the TV station Alpha confirmed the state of the horse-race with Bakoyannis
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