VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND DIPLOMACY PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT Vigilija Žiūraitė WOMEN IN SPANISH POLITICS OF CHANGE: STUDY OF ROLES AND REPRESENTATIONS (in English) Final Master Thesis Journalism and Media Analysis Study Program, state code 621P50002 Degree in Journalism Supervisor Prof. dr. Auksė Balčytienė (acad. title, name, surname) Defended Prof. dr. Šarūnas Liekis (Dean of the Faculty) Kaunas, 2016 VYTAUTO DIDŽIOJO UNIVERSITETAS POLITIKOS MOKSLŲ IR DIPLOMATIJOS FAKULTETAS VIEŠOSIOS KOMUNIKACIJOS KATEDRA Vigilija Žiūraitė MOTERYS ISPANIJOS PERMAINŲ POLITIKOJE: VAIDMENŲ IR ĮVAIZDŽIŲ STUDIJA (lietuvių kalba) Magistro baigiamasis darbas Žurnalistikos ir medijų analizės studijų programa, valstybinis kodas 621P50002 Žurnalistikos studijų kryptis Vadovė Prof. dr. Auksė Balčytienė (Moksl. laipsnis, vardas, pavardė) Apginta Prof. dr. Šarūnas Liekis (Fakulteto dekanas) Kaunas, 2016 2 CONTENT LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................. 4 SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................................ 5 SANTRAUKA .................................................................................................................................... 7 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 9 1. CONCEPT OF POLITICS OF CHANGE .................................................................................... 14 1.1. Description of a new politics .................................................................................................. 14 1.2. Recent political changes in spain............................................................................................ 16 1.3. Main features of politics of change ........................................................................................ 21 2. FEMINIZING POLITICS ............................................................................................................. 23 2.1. Feminization of politics as a part of democracy ..................................................................... 23 2.2. Spanish women participation in politics ................................................................................. 24 3. MEDIA AS A MIRROR OF SOCIO-POLITICAL PROCESSES ............................................... 26 3.1. Social constructionism and women representation in media.................................................. 26 3.2. Media, discourse and power ................................................................................................... 28 3.3. Challenges of politics of change for the media ...................................................................... 29 4. METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................................ 33 4.1. Critical discourse analysis: sampling and steps ...................................................................... 33 4.2. Formation of the interview questionnaire and principles of data analysis ............................. 37 4.3. Selection of the participants and interview process ............................................................... 38 5. ANALYSIS OF REPRESENTATIONS ....................................................................................... 42 5.1. Arise of new women leaders .................................................................................................. 42 5.2. Ada Colau as “rebel” .............................................................................................................. 44 5.3. Manuela Carmena as “grandma” ............................................................................................ 45 6. ANALYSIS OF ROLES ................................................................................................................ 48 6.1. Women on politics of change ................................................................................................. 48 6.2. Reasons to participate in politics ............................................................................................ 50 6.3. Experiences, achievements and disappointments .................................................................. 52 6.4. Importance of feminism and feminization of politics ............................................................ 54 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................................... 57 RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................................................................. 60 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................. 61 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................. 73 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................................... 74 3 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 15-M – Movimiento 15-M (15-M Movement or Indignants Movement), started on 5th of May, 2011 in Spain 20D – Spanish general election held on Sunday, 20th of December, 2015 EP – European Parliament EU – European Union IU – Izquierda Unida (United Left party) PAH – Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (Platform for People Affected by Mortgages) PP – Partido Popular (People's Party) PSOE – Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) UD – Unidad Popular (Popular Unity party) USA – United States of America 4 SUMMARY Vigilija Žiūraitė. Women in Spanish politics of change: study of roles and representations. Master thesis in Journalism and Media Analysis, Univerisity of Vytautas Magnus, Kaunas, 2016. Key words: politics of change, Spain, feminization of politics, women representation Times after economic crisis started in 2008 were tough for Spain. People started to face negative effects of crisis in their new everyday life marked by high rates of unemployment, decreasing economy and increasing taxes, cuts on education and health care, corruption in business and politics. Massive protests and strikes occupied streets of Spain because citizens were unsatisfied with current situation. Back then 15-M Movement seemed as one of thousands other demonstrations around Spain but it actually was so significant that today scientists call it a part of country’s revolution. On 15th of May, 2011, around 8 million Spaniards went to the streets to show their rejection of politics and politicians that doesn’t represent them anymore. Not only 15-M Movement made politicians from traditional parties to rethink their decisions but also it gave a possibility for new political parties to arise. In general, a new phase of Spanish socio-political life has started that in this work is discussed as politics of change. This thesis offers to look into these recent political changes in Spain through women’s experiences and participations. Even though the idea of politics feminization in Spain came together with new leaders and the symbols of political changes – Ada Colau and Manuela Carmena – it was noticed that women in politics of change are less seen in the public and less represented in the media on daily bases. Their input into the politics of change stays unknown. Media occupies an important role here because it is main source to voice women participation in the political changes in Spain. Therefore, this study aims to disclose women representations and their roles in contemporary politics in Spain. In order to achieve the aim, these questions will be answered: what are the main features of politics of change? What relation do women have with politics of change in Spain? How media creates representations of women who brought ideas of political change? What women themselves see as their roles in political changes? After analysing the theoretical approaches about politics of change, feminization of politics and media representations, two qualitative methods (semi-structured interviews and discourse analysis) were chosen in order to understand women representations and their roles in Spanish politics of change. The result of the analysis showed that women in politics receive triple critique: for being women and reaching for the highest positions, for not being a part of traditional parties and for changes and doing politics in different way in Spain. However, in politics of change media creates female representations based on their actions and ideologies and factors like their appearances or family life are slightly left for the second plan. Women, activists and politicians, see 5 their role in politics of change as direct and indirect change of the institutions in order to make them more open to people; they want to show that politics can be done in a different and more democratic way. 6 SANTRAUKA Vigilija Žiūraitė. Moterys Ispanijos permainų politikoje: vaidmenų ir įvaizdžių studija. Žurnalistikos ir medijų analizės magistro darbas. Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas, Kaunas, 2016. Reikšminės sąvokos: permainų politika, Ispanija, politikos feminizacija, moterų reprezentacija Laikotarpis po 2008 metų ekonominės krizės pradžios Ispanijai buvo nelengvas. Žmonės pradėjo jausti negatyvius krizės padarinius, kurie pasižymėjo aukštu