Fashion in politics: what makes Korean female politicians wear ‘the suit’ not ‘a dress’?

ABSTRACT

Female participation in global politics became remarkable and there are increasing numbers in recent century. Visual appearance has gained attention along with globalisation and increasing significance of global media flow. Fashion became a tool of politicians as a strategic tool. Female politicians tend to receive more attention in their fashion and often interpreted by gendered views in media articles. In addition, most research of female politicians’ fashion seems to focus on western female politicians than non-westerns that provide a notion of Imperialism also provide limitations to study of Asian female politicians. This article presents the implication of gender stereotype and Imperialism in global politics through investigating Korean female politicians’ fashion. A main conclusion of the study shows that the suit is a legacy of masculinity and prevalence of gender stereotypes in politics. Additionally, global politics retain its masculinity and gender stereotypes the Korean female politicians’ tenacity for ‘the suit’ fashion may perpetuate.

KEYWORDS:

• Female politician
• fashion politics
• gender stereotype
• Korean female politician
• the suit

Availability of data and materials

All data and materials used in this article are correctly reference following the guidelines and standards and can be found in reference section.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Youri Oh http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9753-7247