Women politicians in the UK press: not seen and not heard?

Abstract

This article asks questions about the ways in which female politicians are depicted in press coverage. Previous research has explored the ways in which female politicians are constructed as “other” from the male politician norm, where “men were taken to stand for the whole human population.” Other work has shown that coverage emphasises their appearance or femininity. However, there has been less research on the visibility of women in politics in our media: women not only need to be involved in politics, they need to be seen to be doing political work. Through a content analysis of British press coverage using samples from the last twenty years, we examine the relative visibility of women MPs compared to men, the extent to which their voice is heard, and the context of the coverage. We argue this may well contribute to deterring women from taking part in parliamentary politics.

Keywords:

• Women politicians
• UK press
• politics
• content analysis

Notes

1. Where descriptive representation refers to the actual numbers of women in Parliament, and substantive representation refers to the way in which women’s interests are articulated and represented. This distinction is useful as it highlights the differing ways in which women and their interests may be represented. It also reminds us that not all women may represent women’s interests, and that men also may well substantively represent women (see Sarah Childs and Mona Lena Krook 2006).

2. “Blair’s babes” refers to the female MPs and parliamentary candidates in the Labour party at the time that Tony Blair was the Labour leader.