Works Well with Others: Gendered Mediation of Collaborative Leadership Skills

ABSTRACT

This research note reports an intriguing finding, reached inductively from textual analysis of newspaper coverage of the leadership attributes of 22 women and men premiers in Australia and Canada. When introducing these newly selected subnational government leaders to the public, journalists articulated their capacity to work well with others as an important leadership competency. Women and men premiers alike were described as inclusive, conciliatory, and consultative, and these qualities were highlighted as integral to effective decision-making and sound governance practices. Our research challenges a central proposition of the gendered mediation thesis: that news coverage of political leaders foregrounds and lauds the agentic qualities traditionally associated with men and masculinity while downplaying and denigrating communal qualities linked to women and femininity. Evidence of media attention to and praise for collaborative leadership traits indicates a feminization of politics that disrupts gender stereotypes in a manner helpful to women’s political ambition.

KEYWORDS:

• Gendered mediation
• leadership skills
• news
• premiers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Linda Trimble

Linda Trimble is a Professor in the Political Science Department at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada). Her work explores women’s representation in political office and gendered news coverage of government leaders. Recent publications include: Ms. Prime Minister: Gender, Media and Leadership (University of Toronto Press, 2017); “Representations of Political Leadership Qualities in News Coverage of Australian and Canadian Government Leaders” (Politics & Gender, 2021); “Invoking the Idealized Family to Assess Political Leadership and Legitimacy” (Feminist Media Studies, 2020): and “Gender Novelty and Personalized News Coverage in Australia and Canada” (International Political Science Review, 2019).

Jennifer Curtin

Jennifer Curtin is a Professor of Politics and Public Policy at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She is also Inaugural Director of the Auckland’s Public Policy Institute. Jennifer’s research spans the topics of women’s political representation, political leadership and gender and public policy. Her recent publications include: A Bark but no Bite: The 2014 New Zealand General Election (ANU Press, 2017) and A Populist Exception? The 2017 New Zealand General Election (ANU Press, 2020). She has also coauthored a number of articles with her those listed here and has contributed to edited volumes on the Australian Federal Election. Jennifer provides regular commentary and written content to a number of New Zealand and international media outlets.

Meagan Auer

Meagan Auer is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada). Her research interests include gender and political representation, as well as the politics of higher education. Meagan has led a variety of research teams, exploring issues such as complex representations of women and terrorism, as well as gender and politics. Some of her recent work includes articles titled, “Framing the ‘White Widow’: Using intersectionality to uncover complex representations of female terrorism in news media,” and “Invoking the idealized family to assess political leadership and legitimacy: news coverage of Australian and Canadian premiers.” Meagan is a recipient of the Joseph Armand-Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship - Doctoral.

Angelia Wagner

Angelia Wagner is an instructor and adjunct professor in Political Science Department at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada). Her work explores political candidacy, political representation, and gendered news coverage of politicians. She is co-editor of Gendered Mediation: Identity and Image Making in Canadian Politics (UBC Press). Her work has been published in Politics and Gender, Feminist Media Studies, Politics, Groups, and Identities, Journal of Political Marketing, and Canadian Journal of Political Science. She is a co-investigator on a new SSHRC-funded project examining the role of candidate identity, media representations, and voter affinity in Canadian federal elections.

V. K. G. Woodman

VKG Woodman is a PhD candidate, research analyst, and teaching assistant in Politics and International Relations and the Public Policy Institute at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her research interests include New Zealand and Australian political history and political institutions, electoral and party politics, women’s political representation, and gender and public policy. She has published articles and chapters in Feminist Media Studies, Australian Journal of Political Science, International Political Science Review, Politics and Gender, and Politics and Government in Aotearoa New Zealand (Oxford University Press, 2021).