Reading
about the woes of the former Finnish PM made me think about the situation of Čaputová here in Slovakia. Do you agree
with this article's claim that citizens do not have an overall bias against
female politicians? Their evidence for
this is cross-national. Might Slovakia
be an exception? What has your experience
of the media coverage of women in politics been? Should the media change how they cover female
candidates and politicians? How?
Saturday, January 20, 2024
Focusing on the fashion and family of female politicians
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This article presents an interesting analysis of how media attention impacts political candidates. To my pleasant surprise, the article suggested that voters aren’t naturally biased when it comes to candidate's gender. I previously thought that gender biases are way too ingrained in one's upbringing, which may then lead to bias when voting. For example, I have previously heard people discussing our president, Caputova, suggesting that she might lack specific attributes necessary for leadership purely because she is a woman. Although I realize that these are just my personal experiences, which hopefully will disappear on a larger scale, I simply find it hard to believe that voters are completely unbiased when it comes to candidates' gender.
ReplyDeleteWhat didn’t come as a shock was that how reports portray politicians plays a role in reinforcing old stereotypes. In particular, men are seen as ambitious and calculated, while their female counterparts are viewed as more emotional and cooperative. This could be seen in coverage of Caputova before her presidential election, where many reporters focused on her family life instead of her actual qualities. On one hand, I do understand that voters and readers in general are interested in the personal lives of candidates. It can be interesting to see how politicians act behind closed doors, as it can sometimes tell a different story than the one that has been presented to us. On the other hand, the main focus should still be on qualities related to being a politician, such as their educational background and their stances, which are obviously more relevant than the number of children they have or their recent purchases.
To address this issue, I believe the media should shift its emphasis when it comes to political candidates and politics in general. Rather than highlighting personal life, there should be a priority on the candidate's professional qualifications, policies, and leadership capabilities.
My initial reaction when I read that the article was claiming that citizens are not naturally biased against female politicians was discord. I assumed that there would be natural bias against female politicians amongst the majority of the population, but after comprehending the rest of the content from the article, combined with my own knowledge concerning the issue, I came to the conclusion that this statement might be true in the majority of developed countries. Although some might argue that Slovakia is still a very conservative country compared to the rest of the western countries, and the old fashioned way image of women is deeply embedded into the regular person’s judgment when considering who to circle in their ballot, I think that the biases against female candidates in Slovakia are mostly artificial, being fueled by both style of media coverage as the article claims, but also by the lack of parity in representation of females in politics.
ReplyDeleteI was not living in Slovakia at the time of Ms. Čaputová’s presidential campaign nor her inauguration, so I can not judge the media coverage of her in particular, but reflecting on the media coverage from the past two years, combined with what I saw elsewhere, it is evident that there is a tendency to focus more on personal aspects, appearance, and family life rather than policy issues and leadership traits when it comes to female politicians. This skewed coverage reinforces traditional gender stereotypes and perpetuates the bias against female politicians. Should the media change how they cover female candidates and politicians? Absolutely. The article is full of evidence supporting this claim. It highlights that different topics, such as discussions about appearance or family, harm female politicians' chances disproportionately to that of male politicians’. There is a need for a shift towards more balanced and policy-focused reporting that evaluates things that actually matter like their qualifications, ideas, and leadership skills.
Moreover, but much more controversial, with strong arguments supporting both sides of opinion, is promoting parity in representation between male and female politicians, i.e. affirmative action. On one hand, this could diminish the image that the majority of politicians are male, helping eliminate the bias created by seeing women represented unproportionately, leading us to believe that it is still a man’s job. It would also inspire other women, whether young or old, who are now fearing the hostility of the environment to pursue politics. On the other hand, this could lead to even more bias and discrimination towards females in the field, as some would view this as unfair and not being assessed based on qualifications but rather purely gender. Small mistakes that would have been normally overlooked would be inflated and judged much more severely.