Treatment of Women In Politics

Treatment of Women In Politics
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Table of content
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1.0 INTRODUCTION  PAGEREF _Toc354515251 \h
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2.0 MATERIALS AND METHODS OF RESEARCH ON WOMEN REPRESENTATION BY MEDIA  PAGEREF _Toc354515252 \h
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3.0 FINDINGS/RESULTS  PAGEREF _Toc354515253 \h
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4.0 DISCUSSION  PAGEREF _Toc354515254 \h
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4.1 The role of media on women empowering  PAGEREF _Toc354515255 \h
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4.2 Portrayal of women by the media  PAGEREF _Toc354515256 \h
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4.3 Role of women journalist in media  PAGEREF _Toc354515257 \h
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5.0 OBSERVATIONS  PAGEREF _Toc354515258 \h
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6.0 RECOMMENDATIONS  PAGEREF _Toc354515259 \h
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7.0 CONCLUSION  PAGEREF _Toc354515260 \h
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8.0 REFERENCES  PAGEREF _Toc354515261 \h
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Treatment of Women in Politics by Media
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Women emancipation is the longest and the most significant social movement continuing. The primary goal of women empowering is to improve the women’s quality of life. However, it has deep ramifications in relation to economic, social and the political fields of body polity. Media has been instrumental in women ramification though not as per the expectations, through its wide reach on the people (Campus, 2013 pp.33). This is through the focus accorded the neglect and marginalization of women’s position in the society. Women take part in politics in a number of ways. Some may assume an active interest and join political parties and or other organizations, serving in the community management committees, and or parliament. While others may participate in some lobby groups others may limit their political participation to the polling duty. The importance and attention accorded to gender also differs. To some women, their feminist identification is an indication of their participation in political issues. In other cases, the women’s interests are of less significance compared to other general matters.
This work examines the treatment of women in politics by the media over the past political activities in the past several decades. The research analyses the treatment of women in politics, the problems they encounter as well as the coverage accorded to them. The research goes further to propose the necessary measures or rather actions in order to transform the portrayal of women in politics by the media.
It is a struggle for the women politicians to forge a political ground in order to receive media coverage as well as legitimacy before the eyes of the media and public subsequently. To date some journalists still hold women politicians accountable for the behavior of their spouses and children. This is not the case to the male counterparts. Media asks the female candidates questions they do not ask the male political candidates. This is a sign of diminishing the women politicians by the media and it passes on subsequently into the public. Media in most cases describes and describes men as masculine while on the other hand they describe women politicians on the basis of their sex, marital status and children (femininity). Such descriptions may affect the way voters will make their decisions. Further they may affect the perception of the public on the ability to hold political office and to run the affairs of the nation simply by arousing the stereotypical images of the women politicians in relation to their duties and responsibilities as wives and mothers.
In the twenty first century things have slightly changed. Media coverage on the female candidates seems more equitable in relation to quality and quantity. This is to say there has been change in the assessment of the viability, mentions of the appearances, and positive against negative slant. However, the major differences that still reign in the media representation of female candidates and the male politicians may entangle with the gender oriented biases in the electorate in order to create an untenable political position for women political candidates. This is attainable through reinforcing some of the traditional stereotypes that the public uphold in issues relating to women and men politicians and their role in the community. The media has a take on affecting the society on the election outcomes hence affecting how the nation is governed.
2.0 MATERIALS AND METHODS OF RESEARCH ON WOMEN REPRESENTATIONBY MEDIA
Numerous approaches are employed in efforts to study how the media treats women in politics. These approaches include content analysis, sociological and social semiotics. They look into the structures of the media and the people working in the media houses. The above mentioned approaches are common in their conclusions and elements. It is notable that media both in structure and in culture discriminate women. This provides women with stereotypical and limiting representations hence reinforcing the patriarchy hegemony in the society.
Inadequacy in the reporting of women and the issues related to women marginalization in the media played a role in the treatment of the issue of gender inequality as of secondary significance in the political activities. Restructuring of gender issues is essential in democracy of our nation. However, media has failed to enhance this by failing to report the engagement of the female politicians in the political activities as well as the roles women play in the activities of nation building such as the elections of the leaders and the election of women leaders into political offices. Despite the fact that there is reasonable research on issues of women representation on media, especially in subjects such as violence against women, soap operas and advertisements, there is inadequate research one on the media representation of women in politics. Therefore, the research here in seeks to provide an opportunity to create a valuable contribution in the area. In occasions such as the 1994 elections the women politicians’ coverage was very low compared to their male counterparts. In addition, the analysis of the activity indicates that the issues related to women then were of marginal significance in the media (Bashevkin, 2009 pp.56).
On further monitoring of the women representation in the media indicates that women politicians upon election into positions of power attract more criticism unlike their male counterparts. Such criticism is often linked to sexist discourses of femininity as well as discrimination. Therefore, in order to transform and reverse the coverage of the media on women politicians the relationship between the women politicians and the media must change. It calls for the female politicians to be proactive on policies and strategies that would soften the situation. Women politicians together with other organizations of civil society must hold the media accountable and responsible for the representations they do on women. This is attainable through the enactment of policies and strategies promoting gender equality in media representation. Through these policies the media would be forced to acknowledge and institute a conscious effort in reporting and representing women politicians fairly and accurately without any impinging of gender on quantity and quality of coverage accorded to the female politicians. There is therefore, an urgent need for the media to re-strategize on its preparations and presentation of politicians. It calls for training of journalist and creating awareness on the effect the media has on the sexism through their reporting values. There must be an opposition of the media’s representation of women as incapable of holding political positions in our country. Over a long the years the male politicians have dominated the political arena of our nation. However, it is the responsibility of media to fairly represent the members of the society irrespective of their gender. This role is not as simple as a reflective but a critical representation. The biggest challenge with the media is to face the patriarchy with the fair representation of women politicians through attracting attention of the media content and news reporting on women. This is a fundamental responsibility of the media to the society (MacIvor, 1996 pp.67).
Various methods have been employed in efforts to inquire into the treatment of women politicians by the media. The methods used include discourse analysis, social semiotics, content analysis and sociological methods. A survey was done on literature in the media on women and the following were the results.
Discourse is a statistical method that heavily relies on the statistical information and the quality of information available for analysis. It focuses on the manner in which the information is represented and its implication on the topic of discussion. This is to say it pays attention on how the media constructs and presents the subject or the topic of interest. For example, in a case where women are represented as always in need of government’s assistance and as victims of circumstances, then this is an indication of media undermining women.
Semiotics is another common approach employed in the analysis of the literature on media treatment of women politicians. It is generally deals with the interpretation of symbols and signs and the meanings attached to them in media (Norris, 1997 pp.22). In our study of women representation, the women behavior and dressing are signs of their being: femaleness. This has led to the introduction of female experts as women first before they are introduced as professions. For example, in some magazines and TV programs, women are introduced as females first then their professions and others go ahead to advice women that they should remember always that they are wives and mothers (women) even in their careers. In most cases the news symbolizes women as the victims in the society.
Content analysis method is one of the most popular methods in evaluating the media literature on women representation. This method makes use of systematic analysis of information quantitatively. It measures the variables of coverage in actual content. For example, if a figure of thirty percent (30%) is given in the news as concerning women, then it is safe to conclude that the media represents women unfairly in the news (Norris, 1997 pp.23).
Finally is the use of sociological methods. This method seems to deviate a little into looking into the power relations found in the media as well as its structures and the manner in which they relate to the content and how it affects the subject of interest. In some cases, the women’s invisibility in the studio/studio is interpreted as the reason for the negative representation of the counterparts in the political arena by the media (Freeman, 2001 pp.45). Further, the ownership of the media houses is another significant factor affecting the women politicians by the media. It is arguable that because the media industry is male dominated and most of the editors for the mainstream are male, is a reason enough to have the women misrepresentation in the media.
3.0 FINDINGS/RESULTS
These methods have been employed into reaching the results and the discussion of the research paper. The evaluations done here in indicated that women politicians are under-represented in the media. A research done recently indicated that men as news sources outnumbered the female counterparts (Norris, 1997 pp.30). The research was conducted in efforts to examine the use of women as sources for the news. This is an indication that media perceives and portrays women as meaning carriers rather than meaning carriers. This is to say that the existence of women is as objects but not as subjects and vice versa is true for men. This therefore is the under-representation of the highest order on women.
Elsewhere a similar research indicated that women are mere sources of public information who are affected by their families’ actions, public policies, crimes, and or disasters. In other words women are represented as victims of circumstances. With one thousand two hundred and three (1203) news items, from various broadcasting media, only one hundred and eighty (82) items featured women as sources (Norris, 1997 pp.43). It is notable that gender was identifiable.
The results of another coded research covering twelve topics namely gender equality, human rights, health, violence against women, arts and culture, education, business, politics, crime and beauty contests among others. The dominating issues were the violence against women and gender inequality. Besides the portrayal of lack of diversity on issues related to women it also indicated that women coverage on the issues pertaining women was low.
Helen Moffet did an article on women representation and that was the only literature that was available in the media addressing the issue of women representation (Norris, 1997 pp.205). The article examined the issue of women politician treatment by the media before the 1993 elections. The article criticizes media for it failure fairly and equally representing women in the political activity of the day. Despite many letters written to the weekly mail on gender inequality in the political activities little attention was accorded to the lists.
In the year 1995 the Canadian Watch initiated a study that brought to light that in news coverage women make up to seventeen percent (17%) of the total interviewees. The research was more substantial in that it divided news coverage into various topics and examined the representation of women as news sources in each category. In those sub categories gender issues were not included (Norris, 1997 pp213). The results of the study were as follows in each category: politics and government had 7% as women interviewees, war had 10%, sports had 18%, economics and business had 9%, environment had 16%, science 22% and arts and entertainment had 31% interviewees as women.
4.0 DISCUSSION
4.1 The role of media on women empowering
Media has a significant role in empowering women in the society. However, the same potential if not managed properly may lead to negative results on the image of the female politicians. It is inevitable that communication is vital for the development of women and media has significant role in the achievement of the same. It is also worth noting that the growth in women’s education as well as their engagement in the employment sector is a contributing factor towards the growth of the media. Women have vital role in all spheres of life. However, they would only participate fully in their roles upon realization of their potential and responsibility in the nation building without the domination by the male counterparts and intentional marginalization (Fox, 2011 pp.18). In today society both the electronic and printed media have taken the necessary moves in promoting the efforts and endeavors of women towards realizing their aspirations politically. It has helped awaken women in order to achieve their potential vital catalysts of change in the society. Through media women are accorded th...