Femmes politiques et stéréotypes dans les médias : comparaison entre l’Alberta et le Québec

• Women and Political Stereotypes in the Media: Comparison Between Alberta and Quebec

• Author / Creator

  Robidoux-Descary, Ève

• The literature suggests that the media considers political actors subjectively, given that women would be victims of sexist treatment. This research focuses on the 2012 provincial election campaigns of two leaders: Alison Redford (Alberta) and Pauline Marois (Quebec). Using a qualitative content analysis of four newspapers, we examined the language used to describe the candidates in articles with one or more examples of gender stereotypes. Our results show that the successes of Redford and Marois were accompanied with gender stereotypes. In this way, the victories of the two leaders could be partly explained by their ability to overcome these stereotypes, and also to capitalize on them. Personal qualities, marital status, emotions and age had attracted little attention in the coverage of each of the candidates. However, appearance and use of the first name had created a number of obstacles. The phenomenon of novelty had been an asset for Redford where it had hurt Marois. Portraying the two women as representing change had contributed significantly to their respective successes without coming at the expense of experience. Their ability to reconcile femininity and masculinity had also played a key role. In addition, Redford and Marois themselves had demonstrated discretion regarding gender in not talking about it to the media. Furthermore, the fact that the candidates’ strengths were seen as different because of their gender had been beneficial for the two politicians. Finally, there do not appear to be significant differences of representation between the English and French presses in the articles analyzed or a correlation between the gender of the authors and the use of gendered comments. While our research does not reveal the distinctiveness of the two provinces, however, we propose the hypothesis that with regard to political leaders, gender stereotypes would be more present in Quebec than in Alberta.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Stéréotypes de genre
  • Alison Redford
  • Pauline Marois
  • Médias
  • Femmes politiques

• Graduation date

  Fall 2016

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3RX93Q40

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.