Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

An ‘attractive alternative way of wielding power’? : Revealing hidden gender ideologies in the portrayal of Heads of State during the Covid-19 pandemic

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

Debray, Carolin, Schnurr, Stephanie, Loew, Joelle and Reissner-Roubicek, Sophie (2022) An ‘attractive alternative way of wielding power’? : Revealing hidden gender ideologies in the portrayal of Heads of State during the Covid-19 pandemic. Critical Discourse Studies . doi:10.1080/17405904.2022.2101499 ISSN 1740-5904. (In Press)

[img] PDF
WRAP-An-attractive-alternative-way-of-wielding-power-Revealing-hidden-gender-ideologies-in-the-portrayal-of-Heads-of-State-Schnurr-22.pdf - Accepted Version
Embargoed item. Restricted access to Repository staff only - Requires a PDF viewer.
Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0.

Download (1205Kb)
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2022.2101499

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

This paper explores the gendered discourses of the – seemingly favourable – media coverage that certain Heads of State received for their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking at media reports published in different English-speaking outlets in the US, the UK, India, Bangladesh, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, and Ireland, and using multimodal feminist critical discourse analysis, we identify and describe some of the strategies that on the surface appear to challenge hegemonic – and largely masculine – discourses of leadership. Upon closer scrutiny, these superficially complimentary reports rather reinforce and naturalise discriminatory gender ideologies, and, as we demonstrate, they do so to different degrees along a continuum of essentialising, contextualising, and problematising. We critically discuss the discursive and visual processes involved and show that complimenting these leaders on their performance compares them against a masculine norm to construct their leadership as ‘alternative’, exceptional, and hence marked. This gendered portrayal of political leadership in times of crisis illustrates how the discursive construction of identities, responsibilities, and relationships during Covid-19 largely hinges on power relations and political ideologies that systematically disadvantage and undermine women. The purportedly positive form in which this occurs makes it particularly difficult to challenge and subvert these discriminatory discourses and their underlying gendered ideologies.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
J Political Science > JC Political theory
J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General)
P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Divisions: Faculty of Social Sciences > Centre for Applied Linguistics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Language and languages -- Sex differences, Critical discourse analysis, Sex differences (Psychology), Political leadership, Women -- Political activity, Mass media -- Political aspects, Women -- Political activity -- Press coverage, Feminist theory
Journal or Publication Title: Critical Discourse Studies
Publisher: Routledge
ISSN: 1740-5904
Official Date: 2022
Dates:
DateEvent
2022Published
12 July 2022Accepted
DOI: 10.1080/17405904.2022.2101499
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: In Press
Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Critical Discourse Studies. Debray, Carolin, Schnurr, Stephanie, Loew, Joelle and Reissner-Roubicek, Sophie (2022) An ‘attractive alternative way of wielding power’? : Revealing hidden gender ideologies in the portrayal of Heads of State during the Covid-19 pandemic. Critical Discourse Studies . doi:10.1080/17405904.2022.2101499. It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.”
Copyright Holders: Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
Date of first compliant deposit: 12 July 2022
Related URLs:
  • Publisher

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item
twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us