A critical outlook on Algerian press construction of Algerian female politicians in electoral campaigns (1997-2017)

Abstract

The discussion about gender roles and gender representation in environments such as the Algerian and the Arabic world in general needs to be expanded upon and investigated with more urgency due to the changing nature of Arabic politics. This thesis aims to investigate media representation of women in politics to determine ideological and stereotypical (re)constructions about females in general and politicians in particular to understand the nexus exists between gender, power and politics in the Algerian society. This study undertakes a critical perspective in the analysis of Arabic language press discourse concerning female politicians’ representation in electoral campaigns starting at the inception of the bilateral parliamentary elections that hosted the first female candidates in the history of Algeria and pans out until the 2017 legislative elections. By this longitudinal study, I aim to track the discursive and ideological shifts in the Algerian press discourse and identify the overarching factors that shape these discourses. I have used Wodak’s discourse historical approach as the main tool for the data analysis. Its socio-historical approach allows identifying patterns of change through history. The analysis reveals the existence of two main discourses governing the press discourse. The first discourse is a discourse of victimization, in which female politicians are, attributed a description of victims of terrorism, culture and institutions that prevented them from political participation, culminating in a wide lack of interest, and a large-scale use of nepotism to earn their interest. This re-imagining of the past suits the self-image as the “savior of women” which the politico military system in place since 1962 seeks to promote. This in turn have resulted in ascending doubts about female politicians’ qualifications. With the introduction of a quota law, that guarantees a certain percentage of females in each party, doubts escalated further and lead to the emergence of the second discourse, the discourse of responsibility. Another significant finding is the distinctive representation of Louiza Hanoune in constructing the representation of ‘female politician model’ mainly moving from gender to leadership attributes that respond to aspects of the gendered political culture in Algeria.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Darren Paffey: orcid.org/0000-0003-2709-8012

Catalogue record

Export record