In December 2012, Park Keun Hye, a daughter of former president Park Chung Hee (1961-1979), was elected to be the first female president of South Korea. She is also the first woman who has assumed the highest political leadership in North East Asia. Critics attribute Park’s historical election to the presidency to her unusual status as daughter of the former president who is still regarded highly by conservative constituency for his achievement of the economic development. Yet such an approach does not explain why Park Keun Hye has failed in the previous bid for the presidential candidacy of her party in 2007. In addition, succession of the elected office by family members is not viewed generally as positive in South Korean society. What then explains the birth of female president in 2012 in the male dominated politics of South Korea?
In order to answer to this question, this paper aims at analyzing the campaign strategies of Park and the male competitor of the opposition party, with a specific focus on how gender of the two candidates were represented and what ‘being woman’ in politics meant to the constituency. Drawing on discourse and image analysis of the campaign materials as well as surveys, it demonstrates that Park’s gender representation as consisting of femininity and masculinity was the staple of campaign strategy that enabled Park to overcome so-called double-bind of female politicians, while pressuring the male competitor to seek for a stronger masculinity as national leader beyond his usual image of balanced leadership.
