Scientists from around the world have established that females politicians have to face a double bind went they perform in the political world, especially when facing the media (Jamieson, 1996; Bashevkin, 2009; van Zoonen, 1998). The way women politicians are described is usually influenced by stereotypes drawn from their traditional sex roles, which are in opposition with the alpha male norms of the political arena (Mottier, Sgier et Ballmer-Cao, 2000). Some studies have already exposed how mass media systematically associate female politicians with social issues (Burt, 1995, Bystrom et coll., 2004), and elements related to the domestic sphere, and community leadership (Eagly, 2007; Fridkin-Kahn, 1996) or directly describe them using gender stereotypes (Dolan, 2010, O’Neil, 2002). But, even if those studies brought interesting insights and measured sex gap in the politician’s mediatisation, they do not explain why gender and sex are so emphasized in the political persona. Also, we think that the alpha male norms may be a disadvantage for some men too, and research in this way is virtually non-existent.
This paper investigates two questions: 1) how people used gender stereotypes presented in the medias to evaluate political performances of females and males politicians 2) how gender identity or gender performance have evolved in today political world, especially with the growing number of female politicians around the world, and the changes in modern masculinity. This paper presents data from our doctoral thesis project. We have used mixed and multi-methods to answer those two research goals. More specifically, we will present our conclusions based on results from online thoughts listing and from our media content analysis.
