Are Politicians' Husbands "Firs Lords" or "Princes Consort" ?
Elites
Gender
Media
Political Leadership
Family
Abstract
The raising of female politicians since the beginning of the 21st century leads the media to provide article about their husbands. But, although the question of the first-ladyship is quite widely documented (Restier-Melleray 1995, Burden & Mughan 1999, Burrel 2001), its adaptation to male protagonists is not yet fully analyzed. Could the "first lord" possibly be different than a mere male version of the "first lady" ? I should question this hypotheses from the French perspective, since French Politics have seen the conjunction of two separate artifacts since the early 2000s : the law about the "parité", that allowed several young women to get high political positions, and the influence of gossip journalism on political journalism. Then I should compare this perspective to the situation in other countries (like the USA and Germany). I should show that those men are seen as not adapting perfectly to these roles of "princes consort" and being "scarified" by their "ambitious" wives.
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