| Abstract [eng] |
This master‘s thesis is titled “Political (Self-) Representation in Lithuania: Stereotypical Depiction of Women Politicians. The thesis explores how women politicians are representing themselves. The study is based on the assumption that every woman politician creates a different political image and that they should not be judged by stereotypical attitudes. The lack of a critical approach and the frequent comparison of women politicians with men results in a subjective, often unrealistic, assessment of them. For this reason, there is a need to answer the question – how and what political portraits were formed by Lithuanian female politicians? To answer this question, this study will analyze them individually and later compare women with each other. First, this research begins with the formation of a theoretical foundation encompassing theories of feminism, representation, and political marketing. The theory of feminism helps to understand established attitudes and to refine the most popular stereotypes applied to women. Based on the theory of representation, it is analyzed how representation takes place and how politicians carry out self-representation. Finally, the theory of political marketing is used, which tells about the actions taken by political candidates. Based on these theories and their interaction with each other, further research is formed. Second, with the help of the academic literature, the thesis proceeds with formulating the methodological steps for the analysis of research material. Two periods have been chosen for analysis, half a year before and half a year after the elections. It is decided to take the data from the most popular soc. Facebook and the personal accounts of three women politicians on it. The scheme of Norman Fariclough‘s three dimensional discourse analysis is chosen. The framework for design of the research is formed. The research is based on Facebook posts analysis of three different women politicians. The responses were analysed through the aforementioned theoretical lenses and the results are presented while checking if it meets the main gender stereotypes or if it declines it. The results are significant as several conclusions can be made. While the women seeking career in politics in Lithuania is still considered to be problematic, in 2020, the ruling coalition was constructed by three women. Deeper analysis showed that women are creating individual political portraits which turned out to be very subjective, depending on weaknesses and strenghts of each politician. It became clear that many gender stereotypes cannot be applied to women politicians especially, they cannot be evaluated while depending on them. This analysis shows that each politician creates an individual political portrait. This study suggests that while describing them, women politicians should not be compared with male politicians or the opinion be based on gender stereotypes. It is esmphasized that in order to make an accurate assessment of politicians, it is necessary to analyze their personal characteristics and compare women with each other. It is hoped that this type of study will open up a new niche in the future, in which women politicians will be examined according to the above criteria. |
