Women in Political
Leadership
Challenges Faced by Women
Leaders
Swimming with the Sharks
O Women are treated differently from
the men
O Women are judged more harshly than
the men
O Women work a lot harder to
disapprove society’s biases against
their leadership.
O Women’s failures are more
amplified since they are fewer in
the public domain and such
negative perceptions attract media
publicity hence disadvantaging the
emergence of more women in
positions of power.
Women’s leadership
O Women bring different qualities
to leadership
O They pay greater attention to
collaboration, cooperation,
collective decision-making, and
above all, relationship-building
Stereotypes about Women
Leaders
O The Motherhood Brand
O women are depicted as mothers and
therefore more caring and in a better
position to appreciate the plight of the
average workers or under performers.
O Women are expected to be more
compassionate, loving and possibly
honest; qualities largely associated with
motherhood.
O Treating
Women as “Children” or
“Pets”
O Women leaders are symbolically adopted
by male sponsors in political activities for
public show or to rally support for their
party candidates.
O This portrays women as being too weak,
naive, or unprepared to handle “difficult
political tasks” without the help of the
men.
O The Iron Lady Syndrome
O When women leaders project their
competence by demonstrating
masculine
traits
such
as
toughness, they are silenced with
crude humor and often advised to
be more feminine. Most people
prefer dealing with women who are
characterized as highly feminine
and less threatening
Sexist Media Coverage of
Female Leaders
O Descriptions of their weight
O Words such as “chubby”, “skinny”,
“bummy”, “fatties”, “bottom-heavy
figure’’, “curvaceous”, “cleavage on
display”
Descriptions of their vocal styles
like “nagging,” “whining,” “softspoken”, “sexy”, “hoarse” and “shrill”
O Descriptions of their Clothes
O a female politician’s clothing is always
over-analyzed for symbolism, whether it
is a pantsuit, heels, skirt, blouse,
busuti, evening dress, or open shoes,
showing off her peeping toes
Calling women politicians “ambitious” All humans are ambitious but this
gender neutral word is often used to
promote the idea that women are not
naturally suited for leadership.
O Talking about their Parenting Role
O Women leaders are usually referred to as
mothers or “Mummy”, “Aunt” or “Mama
wa Baana” – the mother of many children
Descriptions of their age
Women are often described as
too young or too old to run
occupy a leadership position
office and yet much older men
are not reported about in such a
manner.
O Reducing women to individual body parts
O Female politicians are seen as a collection of
body parts by talking about their youthful
appearance, sexiness, long legs, large bust
and waistline.
O Not taken Seriously
O Females are referred to by their first names
while their male opponents are called
‘‘Mister’’, “Doctor”, or “Professor”.
O Marital Status
O Women politicians are usually described as
‘‘devoted wives” or “Home breakers”
What should women do
O Do not to respond to personal
attacks. Have a sense of humour.
O Making an issue out of sexism
will only hurt you more.
O Any response by an aggrieved
female leader could potentially
spark off a barrage of media
stories questioning whether such
attacks were sexist, hence
shifting the focus of the debate
to other issues, other than one’s
grivieance.
However
O Ignoring sexist attacks is
detrimental to women leaders.
O A direct response to the issues
could salavage the situation. Avid
getting personal.
O Women can always recover
people’s confidence from sexist
attacks by directly addressing the
attacks or the issues at hand,
and standing up for all current
and future women leaders.
O The media should give
women leaders an
opportunity to give a
response to any sexist
coverage so as to redeem
their public image.