This is the abstract of a master`s degree dissertation (Dec. 2014). Feel free to ask for complete work (in Portuguese / Chapters below) at
[email protected] Women`s Political Leadership in Local Government in Portugal: Representations, Media and Visibility Ana Paula Saraiva Keywords: Women`s Political Leadership; Gender, Media and Politics; Local Government Scientific community evaluates the difference in proportion between men and women in national parliaments as an indicator of countries democratic index; in this dissertation I argue the relevance of local government reality to understand women`s political under-representation in Portugal. Data analyzed from the last local government election, in September 2013, allowed pinpointing the problem of discrimination revealed in women`s political under-representation. Literature identifies several causes to explain women`s political under-representation, among which I highlight the invisibility of women in politics, which is superior to their real under-representation. On the other hand, one of the solutions adopted by several countries in order to change women`s historical under-representation is the introduction of electoral gender quotas. With this dissertation, I provide evidence the quota system in Portugal did not influence local government election results and, consider the relation between the exiguous numbers of women in municipalities’ leadership with their media invisibility. This dissertation contributes to providing answers to the following questions: (i) how women`s leadership evolved in local government; (ii) the current measure of this representation; (iii) the impact of quotas in the number of elected women; (iv) which are the specific obstacles that keep women from local government leadership; (v) which political parties mainly promotes the election of women political leaders; (vi) how media contributes to the invisibility of women political leaders to the electors. In Portugal, the parliamentary female rate has had a growing evolution since the first democratic election of 1976 to the current value of 31,30%. This dissertation shows that women ́s leadership in executive municipality positions has always been residual. The 7,5% current representation rate reveals the most striking women ́s under-representation situation in Portuguese political institutions, but also, in opposition to Assembleia da República and the European Parliament, that the so far evolution stagnated. In order to test my hypotheses, I ran a questionnaire to the 23 elected women in 2013.This made possible to evaluate their party and political path and understand the role of national, regional and local media before and after the election. To complement this information and address the issue of quota efficiency, I made it nine interviews with women elected before and after 2009 (first election after statutory quotas in electoral system), following the general methodological recommendations on content analyses by Laurence Bardin. Field research took place between July and September 2014 in four of the most representative districts in electing women in local government history: Santarém, Portalegre, Lisboa and Setúbal. This dissertation proposes that analyzing local government can give further evidence that attitudes against women ́s as political leaders is the real question behind women`s under-representation, thereby gender quotas, that act upon the effects but not on the causes of this problem, do not provide the solution.
PARTE I – Género e Política
• Capítulo 1: Representação Política Feminina • Capítulo 2: Paridade Democrática - Medidas de Ação Positiva • Capítulo 3: Evolução da Liderança Feminina no Poder Local em Portugal
PARTE II – Género e Representações Mediáticas • Capítulo 4: Media, Opinião Pública e Democracia • Capítulo 5: Perspectiva de Género na Construção das Notícias • Capítulo 6: Representação das Mulheres Políticas na Imprensa Portuguesa
PARTE III – Investigação Empírica • Capítulo 7: Liderança Feminina no Poder Político Local em Portugal Conclusões Bibliografia
