Political Leadership as An Act of Balance: The Hybrid
Femininities of Female Leaders Online
An actor-oriented analysis of Annie Lööf and Ebba Busch Thor on Instagram from a gender perspective
Author: Julia Berkqvist Supervisor: Joakim Johansson
Uppsala University, the Department of Government Fall Semester of 2019
Master Thesis in Political Science
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Abstract
The aim of this thesis is to apply an actor-oriented perspective to the study of gendered political leadership. For decades, this research field has predominantly focused on how the media produces gender-stereotypical coverage of female politicians without taking into account their own self-representation. As a consequence, I argue, this research field
paradoxically tend to reproduce an overall image of female politicians as helpless victims of the representations by others without capacity to exercise agency on their own. The purpose is, therefore, to examine how female politicians themselves construct their own public persona in today’s political reality. Departing from gender theory, this study analyzes the social media representation of Swedish party leaders Ebba Busch Thor – leader of the Swedish Christian Democratic party - and Annie Lööf – leader of the Swedish Centre party.
Using qualitative thematic analysis, the study found that Instagram portrayal of the two leaders overwhelmingly corresponded to traditional femininity, which contends a common assumption that female politicians actively try to abandon mainstream femininity in favor of their public images as politicians, as a way of breaking free from ‘otherness' in a masculinized political arena. Furthermore, both Lööf and Busch Thor also incorporated masculine traits into this stereotype. This suggests that hybridity is a useful concept in the study of gendered political leadership. A conclusion is that women politicians not always keep their femininity low-key, but may choose to embrace critical aspects of femininity in their leadership role and therein achieve a balance between the traditional masculine leadership and authentic
womanhood that makes them accepted as political leaders. This generates new hypotheses for future studies on female political leadership. Finally, I discuss the implications of these findings and the theoretical potentials of the concept of ‘hybrid femininity’.
Keywords: Hybridity, political leadership, social media, gender, agency
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Content
1. Introduction 3
1.1 Research Problem 4
1.2 Purpose and Research Question 6
1.3 Delimitations 7
2.Theoretical Framework and Literature Review 8
2.1 Actor-oriented perspective on gender 8
2.2 Hybridity 9
2.3 Gendered political leadership 11
2.4 Female political leadership and the media 14
2.5 Social media and politics 16
2.6 Gender and social media 18
3 Method 19
3.1 Material 19
3.2 Implementation 20
3.2.2 Thematic analysis 21
3.3 Validity & reliability 24
4.Thematic analysis of Annie Lööf and Ebba Busch Thor on Instagram 25
4.1. Family first, politics second 25
4.2 The likable politician 32
4.3 A woman in politics 36
4.4 A Political Caretaker 38
4.5 The feminine hybrid 42
5. Results 48
6.Discussion 47
7. References 52
7.1 Online Sources 55
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1. Introduction
Given a long history of male dominance in politics, ideas of political leadership are
predominantly associated with masculinity, despite the growing number of women in politics.
Traditional masculine traits, such as determination, ambition, and rationality, are considered to be central to the political leadership (Schneider & Bos, 2013: 260; Huddy & Terkildson, 1993: 141). However, women are still facing obstacles.
These obstacles include the way female politicians are treated by the media. During the last few decades, a large number of studies have dealt with the issue of how the media covers female politicians versus male politicians. This field of research has shown that not only do men receive more salient media coverage, the actual coverage of female politicians is also gender-typical to a greater extent than to that of their male counterparts (Fridkin Kahn&
Goldberg, 1991: 195-197, Jalalzai, 2006: 607). Furthermore, previous research on this topic has problematized the rather ambivalent treatment of female politicians in media. On one hand, women in politics are criticized when adapting too much to the masculine leadership ideal. Expressing attributes that contrast with authentic femininity tend to make female politicians particularly vulnerable to critique. For example, when embodying masculine characteristics, female politicians are frequently criticized for being cold, unsympathetic and aggressive. At the same time as being battered by the media when their public persona does not match expected feminine behavior, female politicians are also criticized for sometimes being too feminine. When expressing feminine characteristics, they risk being portrayed as too emotional, too weak or as inappropriate leaders. To gain media popularity, it has been suggested that female politicians should achieve a delicate balance between feminine and masculine traits (Holland & Wright, 2018: 600-601). Thus, it appears that the challenge for women politicians lies in meeting the seemingly incompatible demands of femininity and (masculine) leadership.
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The discussion of how female and male politicians are portrayed in the media has been going on for decades, but an issue that has been neglected in research in this area is how women politicians portray themselves in the media context. In most of the research, the focus is on how the media produces images of politicians without taking into account their own self- representation. As a consequence, much of this research tends to reproduce an overall image of female politicians as helpless victims of the representations by others, without any capacity to exercise agency on their own. Confirming traditional gender roles, this bias towards
victimization of female politicians in previous media studies can be conceived of as problematic.
In contemporary political reality, politicians are more than ever able to construct (or at least co-construct) their identities through the use of online social media. Through platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, politicians are able to directly communicate and
selectively, and strategically, choose what images of themselves they want to convey to the public (Loader & Mercea, 2011: 359-62). With social media as we know it today being a recent phenomenon, relatively little research has been done on how this matter. Thus, this offers an opportunity to apply an actor-oriented perspective to the study of female political leadership in media. The overall aim of this thesis is, therefore, to move the focus from traditional media to online social media in order to examine how female politicians portray themselves on social media with gender theory as the point of departure. By shifting focus from traditional media to social media, the actor perspective becomes (even more) relevant for this study.
1.1 Research Problem
When discussing how women are portrayed in the media, the main focus is often how women are portrayed by others, while the question of how women portray themselves is overlooked or even ignored altogether. Although female political leadership in media has been a topic for research during the last few decades, a relatively scarce amount of these studies has even mentioned how female politicians may portray themselves in relation to prevailing gender norms. Previous research on this topic has problematized the many worrying ways in which women politicians are treated by the media, for example that women are given less space in the media than men and in addition are presented in derogatory ways (Fridkin Kahn&
Goldberg, 1991: 195-197). As previously mentioned, women are frequently criticized when departing from their femininity and embracing a masculine leadership, but also when they are
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displaying too much of their femininity. This often result in them being labeled as either
"aggressive", "stiff" or, on the contrary, too "emotionally weak" by the media (Aday &
Devitt, 2001, 59-65, Campus, 2013: 69-71, Gidegil & Evervitt, 2000: 122-123), while the women themselves remain rather passive in the public making of themselves.
I argue that there is a need to focus on women politicians as actors in this context. Not acknowledging women's choices, identities and agency is, in fact, problematic. Not only does this contribute to a denial of women as actors, but it might also paradoxically reinforce stereotyped images of women as victims or objects that are denied actorship or agency. That women themselves make conscious and even strategic choices is a crucial part of Christina Berqkvist actor-oriented research on gender equality and women's movement. Her focus is on the actors and their role in the formation of gender policies, for example how women's
interests have affected the Swedish gender equality model. Taking the actors’ perspectives into account does not mean that one should ignore structural and the norm-creating function of large institutions. Rather, it is about recognizing "women as politicians"', the acting individuals, and their capability of change, while simultaneously account for the normative structures of society (Bergkvist et. Al, 1999:137-138). Thus, the actor-oriented perspective emphasizes the importance of the actors' interests, strategies and agency.
In this case, the purpose is to emphasize how female politicians themselves construct their own public persona. Therefore, the rationale behind focusing on social media, instead of traditional media, is to apply an actor perspective to gain insight into how politicians
themselves may construct their identities through the use of their personal online pages where they are in control over the images they convey to the public.
This thesis will study how two female Swedish party leaders portray themselves on the social media app Instagram. The study subjects are the leader of the Swedish Centre party, Annie Lööf, and the leader of the Swedish Christian Democratic party, Ebba Busch Thor. The two party leaders have, during their time as party leaders, faced both adversity and success, the latter not least reflected in high opposition numbers - both leaders have, on several occasions, been ranked as the most popular party leaders in Sweden according to various opinion polls.
Annie Lööf, who has experienced a decline in previously high public confidence figures following the Swedish general election in 2018, was ranked the most popular party leader in 2015 bt SVT/Sifo and again by Inizio/Aftonbladet in 2017. On several occasions in 2019, Ebba Busch Thor has been the party leader for whom voters have the greatest confidence.
According to Novus' most recent measurement of party leader confidence, Busch Thor has
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been stable since May 2019 (SVT 2019). Both Ebba Busch Thor and Annie Lööf are the only current female party leaders in the Swedish parliament who has been ranked as the most popular party leaders at different points in time. They are also popular on social media. They are the Swedish politicians with by far most followers on the social media app Instagram with 122 000 and 84 400 followers respectively (Instagram.com/buschebba,
Instagram.com/annie_loof). Against this background, Lööf and Busch Thor are both suitable and interesting subjects in a study of female self-representation on social media.
1.2 Purpose and Research Question
The overarching aim of this thesis is to contribute to the previous and ongoing research on women politicians in media, while also trying to move beyond the existing debates by bringing in an actor-oriented perspective into the analysis of female political leadership in the media sphere. One point of departure, that is also shared among most of the previous research on this topic, is that there are unequal conditions in how male and female political leaders are portrayed in the media. However, women's own self-representation – and even self-determination - are often neglected in the discussion of gender patterns in media overall. The aim of this study is to examine how female politicians portray themselves on the online social media app Instagram.
Departing from gender theory, the purpose is to look at if, and how, the content of their social media accounts corresponds to traditional ideas of femininity, masculinity and 'hybrid femininity'. The latter may be understood as the female embodiment of traditional masculine traits or behaviors, a process that may eventually re-define femininity by incorporating new traits into the female gender stereotype (Nordberg, 2004: 53-54, Halberstam, 1998: 2-6). The ways in which female politicians incorporate masculine traits and behaviors have, according to the findings of previous work, been far from unproblematic. Not only do women get criticized when being either too masculine or feminine, but it has also been suggested that acceptance is an act of balance – and this balance that is still rather unexplored. Thus, studying this might get closer to understand where this balance lies for women politicians.
By exploratively analyzing how female politicians themselves portray their public persona in relation to gender may be seen as a contribution to the understanding of how women in politics have to relaye and adopt to the masculine norms of the political arena. It may also form a discussion about a topic often neglected in previous research about media and female political leadership, which is how women choose to portray themselves to the public- thus
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distancing itself from the view of women as helpless victims and instead emphasizing agency and strategy.
Research Question:
How do Annie Lööf and Ebba Bush Thor portray themselves on Instagram from.a gender perspective?
1.3 Delimitations
Before presenting the analysis, it is relevant to address the delimitations made in the conduct of this study. Given the scope limits of this thesis, and to enable a thorough analysis, only two party leaders will be analyzed. The choice of Annie Lööf and Ebba Busch Thor, as previously mentioned, is based on their remarkable success in social media and their background in Swedish politics as periodically very popular party leaders. There are currently four female party leaders in The Swedish parliament – Isabella Lövin (the Swedish Green Party), Nyamko Sabuni (the liberals), Annie Lööf (the Swedish Centre party) and Ebba Busch Thor (the Swedish Christian Democrats). While it would have been advantageous to analyze all of them, this delimitation was necessary to carry out an in-depth analysis. Although this is a qualitative thematic analysis, I wanted to include as much material as possible to be able to say something meaningful about the material.
The range of research on politics and social media is relatively scarce but on the rise. The political potential of social media is discussed. this app is interesting given its rapid spurt in popularity, not least among politicians (Jung et. Al, 2017: 2195). Furthermore, research has suggested that Instagram has been giving politicians a more personal voice, especially in the captions (the text pieces accompanied to the images) (ibid). The personal characteristic of Instagram thus gives an opportunity to apply an actor-perspective to the study of political leadership. Given that self-expression has been listed as one of the top motives for Instagram usage (Parmelee & Roman, 2019: 2-4), it can be assumed that politicians, like everyone, are at least to some extent given more space to construct the images of themselves according to their own preferences.
Finally, it is relevant to argue for country selection when studying politicians. While this analysis would be feasible in any context, it is interesting to study political leadership from a gender perspective in a country that is generally considered to be at the forefront when it comes to gender equality issues. Scandinavian countries have long been ranked as the most
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women-friendly countries in the world and with a high number of women elected to national parliaments (Wägnerud, 2012: 103). Another interesting note is that the success of gender equality in Sweden has sometimes been described as a mere result of the political conditions in Sweden, i.e the relationship between state and society and a bi-product of equalization between other groups in Society (e.g social classes), thus not acknowledging women's own efforts to push forward gender equality in various policy areas (Bergkvist, 1999: 59).
Therefore, the actor-oriented perspective becomes relevant in the Swedish context to move beyond these structural explanations and emphasize how women strategically and
independently exercise agency in politics. One way to do so is to study how women politicians choose to represent themselves.
2. Theoretical Framework and Literature Review
This section describes the theoretical starting points that have been used to analyze the empirical data.
2.1 Actor-oriented perspective on gender
This paper takes off in a criticism directed at the structuralism nature of the gender concept.
In Sweden, this discussion has been put forward by political science researcher Christina Bergkvist, who has advocated for the use of a more actor-oriented perspective in the study of gender. The criticism of the structural focus of the gender concept can be compared to the criticism that has been advanced against the Marxist class concept. Historian E. P Thompson argues that class is not so much about structure, but rather about acting and human
relationships. Class is a process - something that happens - rather than a category. Similarly, the gender concept has been criticized for devaluating the actors involved in the processes.
However, the actor-oriented perspective on gender should not be opposed to the structuralist perspective on gender. Both perspectives ultimately assume that there are unequal gender structures and the common starting point for analysis is that there are unequal power relations between men and women. Thus, focusing on actors does not mean denying structures, rather it is about emphasizing the active and acting human being within these structures (Bergkvist et. al, 1999: 8). Women are political strategists and actors who through their actions and civic engagement has pushed forward equality changes. In her research, Christina Bergkvists has focused on the Swedish equality model in the 1970’s and which actors that played a role in its configuration. She problematizes the insufficient explanation that the Swedish equality model
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is merely a result of special relations between state and society in Sweden “…where social policy and economic policy together ‘happen to benefit women" (Bergkvist, 1999:59). From this viewpoint, the Swedish equality model is a by-product of the broader structures and relations, not least the power struggles between social classes, thus ignoring women's movement and women's organized involvement in political processes. According to Bergkvist, women’s mobilization has played a significant role in the configuration of the Swedish equality model, especially in areas related to childcare and motherhood. For
example, women’s interests and active involvement had a crucial impact on the investment in public childcare and the Swedish parental leave legislation. These changes can be seen as efforts of women’s movement and individual political actors, not only as results of the Swedish conditions. Her main argument is that political actors must be identified in order to understand political processes – focusing on only structures and relations between state and society is insufficient (ibid: 61-67).
This thesis will employ the essence of this perspective, namely the view of women as political strategists and actors. When analyzing female political leadership in the media, it is rarely talked about how women present themselves to the public, which may reinforce stereotyped images of women as passive victims or objects that are denied actorship or agency, even in the public making of themselves.
2.2 Hybridity
According to mainstream feminist theory, gender is traditionally viewed in dualistic terms where femininity and masculinity are classified into two polar categories. The feminine category includes attributes that are stereotypically ascribed to women whereas the masculine category includes attributes that in stereotypical ways are used to describe men. Underpinning this classification is the idea that people are expected to behave and act in certain ways based on their asserted gender, i.e female or male, as well as to materialize different personality traits that match these expectations. These traits are socially constructed, rather than
biologically inherited. Contrary to biological gender, this system of classification, referred to as gender binarism, is rather based on social and cultural beliefs of gender. This includes (often situated and relational) ideas of typical feminine and masculine behaviors and the expectations of men and women to act accordingly. Thus, ideas of femininity and masculinity may vary between societies, cultures, and groups. They may also change and evolve over time. Therefore, the femininity and masculinity dualism do not represent two invariable
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categories, but rather as two sets of ideas and beliefs constantly changing and varying over place and time. However, when an individual oversteps these established binaries in one or more aspects, the term hybridity becomes useful. One example of such a practice could be a man embracing softer, feminine behavior or gives expression to opinions that somehow relates to traditional femininity. Such practices may blur the distinct lines between the gender categories, but does not undermine patriarchy (Connell, 2005: 843). Some even argue that the construction of hybrid masculinity can be seen as a strategic distancing from undesirable masculinity ideals, such as aggression, which helps men to gain more prestige and ultimately more power and dominance. By approaching softer, more caring and emotional
characteristics, men do not in fact challenge the hegemonic masculinity ideal but rather demonstrating that masculinity is a fluid concept that can be transformed in ways that work advantageously to reinforce male dominance. Thus, adapting to femininity does not
automatically dissolve the hegemonic masculinity, it can likewise be seen as a strategy in which men incorporate selected traits into the traditional masculinity ideal to gain societal and cultural prestige (Eisen & Yamashita, 2017: 6-7) However, this type of female embodiment performed by men may transform the masculine gender stereotype in the long term
(Halberstam, 1998: 3-6). Conversely, a woman who displays masculine traits represents masculine femininity, i.e. a hybrid or subversion of femininity, which may eventually transform traditional ideas of femininity by incorporating new traits into the female gender stereotype (ibid)
These types of hybridizations are performed in the political world. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political career during his run for California governor in 2003 is worth mentioning in this context. With a background in bodybuilding and as a ruthless aggressor in well-known action films, Schwarzenegger was from the outset well associated with hyper-masculine traits;
determination, toughness, and aggression to name a few. These characteristics were also expressed through his political persona, but his message emphasized softer values such as compassion, child care, and the climate. Thus his public persona symbolized a combination of the tough, determined and (hyper) masculine traits and softer, feminine and empathetic values (Hultman, 2011: 13-14) However, according to Michael A. Messner, the latter attributes are almost always subordinate to the masculine attributes, so even in the case of Schwarzenegger.
Therefore, the combination of the feminine and masculine is often asymmetrical, rather than balanced (Messner, 2007: 468). Nevertheless, men’s incorporation of feminine attributes are often viewed as something positive and even desirable (ibid): This has been discussed and
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studied outside the American context of which Schwarzenegger’s political career took place, for example how male politicians embody more emphatic, responsive and flexible
characteristics and thereby construct a modern masculinity line with contemporary values of gender equality. When doing so, a so-called hybridization process takes place, where the female attributes are redefined and seen as a positive part of masculinity. This, in turn, male politicians may attract voters and political success (Nyström & Johansson, 2013: 73-78), which links to the argument that hybridization of masculinity can be used as a strategy for attaining power and prestige (Eisen & Yamashita, 2017: 6-7).
In sum, these hybrid forms of masculinity and femininity do not dissolve the traditional gender barriers but demonstrate how men and women adopt characteristics traditionally associated with the opposite gender, which may eventually hollow the belief that some actions, traits, and behaviors are exclusive for either men or women, such as the ability to give care or show emotions would be typical only for women or that only men are capable of being leaders (Nordberg, 2004: 53-54). In masculinity research, the term hybrid masculinity is often used to describe men's embodiment of subordinate masculinities or femininity (ibid).
The term hybrid femininity has not been as established as hybrid masculinity in the literature.
In gender research, however, the term 'female masculinity' has been used to describe when women do not follow the general expectations associated with their gender and thereby not only conform to masculinity but construct a new form of masculinity/femininity (Halberstam, 1998: 13-27). Previous research on women's political leadership has described how women in different ways, and with varying degrees of success, adapt to the masculine ideals with which the political arena has historically been associated (Scneider & Bos, 2013: 246-47). These adaptations, however, are rarely talked about in terms of hybridity. Often, masculinity and femininity are viewed from their polar positions where women's transgressions to the masculine are often problematized and criticized. Much of the research in this area believe that it is negative for women to express masculine attributes. At the same time, it is argued women should achieve a balance between feminine and masculine to be accepted. Against this background, it is both interesting and relevant to study how women, like men, incorporate masculine attributes and perform hybrid forms of femininity in their leadership. More
importantly, if this hybridity is seen as something positive or negative. In this thesis, this perspective will be applied to help make sense of women's adaption to the masculine norms of the political arena.
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2.3 Gendered political leadership
There are certain characteristics, traits, and functions that are considered to be central to our general understanding of political leadership. Competitive, determined, driven, active and rational are some of the most stereotypical traits commonly attributed to political leaders (Schneider & Bos, 2013: 260; Huddy & Terkildson, 1993: 141). These attributes are
traditionally perceived as masculine. Since the political arena for a long time in history was reserved only for men, while women were active in other parts of society, thoughts and expectations of ideal political leadership have historically been associated with masculine traits and behaviors (Sjoberg, 2009: 150-175). This includes characteristics, behaviors, and traits that are perceived as traditionally male. Active, aggressive and determined are further examples of such leadership qualities that are attributed to men to a greater extent than women. Women, on the other hand, are associated with other types of functions that we understand as feminine; empathy, warmth and caring, to name a few (Schneider & Bos, 2013:
260; Huddy & Terkildsen, 1983: 121-122; Fridkin Kahn, 1994: 155).
Male domination in politics was long seen as self-evident and women's absence was not at all questioned but was explained on the basis of natural factors. The continued dominance of masculinity can also be explained by the patriarchal patterns that not only dominate the political sphere but society as a whole. With higher incomes and work participation, cultural privilege, access to power and ownership, men collectively benefit from the prevailing patriarchal order. This order produces hegemonic masculinity. It should be mentioned, however, that in reality there is a special kind of masculinity - or more specifically, gender practice - that is advantaged by these norms. Ideal masculinity is not only constructed in relationship to femininity but also in relation to other, subordinated and marginalized, masculinities (Hearn, 2004:58). There are many different masculinities that exist
simultaneously within a society. Moreover, these different masculinities exist in a hierarchical order, where some are more privileged than others. In addition to the different masculinities, one dominant masculinity exists, which is referred to as hegemonic masculinity (ibid).
Scholars within the field of Critical Studies on Men and Masculinities (CDM), with R.W Connell being one of the most prominent, argue that masculinity should be analyzed based on four main categories of hegemony, subordinated, complicit and marginalized, where the hegemonic masculinity is defined as "... as the configuration of gender practice which embodies the currently accepted answer to the problem of the legitimacy of patriarchy"
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(Connell, 1987: 183). Thus, hegemonic masculinity includes men with power, and although this group of men is relatively small, its norms affect all men (and women) and are reflected in all parts of society. Ideas of masculinity are not by any means fixed or consistent. They can change and evolve over time. Hybrid forms of masculinity demonstrate the fluidity of the masculinity concept and how ideas of the ideal, hegemonic man are ever negotiable.
Since female representation has increased in politics it has become natural and relevant to also discuss women's political leadership in this light. Previous research has suggested that female political leadership is rather difficult to define. Female politicians are not associated with the traditional leadership characteristics mentioned above. Some studies even suggest that when a woman embodies these traits, it does not necessarily have to be perceived as successful nor desirable. On the contrary, much indicates that it is negative for female politicians to adapt to the traditional (masculine) leadership ideal (Schneider & Bos, 2013:
260-61, Gidengil & Everitt, 2003: 227).
Monica Schneider & Angela Bos investigates female political leadership by investigating people’s expectations of the characteristics of a political leader. The feminine attributes most often associated with women in politics were: feminine / female appearance (45% of
respondents), emotional / emotional (29%), talkative (29%), caring (28%), maternal (26%) , compassionate (22%), tender / gentle / cautious (20%), sympathetic (18%), sensitive / vulnerable (14%), warm (12%), beautiful (12%). The masculinity attributes most often associated with male politicians, on the other hand, were: leaders (94% of respondents), well- educated (91%), driven (91%), ambitious (85%), well-formulated (85%), competitive (83)
%), respectful (80%), knowledgeable (74%), decisive (74%), aggressive (72%), motivated (70%). They find that the view of the male politician stereotype overlaps more or less with the male stereotype. At the same time, female politicians are not associated with feminine traits to the same extent as women outside politics. This includes traditional traits intimately tied to womanhood, such as femininity, beauty, empathy, affection as well as nurturing and caring qualities. Also, the fact that women politicians are not even associated with leadership indicates the different conditions for men and women in politics (Scheider &Bos, 2013: 248- 249). This study also suggests that female politicians constitute a hybrid, subversion of femininity. It also raises questions of what conditions women must relate to in order to be accepted as political leaders.
It has been suggested that women in politics should preserve, and actively express, parts of their femininity to gain acceptance. Donatella Campus argues that's the attribution of
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feminine gender traits can sometimes be an asset to women politicians, because they are perceived as caring, genuine and good at "cleaning up" politics. More problematic, on the other hand, is how women are often questioned for the exact same reason, which puts greater pressure on them to compensate for this by delivering an extra clear and serious political message. While doing so, there is a risk that they are perceived as "too aggressive" instead (Campus, 2013: 39-44). This is also discussed by Elisabeth Gidengil and Joanna Everitt who argue that women tend to appear more aggressive than male politicians in debates because the media, for example, tend to overemphasize when women depart from the traditionally
feminine to adopt a more masculine leadership style(Gidengil & Evervitt, 2000: 122-123).
The media’s treatment of female politicians will be discussed further in the next section.
2.4 Female political leadership and the media
When studying media and gender issues, scholars have focused both on skewed gender representation, i.e inequality in the actual presence of male and female politicians in media, and stereotyped depictions of gender in the media reporting. Previous research has shown that women tend to receive less media coverage than male politicians. In addition, women are more associated with political areas that relate to feminine attributes, including elderly policy, health care, and care policy. Such policy areas tend to receive less media attention than issues related to, for example, security and economy (Fridkin Kahn& Goldberg, 1991: 195-197).
Furthermore, the media is usually more receptive to male characteristics and issues discussed by male politicians, which explains why women's representation media still remains different than to that of male politicians (ibid).
When female politicians are featured in media, research has shown that they are portrayed in a more gender-typical way than their male colleagues. The media especially tend to
overemphasize the personal or private, including family, marital status, appearance, etc., when portraying female politicians. This can be seen as reflecting the dichotomy between public and private, where women traditionally have been active in the private sphere while men have dominated the public areas of society, including politics. Although the number of female politicians is growing, their position in the political life is still considered "unnatural".
Given the masculine nature of politics, there is an idea there is something deviant or unnatural with women pursuing a political career. This is also based on the view that devoting your life to politics would mean giving up other things, for example, motherhood, which would conflict with the female nature. This private-public split is still reflected in the media
reporting with men being featured in relation to serious issues whereas women are frequently
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discussed in terms of their personal life and other trivial subjects. Thus, the explanations for the negativity that often, but not always, characterize the reporting of women politicians can be derived from women's "unnatural" place in politics (Sreberny-Mohammadi & Ross, 1996:
112-114).
There are some disagreements, however, whether these stereotypical depictions are solely negative for female politicians or not. While some scholars have argued that media focus on the private and personal tend to overshadow the political message, other scholars argue that this is, in fact, is in favor of female politicians as they come off as more relatable and
"likable” (Mitbo, 2011: 241-42). However, the actual effect of the media coverage, in terms of electoral success or popularity, is rarely studied. These assumptions are based on the ways in which media describes female politicians, whether the coverage is overwhelmingly positive or negative. On one hand, many studies argue that female politicians get criticized when adapting too much to the masculine norms of politics. This adaptation to the masculine expressions traditionally associated with ideal political leadership seems to make women politicians particularly vulnerable to media criticism. They are often described as stiff, scripted and illegitimate (Heldman et al., 2005: 328) or too aggressive (Gidegil & Evervitt, 2000: 122-123), indicating that what is understood as successful political leadership in the traditional sense does not apply to women.
Expressing attributes that contrast with authentic femininity is a risk for female politicians since they are often described as cold and unsympathetic. Shawn J. Parry-Giles describes how Hillary Clinton ended up in that position by focusing on the political message and not the personal (Parry-Giles, 2014: 178). Clinton's perceived strength and political ambition were even seen as somewhat problematic during the period she was a presidential candidate in 2008. Despite strength being considered an important trait for a president, Clinton was too strong, too ambitious, too eloquent and calculating. This resulted in her not being perceived as a warm or caring person and therefore, not a desirable leader of the nation (Campus, 2013:
69-71). But female politicians are equally criticized for sometimes being too feminine.
Female politicians that show emotions or vulnerability are often described as weak or inappropriate as leaders, which was the case of Elizabeth Dole, who was described as too emotionally weak and fragile by the media when displaying such characteristics in her leadership role (Aday & Devitt, 2001, 59-65). This indicates that women politicians have to adapt to a balance where they cannot be “too much” in one way or the other. Furthermore, looks and appearance tend to attract media attention. Sharon Mavin, Patricia Bryans & Rosie
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Cunningham study the media image of a number of British politicians, including Emily Thornberry, Caroline Flint, Theresa May and Harriet Harman, and claim that looks and personality were the primary focus of the media coverage. Their clothing choices are described, among other things, as "too old-fashioned" and “too feminine", which steals attention from politics. The authors argue that women politicians who materialize masculine qualities in their leadership role but do so through a socially perceived women's body, end up in a difficult-to-handle position where the media image tends to be even more negative (Mavin, Bryans & Cunningham, 2010: 550-569).
The key to acceptance, or even success, appears to be an act of balance. This balance is found somewhere in between the traditional masculine and feminine. Thus, the challenge for women politicians lies in meeting the seemingly incompatible expectations of femininity and
leadership. In addition, they must relate to the arduous, not to say impossible, task of achieving a balance between traits that are fundamentally at odds; it is difficult to be submissive and strong at the same time, for example (Holland & Wright, 2017: 600-601).
Furthermore, it is unclear which attributes that are desirable and important for this balance to work- it is not just the random interplay of any feminine and masculine traits that make an acceptable balance. In the previously mentioned study by Marvin, Bryans & Cunninghams, Teresa May's embodiment of feminine through her appearance failed to make up for her tough and "masculine" leadership style. By contrast, Sara Palin managed to achieve a balance more successfully by emphasizing motherhood and the more mundane, personal and private side of her (Mavin, Bryans & Cunningham, 2010: 550-569; Wasburn & Wasburn, 2011, 1035-139). In Palin's case, her family life was often debated at the expense of her political standpoints, which was not necessarily a disadvantage as the identity of a "hockey mom" and a highly regarded politician who raised five children was particularly helpful as it had a disarming effect on her otherwise tough leadership style (ibid). Although these two studies take place in different contexts and should not necessarily be interpreted in comparison to one another, It still raises some questions of what type of feminine attributes that are needed in order to be accepted as a female leader.
2.5 Social media and politics
The prevalence of social media in people's everyday life has said to have changed the political landscape in several ways. While traditional media long dominated as the foremost and
largest platforms for politicians to profile themselves, social media has increasingly begun to compete with traditional media in that matter. For the vast majority of people, information
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about the political world is accessed through media. Although information is not equated with knowledge, traditional media has played an important role in general public knowledge of politics, since accessibility to information is ultimately a prerequisite for knowledge.
Traditional mass media such as TV, radio, and newspapers have been the most important media platforms in terms of how people gain access to everyday information and news. This is because large established media organizations have the resources to collect, process and disseminate information. Because a significant part of politics takes place in the media, politics is often described as mediated, which means that politics is channeled out by media.
Furthermore, politics can also be called medialized. As the media's independence from politics has increased, politics has become more adapted to and influenced by the media. To this day, traditional media is still said to play the most important role in setting the news agenda and govern public opinion. However, given the rapid spurt in the growth of social media usage, and its immense impact on politics, traditional media and society as a whole can no longer be ignored (Loader & Mercea, 2011: 359-62).
The term social media is widely used and includes various different interpretations. In this paper, the term social media refers to internet-based platforms which offer tools to enable people to connect and interact in human social networks. Thus, the term Social media includes social networks such as Facebook, but also blogs and image and audio-based platforms such as Youtube and Instagram. These media are largely powered and used via mobile applications, so-called apps, where users can easily be connected at all times. These apps help people to instantaneously share pictures, text or videos online and communicate directly with friends and people. It is also used to spread, share and access information. The emergence of social media has made the media landscape more complex (Burns& Highfield, 2016: 56-73). Firstly, the rise of social media has changed how politicians communicate with the public. Politicians don't have to go through traditional media but are able to directly communicate through their own social media platforms. Not only does social media offer new ways to directly communicate with the public, often faster and more effectively than through traditional media channels, but politicians are also more accessible to the citizens. Nowadays, many politicians consider it a matter of course to use online technologies to communicate and mobilize electoral bases (Larsson & Kalsnes, 2014: 654). What implications this use of social media has had for politics, politicians and governmental issues in general is still a rather unexplored area. A relevant question for political science research, however, has been how the usage of social media affects political participation and involvement (Gustafsson, 2018,
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293-295). While such causalities are fall outside the purpose of this thesis, they are still relevant to mention in this context. One concrete effect of social media is that the interaction through online spaces is gradually dissolving the boundaries between politicians and citizens.
Popular social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram offer platforms to
communicate directly with citizens and vice versa. The relationship between the media and politics has also changed, given that traditional media is no longer considered the primary window to the political life. Social media pages have become an increasingly important source of information and news for people as well as they have made politics more accessible in terms of constant information flows and interaction possibilities (Ekman & Widholm, 2015, Gustafsson et al.2018, 293). The fact that individuals are increasingly relying on online social media for information raises questions of how the wide use of social media affects perceptions of political issues and politicians. Previous research has suggested that social media to some extent affect how political reality is perceived. For example, the use of social media has small but significant effects on misperceptions of political candidates, for example, presidential candidates, due to disinformation (Garret, 2019). The democratic function of social media has also been a topic for discussion. In this digital era, where social media is accessible to most people, people have gone from consumers to actual creators of political news, they have the opportunity to influence or even control the discourse by engaging in discussions on social media, building networks and sharing opinions. This raises questions about whether social media will eventually facilitate political participation. However, we still not know enough about the democratic potential of social media (Loader & Mercea, 2011:
359-62). In this paper, the purpose of studying social media is to analyze a forum where the politicians themselves have control over what is posted and communicated to the public.
2.6 Gender and social media
A scarce amount of previous research on how female politicians portray themselves in social media. Susan Fountaine has studied the self-framing of female politicians on Twitter,
showing that female politicians often adapt to feminine styling in their twittering. A feminine communication style is often interactive and conversational and focuses on relations, whereas a typical masculine style is analytical and rational and focuses on facts. For example, women interact more with the listener or receiver, are more relational and uses personal anecdotes
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when making arguments (Fountaine, 2017: 230). Overall, a feminine style contains a more personal tone than a typical masculine communication style (Meeks, 2016: 295-98). The fact that women in politics embrace a feminine style is believed a result of a so-called
“femininity/competence double bind” that women in politics must relate to. This means that women must be feminine enough to be likable, but not too much since it would have a negative impact on their perceived competence (Fountaine, 2017: 230). When analyzing the Twitter accounts of politicians Nikki Kaye and Jacinda Ardern in connection to the general election in New Zealand in 2014, it showed that the most liked tweets were those who were personal, and preferably humorous. For example, Arden’s tweets about her mother or Kayes pictures of her grandmother’s cat were particularly popular (ibid: 227-28). Thus, feminine styling helps to be more likable as a female politician. While being likable is an advantage, the likability must not be at the expense of competence. This, again, relates to the difficult balance women in politics must relate to.
There has also been researching done on how news coverage differentiates from politicians’
own campaigning in social media. Younghwan Kim analyzes how the Korean presidential candidate Geunhye Park digital self-representation in comparison to that of her in traditional media and finds that the latter was more gender-biased in terms of political issues, focusing on private life and personality traits. The result showed that Park tried to stress a range of issues in her online campaigning while traditional media did continue to emphasize feminine- identified issues. Thus, the news coverage reinforced a gender stereotype image while Park herself tried to counteract, or neutralize, that image (Kim, 2012: 613-614).
3. Method
3.1 MaterialThe material consistss of posts from the politicians' personal accounts on Instagram.
Instagram is a downloadable application for mobile devices and is one of the most widely used social networks in the world. In 2018, Instagram had reached approximately one billion active users since its launch in 2010 (Instagram.com). The service is focused primarily on instant photo sharing where the user is allowed to take, edit and share photos with other users within a few minutes or seconds. The images may be accompanied by a shorter or longer text (or no text at all). Furthermore, the user may add hashtags or local-based tags to make their post searchable to other users on the Instagram app. The app also used for video sharing.
Being a social media platform, it is possible for users to comment and "like" the pictures of
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other users. Users are also allowed to send and answer private messages to other users and communicate with friends within the app. Instagram is used by individuals as well as businesses and large companies. It is possible for the user to choose to have their Instagram profiles private, which means it's only accessible to your followers on the app, or to keep it public for everyone to see (Instagram.com). In Sweden, all party leaders have a public Instagram profile where their posts are visible to anyone visiting their feeds. The images posted on Instagram will appear on the user's Instagram feed, which can be found when searching for the person's user name on the app.
When collecting the material, I began with creating an account on the Instagram app in order to access the Instagram posts. I then searched for Annie Lööfs and Ebba Busch Thor’s user names on the app to get an overlook of their Instagram feeds. Annie Lööfs profile had 2051 posts while Ebba Busch Thor had 1253 posts at the time of first searching (10 October 2019).
Since it would not be possible to analyze the entire feed of posts, I had to make a few restrictions in order to make possible a thorough analysis.
Regarding the selection of posts on the two Instagram profiles, I decided to limit the selection to 400 posts respectively, which equals a total of 800 posts for the analysis. Since the main focus of this study is to examine how politicians portray themselves using a gender
perspective, I made the decision to collect the 400 latest posts on their Instagram by using a reversed chronological order. That is, I began with the most recent post on their feed and simply counted to back to 400. Since studying changes over time or other time-dependent factors is not of particular interest for this analysis, it was not necessary to account for this when collecting the material. Using this collection method also gives the most recent and current material.
Since Instagram is originally a photo-sharing app, used nowadays as a service for sharing both photos and texts (Jung, 2012: 2196), the decision to analyze the text captions can easily be questioned. At the stage when the material was collected, the idea was to analyze both text and images. When coding the textual data, I realized that pure text analysis is feasible and maybe even necessary in order to focus on the themes that arose from the material. I, therefore, made the decision that the textual data was thick enough to stand on its own.
Another rationale behind choosing to focus on texts is the fact that the captions have given politicians a personal voice, that the text pieces that accompany the images give politicians room and space to be personal (ibid). The implementation of the analysis will be described in detail in the following section.
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3.2 Implementation
3.2.2 Thematic analysis
Thematic analysis is a method used to search for themes in qualitative data. While many qualitative methods are thematic in that they structure the material according to different themes, it is also used as an independent method to identify meaningful patterns within qualitative data sets. Themes are broadly defined as recurrent patterns or ideas in qualitative data. However, the rationale is not only finding what is recurrent, for example, the presence of words or signs but the explicit and implicit meanings of these patterns in the material. The researcher is encouraged to search for repetitions, typologies or categories, metaphors, and analogies, transitions, similarities and skills, linguistic connections, missing data and theory- related material (Brown & Clarke, 2006: 57-59)
A key question is naturally how a theme is defined. Virginia Brown and Victoria Clarke argue that a theme is not necessarily what appears, for instance, in 50 % of the material. Nor is it about counting the number of discussions and ideas in the content, since it's not a content analysis. A theme might be prevalent in only parts of the material, but captures meaningful elements of a phenomenon that is of interest in relation to a given research question. Themes are thus heavily based on the judgment of the researcher. Here, the research question is the main guideline for the researcher. A theme is something that is recurring and that captures something of interest in data that is related to the research question. Furthermore, thematic analyses can be both inductive and deductive. Most thematic analyses are inductive and let the themes emerge completely from the existing data. This means that themes are identified during the process of analyzing the material. Deductive approaches are possible, which means the themes have been determined in advance, based on theory and previous research, before the material is analyzed. Inductive and deductive approaches can also be combined (ibid).
Against this background, the researcher has to make numerous decisions before starting analyzing the material, for example how themes are and prevalence are to be defined and weather a deductive or inductive approach should be used. These decisions are not necessarily decided explicitly in the methods’ discussion but have to be considered by the researcher prior to the analysis. This analysis is deductive according to Schneider & Bos (2013) indicators of femininity and masculinity . The feminine attributes are Feminine, Emotional ,Talkative , Caring, Motherly , Compassionate , Affectionate, Sympathetic , Sensitive , Warm ,Beautiful , Creative , Gentle , Loving , Cute, Pretty , Artistic and Gorgeous. The Masculine attributes are Leader , Educated , Driven , Ambitious , Well-spoken , Competitive , Well-
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educated , Commands respect , Knowledgeable , Determined, Aggressive , Motivated , Charismatic , Active , Arrogant Masculine, Strong , Egotistical, Tough , Adventurous , Physically strong , Muscular and Athletic (Schneider & Bos, 2012: 255, 257)
Phases
Thematic analysis can be divided into different phases aimed the help the researcher identify, but also evaluate, themes in selected data. The first step is to intimately get to know the material by thoroughly reading the material. There are no specific rules to how this should be done, which again relates to the flexibility of this method. The point is to familiarize yourself with the material and this usually involves reading and taking notes of the material (Brown &
Clarke, 2006: 60-61). In this first step of the analysis, I read through the material from the earliest published post to the latest. The rationale was to get an overview of the content. I read through the material from the last published post to the first one within the time range of the collected material, and then reversely – starting with the first one to the last one. After the first reading, I repeated the process once again. This time, I took notes of details, tendencies of patterns or recurrences in the material. Finally, I read through I repeated the process a third time. Again, this step is to deeply immerse myself with the material, which is crucial prior to the following steps of the analysis, which is coding the material and defining the themes. By going through each sentence of the textual material, the next task is to compress the content into small meaning-bearing units (Brown & Clarke, 2006: 61). Thus, this unit, or “code”, will reflect the meaning of the content. These units represent the content and will later be extended to bigger overall themes.
This step involved an even more detailed reading than in the previous step. Every image was coded deductively according to Scheider & Bos (2013) indicators of masculinity. The task was then to translate what is expressed into traits. For example: mother, love, children = motherly, loving. Every post was coded with at least one code (word) per post. Not all posts were possible to code since they had too little or no text at all, whereby I had to exclude these posts from the analysis. After going through the material, 72,5 % (590) of the 800 post had given one or several (one to three) codes. I ended up with a total of 23 unique codes. Most codes were the same both in the analysis of Ebba Busch Thor and Annie Lööf (see Figure 1).
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Figure 1: Codes
Already at this stage, some broader themes began to take a form which led me to the next phase – to search for broader discussions, ideas, patterns around my codes. These should be relevant in relation to the research question and capture meaningful patterns in the material (Brown & Clarke, 2006: 63). Since I had my codes ready, I began searching for the deeper meanings around them. Five different themes emerged from these codes. The codes, together, represent a set of traits according to the theoretical framework and the femininity/masculinity indicators by Schneider & Bos (2013:255, 257).
The following step includes checking the quality of the potential themes. When working with large sets of data, reviewing it is necessary to make sure the themes are relevant. This
involves diffrentiating between a theme and a code, checking if the theme is interesting in relationship to the research question , decide on what the theme should include and not
include, try to estimate wether the theme is "thick" or not, i.e supported by enough material, if the themes are coherent and relevant to each other and, finally, if the themes represent the entire data set and not just a small aspect of it (Brown & Clarke, 2006: 65).
One adjustment I had to make fairly quickly in the process was the structure of the analysis of the two politicians. In the beginning, I analyzed (coded) the two Instagram accounts
separately. After realizing that the codes on the two profiles actually matched, with only a few exceptions, I chose to present them together.
Codes
Annie Lööf: mother, relationship, family, woman, emotions, leader, politics, conversational, sympathy, compassion, empathy, cooking, playing, competition, assertiveness, flexibility, determination, motivation, clothes, decisive, honesty,
Ebba Busch Thor: mother, relationship, family, vulnerability, honesty, woman, decisive, emotional, ambition, cooking, humor, leader, politics, compassion, empathy, strength, determination, motivation, make-up,
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When all these steps are completed there is only one last step in the thematic analysis, which is defining and naming themes. This phase involves capturing the very essence of each theme by summarizing them with a few words or sentences at most (Brown & Clarke, 2006: 66)
Figure 2: Themes
3.3 Validity & reliability
Before moving on to the main analysis, it is relevant to addresse the methodological
challenges related to the method of choice. The validity, the study measures what it intends to measure, is the most important part of a research paper. Thematic analysis is, in itself, a flexible method that relies highly on the interpretations of the researcher which may cause both validity and reliability issues. While I have been consistent to my theoretical starting point throughout the analysis, I have been open to the fact that the research question might have to adapt to the material. While replication is not always a goal of qualitative research, it is still important that the result is intersubjective and reliable. Being a flexible method, an essential part of the thematic analysis is the reviewing and evaluation of the themes. The important question is whether the themes are actually representative of the whole data set or if
Themes
Family first, politics second: mother, family, relationship, emotional vulnerable, cooking, playing (traits: motherly, loving, emotional)
The Likable Politician: Conversational, sympathy, humor, cooking, clothes (traits: talkative, sympathetic, warm)
A Political Caretaker: Compassion, empathy, emotional, relational , caring (traits:
compassionate, caring, emotional)
A woman in politics: woman, womanhood (Traits: feminine, sensitive, strong)
The feminine hybrid: decisiveness, ambition, leader, determination, responsibility, driven, competition (traits: motivated, driven, leader, ambitious, competitive)
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they only reflect small parts of the material. Although it is not a requirement, it is
recommended that an independent reviewer evaluates the themes to confirm the reliability of the analysis. This process involves bringing in a second researcher who checks that the themes represent the material and who can inform of any incompatibilities between the themes and the material (Alhojailan, 2012:44).
Since it has not been possible to include a second researcher in the work of this paper, I have made other efforts to strengthen the credibility of the analysis. One way of doing so, in my case, is to be transparent with the process and how the themes have been identified. This includes presenting quotes that reflect the meaning of the themes. Throughout the whole analysis, I have tried to be as transparent as possible with demonstrating which parts of the material reflect which themes. Of course, it has not been possible to present all quotations, given the scope limits of the thesis, whereby I have tried to find representative quotes and while referring to the remaining material in the text.
The Instagram posts have been translated, which means that the material is not reproduced in its original language. The difficulties of translating the posts have been the use of spoken (informal) languages, abbreviations and local expressions. Despite this, I have translated the texts as word-for-word as possible. I have not added words or expressions to achieve greater formality or correctness, just to preserve the original feel of the texts. I have only excluded the use of emojicons, that is, icons that display expressions, as these are not qualified as written text and therefore not included in the analysis.
4. Thematic analysis of Annie Lööf and Ebba Busch Thor on Instagram
In this chapter, the empirical data are analyzed. I will present the results in relation to the findings of previous research and how they correspond to my theoretical points of departure.
The analysis is divided into three themes which in turn contain sub-themes specifically related to the individual politicians.
4.1. Family first, politics second
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A prominent theme that emerged in the material revolves around the private, including family life, relationships, and motherhood. Codes related to motherhood and family life were the most frequent in the analyzed material and appeared in 27, 5% of 800 posts. This section analyzes the posts on Annie Lööf’s and Ebba Busch Thor’s Instagram profiles that depicted them as committed mothers trying to achieve a balance between family life and work. This suggest that both Lööf and Busch Thor choose to emphasize these parts of their personal life and, by doing so, they are meeting critical expectations of womanhood.
Annie Lööf
The distinctive pattern on Annie Lööf’s Instagram is the combination of personal and political content. On her profile, she describes that her “…ambition is to mix political news with my everyday life and reality - that is, with travel, meetings and home.” (Annie Lööf, 2019,
August 20). Thus, it contains a mix of political issues, family life, and other everyday events.
Sweatpants, tacos and family time feels heavenly to start the weekend with and to sum up a really good work week” (Lööf, 2019, August 23)
Wash in peace and quiet. Fold laundry. Remove summer clothes then this summer.
Picking up Christmas items that my husband brought in December. Make an ordinary Sunday lunch at home. (Lööf, 2019, January 13)
To begin with, the personal tone of these posts represents a feminine communication style.
Previous research has revealed that female politicians use a different style when communicating on social media, for example being more personal, interactive and conversational. This way of communicating tend to make politicians, especially females, more likable. One common feature in feminine styling is using personal anecdotes and experiences (Meeks, 2016: 296). Moreover, portraying everyday events can be seen as a way of making herself relatable and approachable to the audience, i.e. her Instagram followers.
The texts that depict her wearing sweatpants and laying on the couch, for example, is interesting to interpret against the background of previous research claiming that female politicians tend to be called polished and stiff (Heldman et al., 2005: 328). Thus, this can be seen as a way to counteract such negative images. It also gives an insight into the private and the recognizable. A world far away from the hard-to-reach rooms of top politics and a place where people see themselves every day.
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Monday 9.30. Been at work for a few hours, left at preschool. Have a series of meetings and tough interviews today. (Lööf, 2019, March 13)
Furthermore, posts in which she is cooking, baking and playing with her daughter give an image of a stereotypical mother, especially when simultaneously practicing traditionally feminine chores. By indulging in this critical aspect of femininity, she also meets the expectations of her as a woman (Schneider & Bos, 2013: 247-48). As previous research has shown, women in politics are often criticized for being cold or aggressive, or even dismissed as suitable leaders simply for being childless and unmarried. At the same time, women are often accused of being bad mothers because when aspiring to succeed as leaders (Holland &
Wright, 2017: 590). A common question put to female politicians, who are also mothers, is
“Can you be a good mom and a good politician at the same time?” (Meeks, 2016: 295). In these posts, Annie Lööf demonstrates is like any mother – leaving at preschool, cooking and playing. She thus meets the requirements for good and normative motherhood by engaging in chores a committed and good mother is expected to do. It can be seen as she is, in this aspect, doing her gender right. (Holland & Wright, 2017: 590). Previous research on this topic has indeed argued that women who depart from these aspects of femininity that involve
motherhood are often portrayed negatively. Except being perceived as cold or robotic, there is also the idea that only through motherhood may a female be accepted as a "real woman" and consequently, there is something deviant with a women pursuing a political career at the expense of her personal fulfillment, i.e. motherhood (Sreberny-Mohammadi & Ross, 1996:
112-114).
That she actively chooses to emphasize this part of her life can both be seen as a way of demonstrating its importance to her as her priorities. In one post, Annie Lööf describes the heavy critique for her political actions after the Swedish general election in 2018. She describes that she has noted a lot of criticism against the fact that “… the Center Party today takes responsibility for Sweden to have a government that does not give SD a historical influence and that implement liberal reform policy”(Lööf, 2019, January 16), but that listening to her daughter’s critique is more important.
An entirely different critic called at 19.45 tonight. I had brought her teddy bear to work and I also had to do the evening pass in, among other things, in SVT Aktuellt. She missed her teddy bear, which she left in the car before preschool this morning - and it did not come home as promised, until tonight. But now it will soon be placed on her pillow (Lööf, 2019, January 16).
