Elizabeth Evans

The Gender of News and News of Gender: A Study of Sex, Politics, and Press Coverage of the 2010 British General Election

In the months leading up to the 2010 British General Election, pundits were claiming that women would be specifically targeted by all political parties. However, this focus never materialized and it was just more business as usual but with the added novelty of televised leaders’ debates, which meant that coverage was more male ordered than ever. The study on which this article is based monitored articles published in the four weeks leading up to election day across twelve newspapers, comprising a mix of dailies and weekend editions, broadsheets and midmarket, and tabloid titles. The study concentrated on articles that had the election as the main story and which mentioned or sourced one or more candidates, both MPs seeking reelection, and Parliamentary Candidates. We were interested in exploring (any) differences in the news coverage of women and men candidates, looking at both frequency and content. Our findings suggest that women were much less likely to feature in news stories than men, even when controlling for Party Leader coverage. Women were much more likely to be mentioned or quoted in feature articles focused explicitly on gender issues, made interesting because of their sex and couture rather than their political abilities and experience.

Critical Waves: Exploring Feminist Identity, Discourse and Praxis in Western Feminism

Feminist scholars frequently question the wave narrative, fearing the way in which it constructs generational divides and suggests periods of inactivity, whilst others have found it a useful way of understanding the chronological and ideological development of feminism. This article seeks to avoid rehashing well-rehearsed debates concerning the pros and cons of the narrative, instead seeking to emphasise the importance of engaging with the themes of continuity, inclusivity and multiplicity by exploring identity, discourse and praxis through the wave metaphor. It does this by drawing upon analysis of key feminist writings and empirical research undertaken with feminist activists in the UK. This article stresses how the coterminous existence of second, third and fourth wave have changed the nature of the wave narrative in such a way as to require a different critical approach, one that recognises the power of the discourse and the pragmatic implications of its use.

From Sandals to Suits: Professionalisation, Coalition and the Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats have traditionally been viewed as a ‘bottom-up’ party with a relatively high degree of influence open to grass-roots members and party activists. However, following the dramatic increase in the number of Liberal Democrat MPs at the 1997 election the party has increasingly tried to professionalise its operation, leading to a more top-down approach. This article argues that the professionalisation process has not only changed the dynamics within and between the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary party, but has also paved the way for the party, more usually identified as being on the centre-left of British politics, to enter into coalition government with the Conservatives. Analysing changes to the federal conference structure and to policy-making processes, the article explores the ways in which the party has professionalised, both within the parliamentary party and at party headquarters, and assesses the potential impact that this may have upon the role of the partys grass roots.

What Makes a (Third) Wave? How and Why the Third Wave Narrative Works for Contemporary Feminists

Abstract The wave narrative has come to frame academic and popular discussions of western feminist activism. Yet there are overlapping and contradictory ways of interpreting “third-wave feminism,” which has resulted in much confusion surrounding its use and relevancy within western feminist praxis. Hence the need for a greater understanding of the term “third-wave feminism.” This article sets out a framework for understanding third-wave feminism, highlighting the importance of political context. The article, drawing upon interview data generated with activists in the USA and the UK, argues that while chronology is the most prevalent way in which feminist activists interpret third-wave feminism, many also cite age and intersectionality as indicators of third-wave feminism. Moreover, differing interpretations influence the extent to which it is seen as a positive development. While third-wave feminism is more developed in the USA, many within the UK recognize and use the term.

Two heads are better than one? Assessing the implications of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition for UK politics

The Westminster model is recognized the world over as delivering strong, stable one-party government with hung parliaments an anomaly. The recent UK general election has proved the exception to the rule, with 2010 providing the first hung parliament since 1974. Unlike the 1974 minority administration, 2010 saw the formation of a coalition government for the first time in over 70 years. Bringing together the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, two parties not seen as natural bedfellows, the coalition has proven somewhat of a political experiment. While the coalition may have surprised many, this article highlights how the UK’s shifting political landscape and changes in personnel at the top of both parties has facilitated the coalition. In doing so the article questions how the coalition will impact upon the Liberal Democrats in particular, and explores the extent to which coalition governments might constitute a more permanent feature in UK politics.

Candidate Selection in British Second Order Elections: A Comparison of Electoral System and Party Strategy Effects

Whilst most UK political parties have now accepted the need to increase the number of women representatives, the stark reality is that women remain under-represented. The under-representation of women in UK politics is not just evident in the national legislature but is a pattern repeated, to varying degrees, in second order elections at local, devolved and European levels. Recent developments in political recruitment processes allow us to explore the extent to which political parties take advantage of different electoral systems to promote women candidates in second order elections. Providing analysis of (s)election data from across second order elections, this article explores the interaction between systemic and institutional strategies, questioning which combination of electoral system and party strategy is most beneficial for increasing levels of womens representation.

Feminist Allies and Strategic Partners: Exploring the Relationship between the Women’s Movement and Political Parties

Western political parties have been in decline in recent decades and they continue to be viewed as male institutions. Despite this, electoral politics is important to the women’s movement as a means by which to advance feminist interests. This article builds upon feminist critiques of political parties by analyzing original qualitative data undertaken with feminists in the United States and United Kingdom in order to explore how activists view political parties. The research finds that although many hold negative views, in line with broader debates concerning disengagement, they also recognize the importance of electoral politics and the need to work with individual politicians. Party and feminist ideology shapes those views, whereby politicians on the left are viewed as feminist allies and those on the right are framed as strategic partners.

Reclaiming and Rebranding Feminist Activism

The third wave of feminism emerged in response to the prevailing anti-feminist backlash that occurred during the 1980s in the US and Britain (Faludi, 1992; Oakley and Mitchell, 1997). During this time, the Reagan and Thatcher administrations introduced cuts and increased privatisation, both of which negatively and disproportionately affected women (Eisenstein, 1984; Bashevkin, 1994). At the same time, larger feminist organisations underwent a process of professionalisation, whilst feminist activism and women’s services moved off the streets and into town halls and university departments (Bashevkin, 1996). Part of the impetus for this new wave of feminism was the desire to reclaim feminism publicly, both as a means by which to reinvigorate feminist activism and as a necessary form of resistance to the anti-feminist backlash (Walker, 1995). Indeed, the reclamation project became, and has remained, a constituent part of feminist aims and objectives frequently articulated by feminist writers since the mid-1990s (Heywood and Drake, 1997; Baumgardner and Richards, 2000; Valenti, 2002; Redfern and Aune, 2010), whilst some, notably in the US, have also called for a rebranding of the movement in order to broaden its appeal (Wolf, 1994; Armstrong and Wood Rudulph, 2013). The political, economic, and social circumstances within which this reclamation project was undertaken were not propitious.

Understanding Third Wave Feminisms

The term ‘third wave feminism’ has been interpreted in multiple and often contradictory ways. It has been viewed as both a neoliberal brand of feminism (Wlodarczyk, 2010) and as a more explicit feminist engagement with global social justice agendas (Heywood and Drake, 1997). Some note that third wave feminism seeks to reclaim and subvert traditional notions of femininity (Groeneveld, 2009) whilst others consider it a polemical defence of girlieness (McRobbie, 2009). It is frequently associated with women of color and intersectionality (Labaton and Lundy Martin, 2004) and yet the dominance of white, middle-class heterosexual voices has also been observed (Henry, 2004). The anti-academic nature of the third wave (Hernandez and Rehman, 2002; Bobel, 2010) is at odds with the obvious anti-essentialist influence of post-structuralism and post-colonialism (Hines, 2005; Dean, 2010; Budgeon, 2011). Finally, it has been used generally to describe post-1970s, or second wave, feminist activism (Zack, 2005; Redfern and Aune, 2010) and as a way of signalling a specific generation of feminist activists who constitute Generation X (Baumgardner and Richards, 2000; Shugart, 2001). The confusion surrounding what constitutes third wave feminism is in some respects its defining feature (Walker, 1995; Siegal, 2007; Finley and Reynolds Stringer, 2010); hence, the need to avoid presenting the third wave of feminism as monolithic.

Feminism and Women’s Political Representation

That women remain under-represented in legislatures across the world is a fact readily acknowledged by popular texts on feminism (Wolf, 1994: 11; Banyard, 2010: 5; Bates, 2014: 48). As a feminist issue, it is usually framed as symptomatic of patriarchal power structures, typically appearing as part of a statistical list of gender inequalities (gender pay gap, number of women on executive boards, and so on); as such, it does not often feature as a main focus of popular feminist analysis. Although the number of elected women legislators in Westminster and Congress is low, it is not clear whether third wave feminist activists prioritise the issue as part of an overarching struggle to resist gender binaries. In part, this is because many within progressive social movements have viewed national legislatures as neoliberal institutions. Furthermore, it is not obvious how an intersectional approach can be applied to campaigns that essentially argue for an increase in the number of female bodies present. The first half of this chapter maps both the under-representation of women, and of groups of women, and explores feminist campaigns to increase the number of women elected. The second half of the chapter analyses the views of the interviewees towards the issue of women’s political representation. The research finds that few of the interviewees were active or particularly interested in campaigns to increase women’s representation; this stems both from disengagement with the formal political process and from a perception that such campaigns only serve to benefit white middle-class women.