This textual analysis examines online mainstream media coverage during Hillary Clinton’s 2015/16 presidential campaign. Previous research on female political candidates indicates that there are both subtle and unsubtle ways the media reinforces masculinity in the political realm. The results of the study provide a commentary on the internet as a cultural text and Feminist Communication Studies, suggesting that there may be a decrease in the institutionalized sexism in the reporting of mainstream online media. Although encompassing only a small snapshot of the 2015/16 presidential race, the results also suggest that media seemed to lack a category for Clinton – she is both an inside and outsider, sitting at the cusp of a transformative historical event.

L'écart de la représentation politique des femmes entre la Guadeloupe et la Martinique a été à l'origine de notre interrogation sur la socialisation politique des femmes aux Antilles françaises. En interrogeant des élus guadeloupéens et martiniquais (hommes et femmes) nous avons tenté de comprendre en quoi la socialisation politique pouvait expliquer le niveau d'engagement des femmes en politique. Le·genre étant le concept su lequel se fonde la société pour justifier la séparation et la hiérarchisation des individus masculins et féminins c'est par le biais du processus de socialisation sexué que les individus apprennent leurs rôles genrés. Si cette séparation des hommes et des femmes dans des sphères distinctes (publique et privée) tend à freiner le femmes dans leur engagement politique, les élues antillaises n'auraient pas été majoritairement touchées pas une socialisation politique sexuée. Au contraire, la matrifocalité présente aux Antilles françaises aurait permi un certain nombre de femmes d'être socialisée similairement aux hommes. Mais la société empreinte de valeurs genrées aurait tout de même freiné les femmes dans l'entame d'une carrière politique. Si la famille transmet des valeurs politiques de base, que les partis politiques n'ont qu'un rôle relatif d'agent socialisateur le monde associatif semble être un agent de socialisation déterminant en termes d'engagement politique, un révélateur et un propulseur d'hommes et de femmes dans le monde politique. Socialisés aux valeurs politiques, ces élus deviennent également des agents de socialisation politique pour les jeunes qui peuvent représenter la relève politique. / Differences in the political representation of women between Guadeloupe and Martinique were the source c our questioning about the political socialisation of women in the French West Indies. Sy interviewing elected men and women in Guadeloupe and Martinique, we tried to understand how political socialization coul explain the level of involvement of women in politics. With gender being the concept from which any societ justifies the process of separation and hierarchy between male and female individuals, it is through the sexual socialization process that individuals learn their gendered raies. If this separation between men and women in both public and private spheres tends to impede women in their political commitment, elected women of the French West Indies have not been disproportionately affected by sexual political socialization. On the contrary, the matrifocality in the French West Indies would have allowed a number of women to be socialise dsimilarly to men. However, the strong gendered values of this society would have still hampered women at the beginning of their political career. While family provides basic political values, political parties have only a relative role of socializing agent. However, associations seem to be a decisive/crucial socializing agent in terms of political commitment, acting as a career booster for men and women in politics. Socialized to political values, these elected individuals become in turn factors of political socialization for young people whe represent the next political generation.

This thesis investigates the factors that affect women's bargaining power within the household, in India. The first chapter introduces the literature on household bargaining mostly by describing how household outcomes like children's health indicators and expenditure pattern change with increase in resources under women's control. The second chapter describes the conceptual framework for intra-household bargaining. It discusses the two broad topics – household bargaining models and gendered institutions, that can be used to identify avenues for increasing women's bargaining power within the household. In chapters three and four, I analyze the factors that determine women's power position, using data on women's involvement in household decision making from a nationally representative longitudinal household survey (India Human Development Survey). The survey was conducted in over 40,000 Indian households, which covers over 200,000 individuals. In the third chapter, I investigate the effect of women's labor force participation on her involvement in household decision making. After addressing the issues of endogeneity using a fixed effects model, I find that her labor market participation significantly increases her involvement in decision making process, which can be seen as a direct outcome of her increased bargaining power. In my fourth chapter I analyze whether the women's bargaining power within the household increases with the presence of female politicians at both state and local level. Studying the causal impact of a variable like female political representation is generally riddled with concerns of endogeneity for existence of voter preference. Using share of seats won by women in man-woman close elections as an instrument for overall female representation in in a fixed effect model, I show that an increase in number of female state legislators can actually lead to an increase in the bargaining power of women. This chapter further shows that increase in women's involvement in decision making process in the household is also associated with the female political representation at local level. The fifth chapter concludes the dissertation by making policy recommendation for strengthening women's bargaining position within the household. / Ph. D. / This thesis investigates the factors affecting women’s bargaining power within the household, in India. The first chapter introduces the literature on household bargaining mostly by discussing papers which find that more resources under the control of women within the household translates into lower fertility, better child health and education outcomes, thus establishing the significance of female bargaining power for overall economic development of countries like India which have poor social indicators. I also discuss some papers which contradict such findings. The second chapter describes the conceptual framework for the topic of intra-household bargaining. The first part of the chapter discusses the theoretical models of intra-household bargaining. While it is important to understand the theoretical models, it is also important to understand what form household bargaining takes in real life. To understand the power dynamics better, I conducted four Focus Group Discussion (FGD) in the state of West Bengal, India, in 2015. The participants were mostly married women of age 18-50. One of the main observations from the FGDs was that the deep-rooted gender roles for men and women in the society play an important role in determining their positions within the family. Drawing briefly on the observations from the FGD and existing literature on the topic, the second part of chapter two discusses how these gender roles can play a role in determining power position within the household. In the next two chapters, I analyze the factors that determine women’s power position using data on women’s involvement in the household decision making. This can be seen as a direct outcome of her bargaining power. The data used has been taken from a nationally representative longitudinal household survey (India Human Development Survey) of over 40,000 Indian households covering more than 200,000 individuals. The survey was conducted in two waves in the years 2004-05 and 2011-12. In my third chapter I investigate the effect of women’s labor force participation on her involvement in household decision making. After addressing the issues of endogeneity using a fixed effects model, I find that her labor market participation significantly increases her involvement in household decision making process. In my fourth chapter I analyze whether the women’s bargaining power within the household increases with the presence of female politicians at both state and local level. Studies, which use female representation in politics to explain various outcome variables, have often pointed out that due to the presence of voter preference it is difficult to estimate the actual causal effect. Hence for state elections, I use the existence of close elections as an instrument in a fixed effect model to show that an increase in number of female state legislators can actually lead to an increase in the bargaining power of women. To instrument for local level female representation, I use mandatory reservation for women in local elections and find a positive association between presence of a female village head and increase in women’s involvement in household decision making. On the basis of the results obtained in this study the fifth chapter concludes the dissertation by making policy recommendation for strengthening women’s bargaining position within the household.

This study set out to answer how and to what extent the gendered effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are addressed in parliamentary debates in the Southern African regional context. As both the proportion of women in parliament and the level of democracy have been established by previous research as important conditions for women to be able to act for women as a group, four countries with varying combinations of these factors are examined. By conducting both a quantitative and a qualitative text analysis on Hansards from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, the study analyses the extent to which the gendered effects of the pandemic are addressed and how they are addressed respectively. The results reveal that a combination of a high proportion of women in parliament and a high degree of democracy is the most favourable condition for enabling the substantive representation of women. A democracy with a low proportion of women in parliament is shown to be more allowing for the substantive representation of women than an electoral autocracy with a high proportion of women in parliament. Moreover, the qualitative frame analysis sheds light on the different issues which are in focus on the framing of the gendered effects of the pandemic in different parliaments depending on their level of democracy. Particularly, the issue of gender-based violence in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic is found to have reached the political agenda in the democratic cases, whereas MPs in the less democratic parliaments are more likely to feminize their cause by focusing more on traditionally feminine policy issues such as the health effects of women within the context of the pandemic.

Brazil is in the 132nd position in the ranking for female parliamentary participation according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s latest report (2019). Black women are the ones least involved in national politics. In the state of São Paulo 94 state Deputies were elected in 2018, of these only 11 are women and only 3 are black. This research looks at black female political participation in Brazil, focusing on political engagement in the state and municipality of São Paulo. It employs black feminist theory to investigate the hindrances for black women’s political participation. Intersectionality and political science theories were used as part of the theoretical framework. The research question explored was: “What are the obstacles for black female political participation in Brazil?”. This question is connected to larger issues of gender, race, class, political representation and participation. Semi-structured interviews with black women engaged with institutional politics were conducted, followed by a thematic analysis. The research found four main obstacles preventing a greater participation of black women in politics. The issue of visibility, that is, having enough social capital to gain attention from voters, prevents many black women from receiving support by their political parties. Having a network is also said to be important for those starting in politics, as it can give them the necessary visibility to grow in their political parties. Political education is considered an important tool to have a successful candidacy and is currently overlooked by political parties. Finally, financial investment is said to be underprovided to black female candidates. The interviews show that the obstacles presented are linked to structural racism and sexism within the political parties and in society. Despite their personal investment and engagement, black women are often demeaned. They are perceived as not capable of being good politicians. The oppressions they suffer for their race, gender and class are also experienced in the political arena. They are often silenced as political subjects, but they keep fighting back.