Walking the line of the double bind: A cross-country comparison on women and men politicians’ self-presentations on social media
Melanie Magin
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Sociology and Political ScienceNorway
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, Jörg Haßler
Lmu Munich, Department of Media and Communication (ifkw)Germany
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, Anders Olof Larsson
Kristiania University College, Department of CommunicationNorway
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and Eli Skogerbø
University of Oslo, Department of Media and CommunicationNorway
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Sep 02, 2024
About this article
Published Online: Sep 02, 2024
Page range: 157 - 184
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2024-0008
Keywords
© 2024 Melanie Magin et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
FIGURE 1
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 5
Overview of the sample (number of coded posts)
| Germany: female candidates ( |
Alice Weidel (AfD) | Right-wing populist | 54 | 10 | 64 |
| Annalena Baerbock (Greens) | Green | 42 | 47 | 89 | |
| Janine Wissler (Die Linke) | Socialist | 51 | 48 | 99 | |
| Total | – | 147 | 105 | 252 | |
| Germany: male candidates ( |
Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) | Conservative | 37 | n.a. |
37 |
| Armin Laschet (CDU) | Conservative | 76 | 54 | 130 | |
| Christian Lindner (FDP) | Liberal | 39 | 50 | 89 | |
| Dietmar Bartsch (Die Linke) | Socialist | 67 | n.a. |
67 | |
| Olaf Scholz (SPD) | Social democratic | 75 | 68 | 143 | |
| Tino Chrupalla (AfD) | Right-wing populist | 62 | 28 | 90 | |
| Total | – | 356 | 200 | 556 | |
| Germany: all candidates ( |
– | 503 | 305 | 808 | |
| Norway: female candidates ( |
Erna Solberg (H) | Conservative-liberal | 37 | 18 | 76 |
| Guri Melby (V) | Liberal | 45 | 15 | 98 | |
| Sylvi Listhaug (FrP) | Right-wing (populist) | 47 | 43 | 90 | |
| Une Bastholm (MDG) | Green | 20 | 17 | 47 | |
| Total | – | 149 | 93 | 311 | |
| Norway: male candidates ( |
Audun Lysbakken (SV) | Socialist | 60 | 99 | 291 |
| Bjørnar Moxnes (R) | Socialist | 108 | 50 | 200 | |
| Jonas Gahr Støre (AP) | Social democratic | 35 | 7 | 46 | |
| Kjell Ingolf Ropstad (KrF) | Christian | 13 | 7 | 20 | |
| Trygve Slagsvold Vedum (SP) | Rural | 19 | – | 19 | |
| Total | – | 235 | 163 | 576 | |
| Norway: all candidates ( |
– | 384 | 256 | 887 | |
| Germany + Norway: all female candidates ( |
296 | 198 | 494 | ||
| Germany + Norway: all male candidates ( |
591 | 363 | 954 | ||
| Germany + Norway: all candidates ( |
887 | 561 | 1,448 | ||
Indicators of gender equality in Germany and Norway
| General: structures | Percentage of Global Gender Gap closed (2023) |
81.5% | 87.9% |
| Statutory parental leave/benefits received by women (2022) |
74.8% | 56.9% | |
| General: gender norms |
Gender social norms index: People with zero biases among seven gender-related indicators (Germany: 2017–2022; Norway: 2005–2009) |
63% | 59% |
| Gender norm: Agreement/disagreement with statement “Men should have more right to job than women when jobs are scarce.” (2016) |
Agree: 7% Neither agree nor disagree: 16% Disagree: 77% |
Agree: 2% Neither agree nor disagree: 3% Disagree: 95% |
|
| Politics | Global Gender Gap Index - subdimension Political Empowerment (2023) |
.634 | .765 |
| Women heads of government (until 2021) |
Angela Merkel (2005–2021) |
Gro Harlem Brundtland (1981; 1986–1989; 1990–1996) Erna Solberg (2013–2021) |
|
| Women cabinet ministers (2023) |
50% | 50% | |
| Women in parliament (2023) |
35.1% | 46.2% | |
| Frontrunners/party leaders in the 2021 national election | 4 out of 5 (80%) | 3 out of 9 (34%) | |
| Economy | Gender pay gap (difference in gross hourly earnings between women and men) (2022) |
17.7% | 14.4% |
| Women/men in part-time jobs (2023) |
Women: 48.3% Men: 11.4% |
Women: 32.9% Men: 15.6% |
|
| Women employed in senior and middle management (2022) |
27% | 32% | |
Use of Facebook and Instagram in Germany and Norway by gender and age (per cent)
| Gender | Female | 46 | 32 | 81 | 58 |
| Male | 42 | 27 | 69 | 37 | |
| Age | 18–24 | 30 | 67 | 69 | 66 |
| 25–34 | 50 | 51 | 70 | 57 | |
| 35–44 | 49 | 34 | 78 | 54 | |
| 45–54 | 42 | 23 | 79 | 48 | |
| 55+ | 44 | 15 | 77 | 35 | |
| Total | 44 | 29 | 75 | 48 | |
Category descriptions and reliability
| personal_procomp | Professional competence: Here, we code if the text in the post includes referrals to the candidate’s career as an indication of his/her performance and competence. | description of political career; official positions of politicians; political achievements; education. | .784 | .894 | .897 | .949 |
| personal_home | Home and family: Here, we code if the text in the post deals with the candidate’s personal relationships or life at home. | mentions of the parental or marital role, children, spouse, parents; relaxing or cooking dinner at home or at a holiday home; walking a dog. | NA | 1.00 | .949 | .974 |
| personal_pref | Personal preferences: The text discloses a candidate’s personal inclinations regarding cultural and other phenomena such as literature, television, sports or by portraying the politician as a ‘passionate music lover’. | referrals to recreational activities (e.g., skiing), sporting events, cultural events, the weather, nature, birthdays or holidays, food preferences (e.g., being a vegetarian). | .968 | .986 | .889 | .944 |
| image190 | Private background story: The image/video shows politicians in a private context (e.g., with their partner or children), discusses their interests and hobbies or depicts their childhood/development with so-called “throwback” images. The image/video is about the person in the private context or private things of the person. | Coffee cup on a table | .920 | .964 | .893 | .946 |
| topic310 | Economy and finance | the European crisis, austerity measures, trade agreements, protectionism, customs duties, taxes, tax system, national debt, budget, budgetary policy, agriculture and forestry, enterprise policy, consumer protection | .752 | .887 | .810 | .905 |
| topic321 | Health | health insurance, lack of personnel in the care sector, pandemic | .960 | .981 | .829 | .914 |
| topic325 | Policy for families and children | childcare, youth policy, policies such as child-care allowance, parental allowance, protection against dismissal for expectant mothers, child-care places, tax incentives for parents | .984 | .992 | .943 | .971 |
| topic320 | Labour and social issues | pensions, rents, wages, working hours, labour market, skilled workers, social policy, pension policy, welfare state | .800 | .906 | .867 | .933 |
| topic331 | Criminality/crime rate in general | other internal security issues such as crime, police operations, video surveillance, etc. are addressed. NOT: crimes of asylum seekers, refugees, or other immigrants. These should be coded under topic340 | .896 | .953 | .981 | .990 |
| topic332 | Political radicalism/religious fanaticism | policy measures against right/left-wing extremism, Islamism, National Socialism | .888 | .948 | .990 | .995 |
| topic333 | Corruption | policy measures against corruption, corruption problem in general *accusations of corruption against a public authority of the state should be classified into “type of attack” | .968 | .985 | NA | 1.00 |
| topic330 | Domestic policy | public safety and order, internal security, legal policy | .808 | .908 | .981 | .990 |
| topic361 | Environmental policy | climate change, safety of endangered species, policy to save forests, animal rights | .832 | .920 | .800 | .900 |
| topic362 | Energy policy | energy system transformation, electricity prices | .936 | .969 | .962 | 9.81 |
| topic371 | Education and research policy | curriculum, school system, job training, universities, financial support for students, early childhood education, graduate and professional education, school size, class size, school/university choice, school/university privatisation, tracking, teacher selection, teacher pay, teaching methods, curricular content, graduation requirements, school/university/research infrastructure, funding, and the values that schools and universities are expected to uphold and model | .912 | .959 | .905 | .952 |
| topic372 | Sport policy | politics related to sport and leisure, state support for young athletes, state training programs, state-sponsored building of sports facilities, corona-related measures in sports stadiums | .992 | .997 | .990 | .995 |
| topic370 | Cultural policy | regulations for cultural events in times of the Covid-pandemic; funding of theatres; public funding of movies | .952 | .979 | .981 | .990 |
| topic380 | Defence policy | national security, military, external security, policy of peace, policy of détente | .936 | .971 | .990 | .995 |
| topic410 | War and military conflicts between countries | UN peacekeeping, operations of the national army abroad | Not coded as separate topic | Not coded as separate topic | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| topic400 |
Foreign policy, international relations The post addresses foreign policy issues related or not related to the country under investigation. |
relations between individual EU member states, relations with other states, relations with international organisations (e.g., UN, NATO), development policy, arms trades, sanctions, etc. | .928 | .936 | .962 | .981 |