Housewife superstars : female politicians and the Australian print media, 1970-1990

This thesis focuses on the relationship between female politicians and the press in Australia - how they were interviewed and reported on, and how their public image was shaped, between 1970 and 1990. Making use of frame analysis, it examines the way the media framed women elected to parliament, and reveals a pattern of coverage which consistently portrayed women as outsiders in a male political realm. However, it also reveals that the coverage changed over time. There were four major frames through which female politicians were viewed. The ‘iron lady’ frame involved a search for Australia’s first woman Prime Minister, and compared femininity to the exercise of power or authority. The ‘housewife’ frame focused on women politician’s domestic responsibilities, and sprang from an anxiety about the impact of women’s participation in the public sphere on the private sphere. The ‘body’ frame drew attention to women’s weight, appearance and sex lives, often to either explain or query their political success. Finally, the ‘feminist’ frame centered on questions which asked women MPs to define themselves as feminists, and sought their opinions only on narrowly defined women’s issues. Frames were determined by the hook, the headline, and the choice of photograph as well as the narrative of newspaper articles, and repetition of descriptive words. Each frame evolved over time, and each has been shaped by female politician’s criticisms of their treatment at the hands of the press. This thesis shows the previously unexamined relationship between female politicians and the Australian print media is not static or unilateral, but symbiotic, dialogic and constantly changing. As a forum for a broader societal debate about the role of women, the major metropolitan newspapers sustained and shaped, but also undermined a separate spheres ideology. The print media was not monolithic, and competing viewpoints were aired in editorials, articles, comment and opinion pieces. Female journalists in particular played a critical role in introducing and sustaining a debate about a gender bias in political reporting, in the press. I argue analyses must incorporate the agency of women politicians in order to understand the complexities of the women’s responses and resistance to their portrayal as ‘housewife superstars’ in the press, as well as the possibilities for change