Trampled in the chaos : the gender stereotyping of provincial party candidates in the Nova Scotia print media

The following thesis seeks to understand further the role of the media, specifically the press, in shaping the public's view of female politicians. The study is situated in the literature on mass communications, women in politics and democratic theory. The media's power, which can be used as a catalyst for change or to maintain the status quo, it is shown, reinforces the gender stereotypes that can limit the success of women in political competition. Our democratic institutions require that women have a significant presence in provincial and federal legislatures, yet the media continues quietly to undermine them. Content analysis employing 10 categories was used to examine the newspaper coverage of the 1993 Nova Scotia provincial election. This analysis shows a pattern of refering to women by characterizations of "inexperience", "inability to win" and "incompetence". As well, the analysis shows that the print media over emphasized the private lives and personal characteristics of women candidates as compared to male candidates. This analysis adds further credibility to the literature which argues that women politicians are framed by negative stereotypes in the press. Such re-enforced negative stereotyping undermines the credibility of female candidates in electoral politics and helps to perpetuate the cycle of effective exclusion of women from legislative assemblies at the provincial level in Nova Scotia.