Saudi Women as Decision Makers: Analyzing the Media Portrayal of Female Political Participation in Saudi Arabia

This paper analyzes the contrasting media portrayals of female political participation in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Through a thorough discourse analysis of Saudi, British, and American newspaper articles surrounding the 2015 municipal elections, we scrutinize how the portrayal of women as a subj...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Karolak, Magdalena 1980- (Author) ; Guta, Hala Asmina (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill [2020]
In: Hawwa
Year: 2020, Volume: 18, Issue: 1, Pages: 75-95
IxTheo Classification:KBL Near East and North Africa
ZB Sociology
ZC Politics in general
Further subjects:B Saudi Arabia
B Discourse Analysis
B Political Participation
B women empowerment
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
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Summary:This paper analyzes the contrasting media portrayals of female political participation in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Through a thorough discourse analysis of Saudi, British, and American newspaper articles surrounding the 2015 municipal elections, we scrutinize how the portrayal of women as a subject group has shifted from one that requires the constant approval of guardians in the public sphere to one that makes its own decisions and actively participates in politics. We analyze what types of discourses and frames have supported this drastic shift in official Saudi media discourses. We then contrast these findings with the portrayal of Saudi female political participation in Western countries that claim to uphold human rights and gender equality, in contrast to Saudi Arabia. Finally, we contrast our findings with the perceptions of 50 female Saudis regarding female agency and political participation in Saudi Arabia.
ISSN:1569-2086
Contains:Enthalten in: Hawwa
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15692086-12341371