Littérature scientifique sur le sujet « Women politicians – Belgium »

On the basis of a candidate’s sex, voters ascribe particular personality traits, capacities, and opinions to candidates (often to the detriment of women), which are referred to as political gender stereotypes. The prevalence of political gender stereotypes has almost exclusively been investigated in the United States. As the presence of these stereotypes is highly dependent on contextual factors, we switch the context and investigate whether they are also present in a List-Proportional Representation (PR) system with a high share of women in parliament spread over different parties. The results of our experimental study, conducted in Flanders (Belgium), provide evidence for the existence of stereotypical patterns. The differences in perceived issue competence are, however, rather small and not always unequivocal, but larger differences were found in terms of ideological position. This leads us to conclude that misperceptions about women’s ideological orientation might be persistent and difficult to overcome. Moreover, our results demonstrate that the argument that female politicians are perceived as more leftist because they disproportionately belong to leftist parties does not hold, as female politicians are rather equally spread over the different parties in Belgium.

Belgian authorities, like most authorities in European countries, resorted to unprecedented measures in response to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic between March 2020 and May 2022. This exceptional context highlighted the issue of intimate partner violence (IPV) in an unprecedented way. At a time when many other issues are being put on hold, IPV is being brought to the fore. This article investigated the processes that have led to increasing political attention to domestic violence in Belgium. To this end, a media analysis and a series of semi-structured interviews were conducted. The materials, collected and analyzed by mobilizing the framework of Kingdon’s streams theory, allowed us to present the agenda-setting process in its complexity and the COVID-19 as a policy window. The main policy entrepreneurs were NGOs and French-speaking feminist women politicians. Together, they rapidly mobilized sufficient resources to implement public intervention that had already been proposed in the preceding years, but which had been waiting for funding. By doing so, they responded during the peak of the pandemic to requests and needs that had already been expressed in a “non-crisis” context.

It is not uncommon to find cases of Muslim women being harassed or bullied in many of the Muslim-minority countries because of their dress. These Islamophobic attacks, unfortunately, are not merely conducted by radicalised individuals; but the subjugation of the rights of Muslim women also comes from institutional bodies and governments. Secular nations, such as France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Switzerland, USA, UK, Canada, China, and Russia have either imposed restrictions on Muslim women regarding their dress code. They see veil as a non-acceptance of progressive or cumulative values which is unsurprisingly not welcomed by the Muslim community. In such environment, it is inevitable for the Muslims to understand what the Qur’ān and Sunnah really say about the dress code for Muslim women in order to explain what their religion really requires from them and to communicate it appropriately to the government officials, journalists, politicians, and other relevant stakeholders. It is also essential from the perspective of segregating cultural aspects from the religious aspects. Many of the commonly used words for the dressing of Muslim women are more rooted in culture than the religion. It is accordingly vital to understand what the Qur’ān and Sunnah really command about the women dressing and how it has been interpreted in various Islamic societies and cultures. This paper accordingly presents an analysis of all the relevant Qur’ānic verses and the prophetic traditions (from the 6 most renowned books of ahadith). The linguistic analysis employed in this paper results in the identification of items of dress that were worn by Muslim women to safeguard their modesty during the times of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ). The same principles are relevant for today’s age and time and the Muslims can use those guidelines to delineate cultural practices from the religious injunctions.

The article discusses the morphological features associated with the formation of feminine words to designate professions, ranks and positions. The change in the social status of a woman – a politician, public figure, government official, professional – in the fields confined to male representatives – requires adequate expression in the language. The need search correct forms that do not violate the traditional structure of the language is felt both by linguists and authorities of the country. Their acceptance or non-acceptance by the language depends on the reaction of the native speaker, the media, representatives of the Internet community. The author reviews the possibilities presented by the French language in the formation of the feminine nouns – suffix formation, epicenes. Issues related to the peculiarities of matching plural nouns are also considered. The article does not only deal with the situation in France, but also with what is being done in this direction in Geneva canton, in the French-speaking community of Belgium, in Quebec. The author found it interesting to dwell on some of the reasons that impede the entry of new forms into modern French. The conclusion contains some observations covering the period of the last two years, made on the basis of viewing media materials.

<p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Este artículo se enfoca en la utilización estratégica del género que desarrollan dos prominentes mujeres políticas: Michelle Bachelet en Chile y Laurette Onkelinx en Bélgica. A diferencia de la mayoría de los estudios del área de mujeres y política, el artículo destaca que el género no debe ser entendido solo como una barrera para su inclusión sino que debe ser visto como un recurso político en la medida en que las mujeres en política lo utilizan para perfilar de manera significativa su imagen pública. Bachelet y Onkelinx han intentado dotar de nuevos significados a la maternidad al proponer nuevas combinaciones de sus identidades como mujeres, esposas y madres, definiendo esos procesos en particular en función de los contextos socio-políticos: Bachelet necesitaba probar que ella podía ser una mujer en política sin dañar a la política, re significando la femineidad como un aporte para ella, mientras que Onkelinx quería demostrar que ella podía ser una mujer en política sin dañar a la familia. </span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Palabras claves: género, recurso político, maternidad, Bachelet, Onkelinx</span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY"><em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Gender as political appeal: the strategic use of gender by Michelle Bachelet (Chile) and Laurette Onkelinx (Belgium)<br /></span></span></em></p><p align="JUSTIFY"><em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This paper focuses on the strategic use of “gender” made by two salient female politic figures: Michelle Bachelet in Chile and Laurette Onkelinx in Belgium. It underscores that gender is not to be understood only as a barrier to inclusion but that it has become a salient political resource, as it is shown by the use made by women in politics when profiling their public images. However, this strategic use is defined regarding each particular socio-political context. Bachelet and Onkelinx have intended to give new meanings to maternity by proposing new combinations of their identities as women, wives and mothers. But, while Bachelet needed to prove that women in politics do not entail a threat to politics, Onkelix underscored the fact that being a woman and a politician does not entail a threat to family. <br /></span></span></em></p><p align="JUSTIFY"><em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Keywords: gender, political resource, motherhood, Bachelet, Onkelinx</span></span></em></p><p align="JUSTIFY"><em> </em></p>

AbstractThis study analyses television news coverage of female politicians in Flanders (Belgium). Women politicians receive less coverage than their male colleagues do. We investigate whether this gender bias can be explained by political differences between men and women or whether a real media bias exists. We examine ten possible explanations, which can be divided into two groups: characteristics of female politicians, such as their function, and of news features, such as the theme of the item. Overall, the lower level functions of female politicians largely determine their limited television news coverage. Nevertheless, female politicians still get less speaking time, even when controlling for all ten variables. Thus, in addition to political gender differences, a real gender bias exists in Flemish television news: Female politicians receive less news coverage compared to male politicians with a similar political status.

The present study explores gendered representations in Belgian electoral news coverage. Compared to other Western countries, Belgium has consistently reported a small share of female politicians in the news, offering limited insights into the ways they are portrayed. Starting from the observation that the (mainly Anglo-Saxon) body of work on women politicians’ representation has reported mixed findings, the study intends to provide a more comprehensive analysis by taking political and contextual factors into account. By means of a quantitative content analysis, we monitored news content prior to the 2019 Belgian elections, resulting in a sample of 981 television, newspaper, radio and web-based news items. The findings confirm the persistence of gendered patterns in Belgian news content, regardless of a candidate’s political characteristics. Women were less often represented and their gender, appearance and family life were more often highlighted. Whereas a candidate’s political power provided additional insights into gendering, some differences in coverage between candidates could not be explained by either sex or political characteristics. Lastly, differences between media were limited, though web-based news was more negative in tone.

It has been well established that politicians attack their competitors to reach their political goals. As such, there is a considerable amount of literature on their attack behaviour. However, this literature almost exclusively investigates attack behaviour during campaigns, and so far, few studies have addressed the nature of attacks during more routine times in parliaments. This article aims to fill this gap by examining in-parliament attack behaviour and, more specifically, the gender characteristics of attacks. It is theorised that women are less likely to attack and be attacked than men due to the stereotypical gender roles. However, it is anticipated that this compliance to stereotypes diminishes as proximity to elections increases, resulting in women engaging in attacks as much as men. To limit the cost of their divergence, attacks employed by and toward women are expected to be more civil. Lastly, this study argues that adherence to gender stereotypes is stronger in countries with candidate-centred parliamentary systems than party-centred ones. This study finds support for the theoretical framework using longitudinal data on individual attacks in the parliaments of Belgium, Croatia, and the UK. Results confirm that politicians adhere to gender stereotypical roles in parliaments, with women attacking and being targeted less than men, and when women do attack or are targeted, less incivility is employed. Proximity to elections makes both women and men more hostile, but women lower the cost of their increasing attack behaviour by using less incivility, unlike men who increasingly opt for uncivil attacks closer to elections. Additionally, these findings strongly apply in the candidate-centred system of the UK, whereas in the party-centred system of Belgium and Croatia, hardly any support for the theory can be found.

AbstractThe hijab has been the subject of public and academic debates that have polarized scholars, politicians, and activists. Opinions on veiling range widely: while some view veiling as an oppressive practice, others regard veiling as an expression of women's agency and empowerment. Solidarity practices, such as movements against compulsory veiling or actions encouraging non-Muslim women to temporarily wear the hijab, are some of the ways in which activists have tried to show solidarity with Muslim women. In this qualitative study, data from the content analysis of the online platforms of two media campaigns, together with in-depth interviews with Iranian women living in Belgium, were triangulated. Women's perceptions of two solidarity campaigns were explored: the anti–compulsory veiling movement My Stealthy Freedom and the pro-acceptance World Hijab Day campaign. The findings raise questions about the effectiveness of transnational feminist campaigning in solidarity with Muslim women and, more generally, how the notion of solidarity is conceptualized in feminist scholarship.

Mother of three children, or first and foremost politician? A quantitative content analysis of the representation of female political candidates in the Flemish press This study compares the presence and portrayal of female and male political candidates in news articles that report on newly announced candidatures during times of election. We used a quantitative content analysis to study 390 news articles about two federal (2007, 2014) and two local elections (2012, 2018) in Belgium. The articles were collected from four Flemish newspapers: De Morgen, Het Laatste Nieuws, Het Nieuwsblad and De Standaard. The findings show that male and female politicians are unequally represented. Numerically, male politicians are represented almost twice as often as woman politicians and articles about female politicians are shorter in length. For female politicians the age, marital status, and parenthood are more often mentioned, highlighting their roles in the private sphere. Notably, the coverage of local elections shows a more biased representation than the coverage of federal elections does. As such, this study underlines the importance of comparing different electoral contexts.

Defence date: 17 June 2003
Examining board: Prof. Colin Crouch (EUI - Supervisor) ; Dr. Susan Halford (Southampton) ; Prof. Michèle Lamont (Harvard) ; Prof. Peter Wagner (EUI)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017