Female Politics in Parliament: addressing questions about political and journalistic representation

This article draws upon the project “Feminine Politics” (PTDC/CCICOM/102393/2008), which addresses political representation and media visibility strategies of Portuguese female deputies, across various periods of the Portuguese democracy, from 1975 to 2002. Three major parliamentary discussions regarding gender issues were taken as case studies, namely: the debate on equality and the universality of rights during the Constituent Assembly (1975); the debates on reproductive rights and abortion in 1984 and 1997; the “Parity Parliament”, an initiative put together in 1994, which intended to raise awareness to gender inequalities in politics, considered to be the precursor of the parity law approved in 2006.
An integrated content analysis of the journalistic text and visual analysis of the photographs published in four Portuguese daily and weekly newspapers (Diário Popular, Diário de Notícias, Correio da Manhã and Expresso) was used to assess how the participation of female deputies during the three analysed debates was perceived and presented by the journalists. A total of 15 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with parliamentary reporters and female deputies, in order to explore media professionals and politicians perceptions regarding media visibility strategies and approaches towards gender issues. An historical evolution of the representativeness of female parliamentary deputies is briefly introduced to provide context and to strengthen the articulation we wish to demonstrate between political ideologies, progressive gender policies and press coverage framings.