The Media Portrays Canadian Female Political Candidates Unfairly - Research Paper Example

The Media Portrays Canadian Female Political Candi s Unfairly I. Introduction Thesis ment: Canadian female political candi s have been unfairly treated in the media, specifically in news coverage during elections and campaign debates, which is quite evident on the manner the media constructs the image of the Canadian female politicians as an embodiment of feminine weakness in the male realm. This feminine weakness is regarded by the media as the female political candidates’ foremost attribute which make them unfit to become political leaders. II. Experiences of Women as Leaders of Political Parties in Canada: The Cases of Campbell and Alana de Long a. The three scenarios of negative stereotypes used to evaluate women politicians b. The dilemma of women politicians: To abide by the traditional gender roles or to challenge the chauvinistic political domain? III. The power of the Media over Canadians’ Perspectives on Women Politicians: A Psychosocial Approach a. Everitt and Gidengil Analysis- “female political candidates should adopt combative behaviors in order to draw the media’s attention” b. Sampert & Tremble- “male leaders are likely to be viewed as the dominant or active individuals while women leaders are believed to be passive” c. Tremble’s Investigation of Stronach’s Political Experience- “media exposes femininity in politics” d. The Game or Strategic Frame- “politics is a male-dominated domain” IV. Researches on Media Coverage of Canadian Female Politicians a. Francois- Pierre Gingra’s examination of Ottawa Area Newspaper b. Gertrude Robinson and Armande Saint-Jean’s c. Manon Tremblay & Nathalie Belanger’s examination of political cartoons V. Male and Female Leaders: In News Coverage and Campaign Debates a. The 1993 Canadian Federal Election: Campbell’s Political Struggle b. The 1997 Canadian Federal Election: McDonough’s Share of Men’s Political Fame c. National Newspaper Coverage of Election 2000 VI. To Adopt Combative Political Style or Not? The Dilemma of Canadian Female Political Candidates: Campbell, McLaughlin and McDonough’s Cases VII. Conclusion This research paper will merely conduct a secondary analysis of available literature on the subject matter. However, the analysis will be an in-depth examination of the previous political standing and experiences of Canadian female politicians and their contemporary status and image with regard to the manner they are portrayed by the media. Time-frame will be of centrality in this research since there is evidence that gender-differentiated media coverage is starting to diminish in Canada. Moreover, the key Canadian female politicians will be given due respect and acknowledgment for their audacity to enter the realm of male-dominated politics. I. Introduction Canadian female political candidates have been unfairly treated in the media, specifically in news coverage during elections and campaign debates, which are quite evident on the manner the media, construct the image of the Canadian female politicians as an embodiment of feminine weakness in the male realm. This feminine weakness is regarded by the media as the female political candidates’ foremost attribute which makes them unfit to become political leaders. The under-representation of female political candidates in Canadian politics has been acknowledged time and time again. Impartiality in decision-making is fundamental to the empowerment of women. Canada joined the United Nations 1995 Beijing Action Plan for Women, obligating to “take measures to ensure women’s equal access to and full participation in power structures, decision-making and leadership” (United Nations,2000, 1). The United Nations documented a significant bulk of at least 30 to 35 percent women is considered necessary prior to the legislatures generate public guidelines recognizing women’s main concerns and previous modifications in “management style, group dynamic and organization culture” (Wicks & Lang-Dion, 2008, para 23). News coverage of female politician candidates is not at all times blatantly chauvinist, yet understated gender discrimination persists. In a number of ways, this bias is more difficult to identify and stamp out. Yet, it is far tougher to understand why journalists carry on asking irrelevant and insane questions that underestimate and stigmatize women politicians, specifically Canadian female political candidates. When the news media promote that women politicians are abnormalities in high public office, the public is inclined to acknowledge them as bench warmers rather than as an essential part of the administration. More women than ever, particularly in Canada occupy prestigious government positions, but they are still depicted by media coverage as novelties. Being viewed upon as special can be a leverage, nevertheless. In reality, some of the more constant media typecasts at times work to the advantage of women politicians. The media have recurrently rendered women as political outcasts, even though they are actually such; and that is a plus point when the nation’s frame of mind is strongly anti-administration (Braden, 1996). Nevertheless, it is well again to be portrayed as a novelty than not to be acknowledged at all, and the media coverage contribute a significant input in whether a political candidate gets appreciated in the first place. One of the nastiest incidences that can occur to a politician is to be given insignificant or no media coverage at all. Hitherto, academic studies demonstrate that no media coverage often happens to female political candidates, especially if they are novices (Haddock, 1997). Reporters and editors do not actually work together to stigmatize, belittle or pay no heed to women as a strategy to keep them from running for public office. Nor do they conspire to malign women when they accomplish something. In reality, for the larger part of the century, journalists have respected the notion of objectivity, which a news report should be liberated from prejudice and subjective opinion. But news, after all, is no matter what journalists imply it is (Braden, 1996). It is believed that the news media reflect society, but that is not precisely the case. The news media mirror particular aspects of the social and political culture. Journalists may be unrealistic and thorough individuals, but regardless of the extent a journalist attempts to hold fast to the principle of objectivity, new stories echo the values of both the entity and his/her news association. Rather than conveying the entire of society, the media have inclined to reflect the significances of those who designate, report and generate the news, a mainstream of whom have been white-skinned males (ibid). However, this paper will specifically address the relationship and the discontinuity between the media and female political candidates in Canada. Primarily, the experiences of women as leaders of political parties, particularly those of Campbell and Alana de Long, will be discussed. Secondly, the power of the media over Canadian spectators’ perspectives on women politicians as underlined by various assumptions will be analyzed. Thirdly, research studies on media coverage in Canadian female politicians will be enumerated and appropriately examined. Fourthly, the news coverage and campaign debates at times of Canadian election will be analyzed so as to position the political standpoints for both the male and female leaders. And lastly, the combative political style will be scrutinize in the light of the dilemma of female political candidates regarding the decision whether to adopt the style in order to be respected by the media. II. Experiences of Women as Leaders of Political Parties in Canada In 2006, the political contest to succeed President Ralph Klein was inundated by male candidates. However, a bold woman attempted to contest for leadership, Calgary MLA Alana DeLong; her judgment participate in the race was actually late as much as a year following a number of male candidates. On the wake of her struggle towards political rights, DeLong made it known that she will not campaign for the resolution of issues regarding women. A newspaper report even sensationally mentioned that DeLong plans to “lobby for better child custody rights for men” (McLean, 2006, B5, as cited in Trimble & Tremblay, 2003). DeLong was fairly successful in reconciling the domestic responsibilities of women and the men’s public domain through courageously transgressing the traditional perception of a woman, as a fragile, emotional and irrational being. However, there are women who are already immersed in the political sphere yet still fail to resolve the disparity between the female private and the male public. Such women are Alberta politician Iris Evans and Calgary MLA Heather Forsyth. The former was a previous school board trustee who decided to enter the leading inner circle of Premier Ralph Klein and who was deemed as a potential candidate but astonishingly, she turned down the possibility. The reason for Evan’s refusal to run for the election has a gender stereotypical color in it (Trimble & Tremblay, 2003). “Evan was quoted as saying that she faced questions from her male colleagues about her job, questioning if her husband was okay with the work she was doing. She said that her husband was fine with her political career as long as she was home in the evenings and dinner was on the table” (Cryderman, 2006, A2, as cited in ibid). Likewise, Calgary MLA Heather Forsyth, also elaborated on her reason why she declined to be a political candidate, “As a wife and a mother, your number one priority should always be your family” (ibid, A2, as cited in Trimble & Tremblay, 2003). In Canada, female provincial premiers can be counted by the fingers and only one female politician was able to assume the office of the prime minister. The direction of the political careers of women leaders have been structured by Trimble and Arscott (2003) which they refer to as the leadership model. The framework has various cases. The first one stipulates that women are chosen to take manage or to assume control over parties that have been previously laid waste and even are doubted of their ability to revive the already ruined parties, at which position they are eventually casted off in favor of a male politicians. Secondarily, women are perceived as a party’s very last option as the party’s headship begin to collapse and its affluence starts to weaken. In this instance, the defeat is foreseen, but the moment the party falls short to accomplish remarkable changes under her management, she is consequently held responsible for the failure (Trimble & Arscott,2003, 76, as cited in Trimble & Tremblay, 2003). Trimble and Arscott have branded this as “partisan CPR because women are expected to resuscitate the party’s electoral prospects after the last breath has gone from once vital partisan party” (ibid, 83). One of the paramount examples of this case is the political career of Kim Campbell who assumed leadership of the federal Progressive Conservative Party from Brian Mulroney. Being the very first female Canadian prime minister, Campbell was incessantly held responsible for the deliberate campaign blunders. Furthermore, to worsen everything for Campbell, the media and Conservative emissaries showed signs of barefaced chauvinism in their dealings with Campbell. The third case of the model views female political candidates as leaders of parties that are spirited, ready for action and have a prospect to sustain dominance or be the victor of power. There are remarkable women who trailed this career path; some of them are “Nancy McBeth, the Liberal leader in Alberta from 1998 to 2001, Catherine Callbeck, the leader of the PEI Liberals from 1993 to 1996, and Lynn Verge, the leader of the Newfoundland PC from 1995 to 1996” (ibid, 84). Moreover, Trimble and Arscott argued that women political leaders are underprivileged by off-putting media exposure. Having an accurate understanding of the media reporting of politicians and particularly of female political leaders necessitate an appreciation of the media activities generally. For the majority of the political spectators, the operations of administrative branches are channeled through the media, namely, the television, radio, printed materials and recently the Internet. Majority of individuals overly depend on the media coverage for the updates of the campaign and election. Therefore, scholars have deemed as true that the media function as the concierges. The media becomes progressively more powerful that they have the indirect privilege to influence the values of the people; they can, nowadays, to dictate the things to be regarded as significant and those to be discarded as trivial (Trimble & Tremblay, 2003). III. The Power of the Media over Canadians’ Perspectives on Women Politicians Establishing a masculine-oriented politics consequently positioned women politicians, and more significantly female leaders, at an observable disadvantage. The media can effortlessly maneuver the issues it will report or cover hence consequently profoundly influencing the importance citizens attribute to reported issues. Moreover, through giving more significance to one subject matter over another, the media dynamically shape the manner people assess incidences or issues and the personalities involved. However, the effect is much more understated through the media than propaganda; yet, through emphasizing on a single subject or favoring an issue over another profoundly alters the worldview of the people (Nelson et al, 1997, as cited in Trimble & Tremblay, 2003). In Everitt and Gidengil’s (2003) examination of the news coverage of male and female leaders at the time of the publicly conducted debates in 1993, 1997 and 2000, it turns out to be evident that the media values of contradictions and unpredictability persist to dominate what gets to be covered in the reports in the evening news. They contended that the women partaking in the leaders’ debate has to “adopt combative behaviors if they want to draw the media’s attention” (208, as cited in Trimble & Tremblay, 2003, ). In doing so, women leaders are risking to be labeled as deviants since they violated the customary gender-role beliefs and having those behaviors overstated. On the other hand, Sampert and Trimble (2003) judged that Alexa McDonough was granted the least visibility by the media whereas the male leaders were bestowed by plenty of media coverage in the federal election in 2000. Furthermore, the male leaders were more probable to be situated within a game frame and depicted as commanding or full of zip doers, while McDonough was pictured as more submissive. McDonough then acted in an antagonistic demeanor to be given adequate respect by the media; yet, instead of acknowledging her effort to raise her game to the level of the male leaders, her aggressive behavior was rebuked in the media (as cited in Trimble & Tremblay, 2003). However, recently, Linda Trimble (2003) investigated the media coverage of a woman’s struggle to overcome the Conservative leadership in 2004; this remarkable woman is Belinda Stronach. The news media discovered that Stronach was planning to make a proposal for the leadership of the latest Conservative Party in Canada. The party was created through the union of the long-standing Progressive Conservative Party and the Canadian Alliance. The head of the Alliance, Stephen Harper, had already made public his intention to bid for the leadership of the Conservatives. The leadership contest turned out to be a three-way race because of Stronach and Tony Clement’s decision to equal the playing ground. The election which was anticipated to be held on the spring of 2004 was deemed extremely important by political analysts and the media because whoever will emerge as victor as the new leader of the Conservatives will have the power to establish a government (ibid). Trimble’s investigation of the extent and process the National Post and the Globe and Mail covered the campaign and other activities related to the leadership race, and more essentially, the nature of the coverage on Stronach’s attempts to prevail the contested position. Stronach was inundated by attention in the media, but everything was by a hairs breadth positive (ibid). The two national English Canadian newspapers maximized on the news worth of novelty which then prompted them to provide a substantial portion of the newspaper to her plight for leadership. However, instead of treating her as a key candidate, the newspapers consumed a lot of spaces and time describing her physical attributes such as sex appeal and attractive looks (ibid). Furthermore, majority of the stories exposed about Stronach were, for the most part, an analysis and scrutiny of her physical features such as her hair, clothing, body and sexual charisma. Trimble, on the other hand, greatly depending on the previous works of Gertrude Robinson and Armande Saint-Jean, recognized that the media’s talk of Stronach’s physical looks are efforts to resolve the psychological phenomenon called ‘cognitive dissonance’ brought about by a sudden incursion of a female entity in a masculine world through capitalizing on her femininity (ibid, 13, as cited in Trimble & Tremblay, 2003). Trimble also argued that Stronach was appraised even more sternly and the evaluations appropriated to her campaign were both in quality and quantity immensely different from those employed to her male counterparts (ibid, 16, as cited in ibid). This rather biased and harsh treatment of the media to the candidacy of Stronach can be explained substantially by the ‘game or strategic frame principle’. This frame pertains to the political occurrences with regard to sport and other athletic events, highlighting the competitive attributes of politics as a gladiators’ battle (Shannon & Sempert, 2003, 212, as cited in Trimble & Tremblay, 2003). Consequently, women are naturally recluse from the frame since gender stereotypes establish women as reproducers and nurturers who are at the same time submissive and inferior. Sampert and Trimble (2003) vividly described the workings of the game frame on the following passage, “a masculinist narrative dominated by the images and language of the conflictual public sphere; the sports arena, the battlefield, and the boxing ring. The game frame, whiles using gender-neutral terminology, nevertheless assumes the male to be normative and is therefore profoundly gendered” (ibid, 212, as cited in ibid). Chauvinistic norms are also personified in the news values dominating political news reporting. An affluence of information, combined with restrictions on the temporal-spatial availability in nightly news bulletins, implies that media staffs have to select which information to communicate to audiences regarding the activities of politicians and the unraveling of events. IV. Researches on Media Coverage of Canadian Female Politicians Female politicians frequently mention the gender-differentiated media coverage as a painful hindrance to their political campaigns (Ross & Sreberny, 2000, as cited in Trimble & Tremblay, 2003). This is the reality even for women vying for positions in national parties. For instance, during the 1993 election Campbell had thrown portions of the blame for her failures in the electorate on the media. The statement that she hurled back to the media says, “ new politics, old media… when you’re not a traditional politician, they don’t know what to make of you” (The Gazette, 1993, A8, as cited in ibid). Previous researches on the media coverage of female politicians have been predisposed to put emphasis on the obvious instances of prejudice such as women’s lack of visibility and the portrayal of female politicians as possessing traditionally upheld feminine attributes and issue efficiencies and as being inferiorly viable than their male counterparts (Carroll & Schreiber, 1997, as cited in ibid). There are proofs, nevertheless, that such blatantly gender-differentiated coverage may be weakening (Norris, 1997, as cited in ibid). Therefore, it is an immediate concern nowadays to investigate the possible biases that surface when traditional news frames are appropriated to female politicians. The mounting literature on women and politics has been for a long time now, preoccupied with the issue of neutrality in the media coverage on female politicians. Previous studies in Canada have underlined the deficiency of media coverage experienced by female politicians. Francois-Pierre Gingra’s investigation of Ottawa-area newspapers (1995, as cited in ibid)) divulged that less than a handful of stories or narratives about politics produced in 1991 referred to women. This denigrating representation of female politicians is accentuated by the reality that this coverage was remarkably below the fraction of women assuming office in the federal government and in those other smaller administrative units embodying the readership of these papers. Moroever, Gingra’s discovered that a relevant proportion of the political reporting or coverage bestowed to female candidates was largely demeaning, in that it disparaged the women or exposed them in an unpleasant standpoint. Conclusively, Gingra’s studies make known that the women who were portrayed in political narratives were frequently those with insignificant political power, such as the better halves of the prime minister and other key male politicians (Trimble & Tremblay, 2003). On the other hand, Gertrude Robinson and Armande Saint Jean’s investigation on the media’s depiction of female politicians throughout time put forth the idea that not only have the media people ignored female politicians in news coverage, they have also depended on a sequence of gender-based typecasts in their illustrations, spanning from the “spinster and femme facile to superwoman and ‘one of the boys’” (ibid, 195). Whereas these stigmas are dynamic and changed over time, they even so contributed to the emphasis on the uniqueness of those women endeavoring in political activity. Robinson and Saint-Jean further unveiled that when women were reported or covered, their coverage are more likely to be concentrated on their personal attributes such as hair or wardrobe rather than on the essence of their speeches, conferred insignificant acknowledgement of women’s political knowledge and experience, constructed female politicians as accountable for the representation of all women as one group, used the feminist movement to imply a off-putting personal characteristics, embraced women up to advanced standards of competitiveness than men, evaluated women only by the extremes such as only either good or bad, and obliged a moral norm of sexual moderation on female politicians that was not compelled on their male counterparts (Robinson, Saint-Jean and Rioux, 1991, as cited in Trimble & Tremblay, 2003). Nevertheless, more contemporary studies propose that the inclination to employ feminine stereotypes may be diminishing, implying that is a number of ways women are being dealt with more like the male politicians. However, there still remain understated forms of gender-differentiated media coverage that are outcomes of news values that dominate political exposure; these carry on challenging the women in the political realm (ibid). These dissimilarities are obvious in Manon Tremblay and Nathalie Belanger’s (1997) analysis of political cartoons located in most important Canadian newspapers during the election of 1993. Tremblay and Belanger became curious about the presence of evidence pointing to the assumption that there transpired deliberate stereotyping of Campbell or McLaughlin in customary feminine roles associated to the domestic sphere of the nurturance of the family. While they learned that this was quite inaccurate, they located countless other ways in which party leaders who are female were depicted discriminatingly from the men. For instance, “67 per cent of the caricatures of the women portrayed them as dependent, fearful, and powerless, while over half the men in the cartoons were depicted as independent, brave, and assured. The women were also portrayed as being less in control of their environment and the action surrounding them (68.4 per cent)— and implicitly less capable of managing the country—than the men (32.8 per cent). Finally, in over half of the cartoons in which Campbell and McLaughlin appeared, they were presented in stereotypical terms as witches or Cinderellas, or even as victims of violence” (Tremblay & Belanger, 1997, 53, 57, 61, as cited in Trimble & Tremblay, 2003). In simple interpretation, the female leaders were portrayed in diverse roles averagely delegated to women but not to men. The male leaders had smaller amount of gender-typed representations applied to them, yet those that were employed illustrated them as superheroes or extremely physically and mentally strong individuals. Even when the women were depicted in unconventional activities, such as playing baseball game, they were still sketched wearing girlie clothes such as skirts and high heels (ibid). These instances of gender-differentiated coverage reveal significant impediment to women aiming for a political position in Canada. The underrepresentation or undignified coverage bestowed to women in the political arena and their appearance in stereotypical or toothless roles offer apparent messages to voters that politics is a male dominated game and that women should be discouraged from participating in the game for the sole reason that they do not belong (ibid). V. Male and Female Leaders: In News Coverage and Campaign Debate Actual studies on the news coverage and campaign debates during the 1993, 1997 and 2000 federal elections in Canada were conducted to provide a concrete proof on the assumptions that Canadian female politicians are discriminated and underrepresented in the media coverage compared to their male counterparts. The conceptual framework that these studies employed was the empirical underpinnings of the gendered-mediation argument (Gidengil & Everitt, 1999, as cited in Trimble & Tremblay, 2003). Coverage on leaders’ debates is used as a measuring tool of the bias the media place over the importance of opinions of both the female and male candidates. These public debates usually receive a considerable degree of attention from voters hence giving public debates primacy in the analysis of gender-mediation in Canadian politics. Previous researches have demonstrated that the greatest influence of public debates is placed on new leaders and that the impact of debates is paramount in shaping the notions of the leaders and their personalities (Lanoue 1991, as cited in ibid). More essentially, leaders’ debates present a brilliant opportunity to evaluate the leaders’ personal demeanor with the mediated translation of their actions as illustrated in the nightly newscasts. The gendered-mediation framework put forth the idea that post-debate television analysis will put emphasis on disagreement and argument, filtering out leaders who do not exhibit a combative style or aggressive conduct from media coverage. Simultaneously, since assertiveness on the side of the women go against the profoundly engraved social expectations of proper gender behavior, the media value of abruptness will motivate the media to spotlight unreasonably on women debaters who perform in this manner. Moreover, the framework disputes that women’s newness on the electoral scene will imply that their debate performances are subject to deeper scrutiny and assessment than their male counterparts. On the one hand, journalists and media personnel are gradually more taking up a self-styled role as translators of political events, and the comprehensive post-debate exposure illustrates a significant avenue for negotiation because “it is in explaining and making sense out of that events that elements of bias can enter into news reports” (Geis, 1987, 10, as cited in ibid). In the 1993 English-language debate, among the three female candidates Campbell showed the most aggressive style, however, not more aggressive than her male counterparts. Apparently, Campbell used the most antagonistic debating gestures such as fist-clenching. On the other hand, McLaughlin’s argumentative approach was much more subtle than of the other leaders. She attempted to behave in a combative manner; however, her efforts remained futile because she performed aggressiveness in a minimal manner such as addressing other leaders with the pronoun ‘you’ (Trimble & Tremblay, 2003, 201). On the other hand, in the 1997 and 2000 debates, the scholars examine the behavior of the male leaders. The examination did not sufficiently prove that Campbell’s performance was beyond the normal debate behavior. Jean Charest and Joe Clark exhibited debate performances in 2000 that were at least equally aggressive as of Campbell’s. Chretien, on the other hand, was more aggressive in the debate 1997 and 2000 than Campbell when she was the current prime minister. Lastly, Stockwell Day was more susceptible than Campbell to butt in and to refer to others openly (ibid). Alexa McDonough, who is McLaughlin’s heir, espoused a more combative mode in the debate of 1997. She surpassed McLaughlin in interrupting speakers and using a clenched fist and equally leveled in referring to other leaders with the pronoun ‘you’ and also to address them in their names. Nevertheless, when her combative style was put side by side with her male counterparts in the debate, there revealed no particular pointer of challenging behavior on which McDonough overcame the male leaders. In the debate of 2000, McDonough relapsed to a more subtle or understated mode of debating (ibid). The essential point here is that McLaughlin and McDonough equally endeavored in less provoking behavior than the male leaders in the three debates examined, whereas Campbell unmistakably went for a more aggressive approach of debating. Therefore, it would be complicated to claim that Campbell was the most antagonistic of the leaders in the debate of 1993 or the she was more challenging than the other male party leaders who partook in the 1997 and 2000 debates. This establishes an association of the quantity of coverage granted to the various leaders all the more enlightening (ibid). VI. To Adopt Combative Political Style or Not? The Dilemma of Canadian Female Political Candidates In spite of the fact that the women politicians have prevailed in national political parties in Canadian elections, particularly as espoused in the three political debates, the 1993, 1997 and 2000, it is evident that gender mediation still signifies a challenge to women’s impartial involvement in the political domain. The news values of divergence and abruptness persist to dominate the decisions on the events to be reported in the nightly newscast. Women who partake in the significant election events such as the debates discussed are faced by the necessity to borrow aggressive behaviors if they desire to attract the media’s attention and respect. Nevertheless, there is a dilemma that women politicians confront when they decide to adopt combative behaviors, which is the risk of transgressing long-established and accepted gender-role expectations. In articulating and asserting herself in the debates, Campbell defied this dilemma. On the contrary, McLaughlin and McDonough flaunted less aggressive performances hence they obtained insignificant consideration from the media (ibid). The reduction in the quantity of logical and diagnostic coverage for McDonough in 2000 implies that women politicians were not looked upon anymore as being strange enough within the political dimension to merit better evaluation than the male leaders. Consequently, the media’s requirement to scrutinize and weigh up McDonough’s performance was not as much of in the previous elections. According to Trimble & Tremblay (2003), “While this is a positive finding, it remains to be seen whether it would still be the case if a woman were to lead a more competitive party or if that women were to behave combatively. And it is counterbalanced by the finding that McDonough received so little coverage in the aftermath of the 2000 debates. When the novelty wears off, it seems a woman who fails to conform to the dominant conflictual norms is likely to suffer benign neglect” (208). It is rather a painful dilemma for women politician to confront a cyclical biased exposure and impression in the media coverage. If they attempt to venture in the chauvinistic political domain, they are forced to adopt a combative style in order to draw the media’s attention and respect. If they are successful in eliciting an aggressive behavior, specifically during leaders’ debates, they are then confronted by another dilemma, which is the violation of traditional gender role expectations. If women politicians then attempt to become more established in their political position hence tapering off their novelty, they then risk the dominant norms dictating the activities of the political domain, as espoused by the game frame theory. To put it in a simple way, politics and the mass media have in no account been sympathetic and benevolent toward the plight of the women. VII. Conclusion The media function much like the equipment it use, such as the camera with an adjustable lens, zooming in on particular issues, incidences and personalities and conveying them into razor-sharp liberation. Yet, it can only occupy the quantity that will fit in the frame. Other things must be abandoned and ignored, and yet again others will be in the backdrop of a picture, beyond focus and recognized as trivial. Likewise, as there is a limited quantity of film in the camera, there is a finite space in the printed media such as newspapers and magazines and restricted air time on a relay, hence only a specific number of events or individuals can be represented or covered. Walter Lipmann was one of the foremost to remind people, more that seven decades ago, that journalists “do not try to keep an eye on all mankind; the news is not a mirror of social conditions, but the report of an aspect that has obtruded itself” (Braden, 1996, 3). Journalists function as doorkeepers, determining the things that should be transmitted to the public. Social reality is sifted through their minds and enclosed according to conventional news values, and the outcome is referred to as news. In the case of the Canada’s political system, voter’s outlooks are influenced both by the class of information or knowledge conveyed by the news media and by the manner it was transmitted. Thus, for instance, reporters who tagged Stronach as a physically appealing and referred to her male political opponents in their respective professions were not inaccurate; Stronach really possess such beauty. However, in labeling her as physically and sexually pleasing, they opt to devalue her more substantive skills and knowledge. The media and politics are two distinct institutions yet they overlap in influence. Women and men are two genders with equal potentialities, given that everything is equal. However, mixing these four societal elements in a specified dimension will only create conflicts and disagreements. But, as the findings of the researchers conducted on Canadian female politicians, it is apparent that the women are continuously empowering their social positions and gradually breaking the barriers toward more impartial gender role expectations. "The press was as kind as it knew how to be. It meant well and did all for us it knew how to do. 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