• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Media and Its Influence
• Media Coverage of Female Politicians
• Media Coverage of Female Politicians: Western Media
• Media Coverage of Female Politicians: Russian Media
• Methods
• Media Analysis
• Quantity of Coverage
• How does the media coverage of Western female politicians differ in the Western and the Russian media sources?
• Do Russian female politicians receive media attention in the Western sources? If they do, how do the Western media describe Russian female politicians?
• Results
• Conclusion
• References

Introduction

These days political career is becoming more accessible for women to pursue owing to numerous societal changes. These changes are believed to have stemmed primarily from the women rights movement especially with its rise in the late 1960s and early 1970s (Kahn & Goldenberg, 1991, p. 105).

However, it seems evident that some tendencies which curb women's opportunities to thrive in political sphere still persist. According to UN Women, the United Nations entity that focuses on promoting gender equality, the percentage of female politicians occupying high positions is rather small Facts and figures: Leadership and political participation. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/leadership-and-political-participation/facts-and-figures#notes. For example, among national parliaments worldwide women occupy only 24.3% of positions. Furthermore, as for government ministries, women account for 20.7%. It is also noteworthy that the most common portfolios for female ministers are so-called “female issues” (Kahn & Goldenberg, 1991, p. 110) or “compassion issues” (Fridkin, Kenney, & Woodall, 2009), e.g. Social Affairs, Family, Environment, etc.

Thus, the question arises what the reasons for those tendencies are. As it is stated in the study by Grant et al. (Grant, Kesternich, Steckenleiter, & Winter, 2018), past experiences, dominant cultural norms, and gender roles play a vital part in determining the low level of women's participation in the political sphere of a country. It seems fair that those reasons depend on historical, social, political, cultural and other features and that they may vary across countries and cultures.

With the growing importance of the media influence on different aspects of our lives, this study focuses on the media practices that help stigmatize female politicians and, consequently, withdraw women from political arena. In this regard, media seem an exhaustive source for analysis which encompasses all the aforementioned components. Not only were media chosen as a source that provides an insight into the processes happening in the society, but also because media border on all the spheres of our modern life. Thus, analyzing such types of media texts as, for example, newspaper articles will help study the media influence with regard to the components mentioned earlier.

It is becoming evident that the media have gained credit and authority with their audience, in the political sphere in particular. According to Aalberg and Strцmbдck (Aalberg & Strцmbдck, 2011), the media's prominence make politicians conform to the media rules if they want to benefit from the coverage.

A long line of research has documented that the media have a great impact on the opinion people have of female politicians (Aalberg & Strцmbдck, 2011; Bligh, Schlehofer, Casad, & Gaffney, 2011; Geertsema-Sligh, 2018; Gidengil & Everitt, 2003). In addition, many scholars have long studied the aspects that the media pay attention to in their coverage of female politicians, namely personality traits and marital status (Ross & Sreberny, 2000; Van Zoonen, 2006; Bligh, Schlehofer, Casad, & Gaffney, 2011). More than that, researchers from various countries have reviewed the media coverage of different high-level female politicians, for example, in Norway and France (Krogstad & Storvik, 2012), and such prominent political figures as, for instance, Hillary Clinton (Scharrer & Bissell, 2000; Bligh, Schlehofer, Casad, & Gaffney, 2011).

It seems obvious that the majority of comprehensive studies have examined Western tendencies in the media coverage of female politicians. Unfortunately, there seems to be a serious gap in the study of female politicians' representation in the Russian media sources, though there have been several attempts to examine it (Vartanova, Smirnova, & Frolova, 2013). Therefore, further research is needed on this issue and it is of interest to compare and contrast the patterns employed in the Russian and Western media coverage of female politicians.

As a continuation of the previous study (Getman, 2019), the present work aims at contributing to research in this field by comparing and contrasting the language that media use in their coverage of female politicians. Since the previous study reviewed only two Russian female politicians and compared and contrasted conservative and modern online Russian media, it seems plausible to broaden the sample by including Western female politicians as well as to incorporate the analysis of Western media sources as well.

Specifically, the study focuses on the following research questions:

RQ1: How does the media coverage of Western female politicians differ in the Western and the Russian media sources?

RQ2: Do Russian female politicians receive media attention in the Western sources?

RQ3: If they do, how do the Western media describe Russian female politicians?

To answer these questions, I will employ qualitative descriptive and interpretive approaches such as content analysis and constructionist grounded theory. The former will help define the patterns employed by the Russian and Western media in the coverage of female politicians. The latter requires more interpretation of the analyzed data according to the given context.

In this way, the present study may shed light on the differences in the representation of female politicians in the Russian and Western media sources.

Literature Review

Media and Its Influence

First and foremost, with the understanding of the importance of media impact on society comes the necessity to try to comprehend media logic behind the coverage. As it was stated by Gidengil and Everitt (Gidengil & Everitt, 2003, p. 559), media are mostly characterized by the so-called `masculine narrative' with its “use of this stereotypically masculine imagery”. Evidently, such imagery and language are supposed to carry gender-based biases. The authors highlight that when gender biases are indiscernible, they are actually even more harmful and it proves that they are deeply rooted in the conventional language of media (Gidengil & Everitt, 2003, p. 560). The masculine narrative “privileges the practice of politics as an essentially male pursuit. The image and language <…> supports the status quo (male as norm) and regards women politicians as novelties” (Ross & Sreberny, 2000, p. 93). There is no doubt that due to these norms female politicians are more vulnerable. Although it will be discussed in detail further, it is important to mention here that this sword “cuts both ways”: “If women fail to conform to the traditional masculine norms of political behaviour, their visibility will suffer, but if they do try to conform, any behaviour that runs counter to deeply rooted conceptions of the feminine norm may well receive disproportionate attention in the news” (Gidengil & Everitt, 2003, p. 561).

As it has already been mentioned, media have the ability to influence people's perception and, particularly, the way people make judgements about political world (Kahn & Goldenberg, 1991, p. 105). Framing is believed to be one of the possible techniques employed by media. Many researchers have suggested their definitions of framing and frames:

“Frames are principles of selection, emphasis, and presentation composed of little tacit theories about what exists, what happens, and what matters” (Gitlin, 1980, p. 6);

“A frame is “a central organizing idea or story line that provides meaning to an unfolding strip of events, weaving a connection among them. The frames suggest what the controversy is about” (Gamson & Modigliani, 1987);

“In political communications research, framing typically has been depicted as the process by which a source (a newspaper, news story, <…>) defines the essential problem underlying particular social or political issues, and outlines a set of considerations purportedly relevant to that issue” (Nelson, Oxley, & Clawson, 1997, p. 222).

In their comprehensive work, Eargle, Esmail, and Sullivan try to prove how important framing is, especially in political media coverage (Eargle, Esmail, & Sullivan, 2008). By analyzing and comparing other researchers' findings, the authors conclude that framing “has tremendous affects (author's spelling is preserved) on individuals” (Eargle, Esmail, & Sullivan, 2008, p. 12). For instance, it is evident from a study by Terkildsen and Schnell that in the coverage of women's rights and gender roles, negative framing caused negative attitudes among recipients, whereas positive framing provoked positive attitudes (Terkildsen & Schnell, 1997).

Since it is the news media personnel who are responsible for conveying information in a certain manner (Gidengil & Everitt, 2003), it seems crucial to analyze how men/women proportion among reporters affects the way the news material is created. According to Geertsema-Sligh's comprehensive study on women's participation in journalism practices, news production remains a sphere dominated by men (Geertsema-Sligh, 2018). This statement can be proved by a study conducted in 2015 with a total number of 114 participating countries (Macharia, 2015). The results suggest that male reporters created 63% of news stories, while female reporters wrote only 37% of news stories. Moreover, female reporters are more likely to be found delivering news on health and science (50%), while news on politics are covered by female reporters more infrequently (31%). Not only does the aforementioned study compare the proportions between the number of stories written by female and male reporters, but it also contrasts the number of female and male employees in media houses and their positions. In this way, the majority of jobs in news agencies are occupied by men (64.9%) with approximately three quarters in top managerial positions. On the other hand, women comprise the minority of employees at media houses (35.1%) with slightly more than one quarter in top managerial positions.

The relevant question is why these figures matter. It seems evident that people write news in different ways guided not only by the goal to deliver information but also by their own conceptions. It is suggested that reporters' views may “sometimes dull their fact-finding and investigative instincts” (Jamieson & Waldman, 2002, p. 2). Nevertheless, it is crucial to convey information in an unbiased manner for people to make their own judgements instead of absorbing ready-made opinions. However, it has been proved by psychologists that people have a tendency to make use of heuristics, in other terms “information shortcuts”, to base their judgement. The availability heuristic consists in recalling those events or phenomena that are more frequently encountered (Tversky & Kahneman, 1973). The availability heuristic is one of the most often used not only in day-to-day businesses and decision-making but also in the media sphere. For example, the more often people read about female politicians being incompetent and unsuitable for their position, the higher the possibility is that people will finally adopt this conviction. In addition, one of the heuristic driven biases, namely stereotyping, will be discussed further in the paper.

Consequently, it seems to be of utmost importance to study the way media tend to represent female politicians, and particularly the language they employ to do that, since “[e]ach day's news is a product of choices made by reporters” which influences “[t]he quality of predictions citizens make <…> to place candidates' characters in the context of the office they seek” (Jamieson & Waldman, 2002, pp. 35-36).

Media Coverage of Female Politicians

Over the last decades, a significant amount of research has been dedicated to studying the way media tend to cover women and women politicians in particular. The framework of the studies covers various aspects, e.g. the scope of media scrutiny when delivering news about female politicians (Bligh, Schlehofer, Casad, & Gaffney, 2012; Geertsema-Sligh, 2018), the language used in coverage (Kalyango & Winfield, 2009), the way people perceive the information about female politicians including experimental studies (Cwalina, Falkowski, & Kaid, 2005).

The following three articles revolve around the biases and established patterns in the media coverage of female politicians. While the article by Kahn and Goldenberg (Kahn & Goldenberg, 1991) focuses on the history of the issue starting from the coverage of women's movement in 1960s-1980s, the other two provide in-depth empirical analyses of more recent trends (Sanghvi & Hodges, 2015; Shor, 2019).

In this way, Kahn and Goldenberg (Kahn & Goldenberg, 1991) study two contradictory aspects of the media's influence on people's perception of women politicians. On the one hand, media have always had a tendency to frame women politicians in a derogative manner that negatively affects people's perception. On the other hand, the media's acknowledgement of the issue has contributed to the increased awareness of the problem. Consequently, it has become slightly easier for women to pursue political career. Researchers highlight that even during the rise of the women's movement in the 1960s and 1970s, media were reluctant to cover it. In this way, media restrained the public knowledge of the movement the main aim of which was to make a significant difference in social sphere.

According to Kahn and Goldenberg, although later in 1980s the gender gap received more media's attention and the political career became more achievable for women politicians, the coverage of women politicians differed significantly from that of men. This claim is supported by other researchers in the field. For instance, Bligh et al. state that the media have a tendency to pay more attention to women politicians' personal characteristics or marital status than to their political stance (Bligh, Schlehofer, Casad, & Gaffney, 2012).

Even after nearly 25 years of history, the scope of media's scrutiny has not changed significantly. That is proven by Sanghvi and Hodges (Sanghvi & Hodges, 2015) in their comprehensive study of gender issues in political marketing. According to the researchers, it is believed that a woman politician's appearance can reflect negative sides of her personality and can be determinative when it comes to defining her political liability.

Sanghvi and Hodges rely on Goffman's theory (Goffman, 1979) to study the relationship between “gender, power, and appearance specifically as it applies to female politicians” (Sanghvi & Hodges, 2015, p. 1680). The researchers conducted interviews, with female politicians and media executives included, to provide first-hand evidence that appearance is of utmost importance in creating a reputable political image.

While there is a great body of research focusing on the general media coverage of female politicians, less attention has been paid to the differences in coverage in terms of media types. In 2019, Shor conducted an exhaustive study on the newspapers' political leaning and gender representation (Shor, 2019). Although the results are quite mixed, there is still enough evidence that “liberal newspapers write about women in a more positive way compared with their conservative counterparts” (Shor, 2019, p. 313), while “newspapers located in states that are more conservative covered women more negatively” (Shor, 2019, p. 314). There are several possible reasons accounting for such patterns. First and foremost, women's rights issues have experienced a long history of mistreatment from the conservative media. These attitudes are also reflected in their coverage of modern female politicians. What is more, it is believed that there are fewer female reporters working in conservative newspapers' agencies. Consequently, this may result in less attention devoted to women issues which corresponds with the evidence provided by Kahn and Goldenberg (Kahn & Goldenberg, 1991).

In such an environment, it has become dramatically important that female politicians adjust to the rules that media impose unless they want to be represented in a wrong way. This issue can be viewed in terms of the aforementioned political marketing.

According to Hughes and Dann, political marketing can be defined as “a set of activities, processes or political institutions used by political organisations, candidates and individuals to create, communicate, deliver and exchange promises of value with voter-consumers, political party stakeholders and society at large” (Hughes & Dann, 2009, p. 244). However, as highlighted by Sanghvi and Hodges (Sanghvi & Hodges, 2015, p. 1678), the paper overlooks the influence of gender in political marketing though it is one of the aspects accounting for people's perception. Since “the ultimate goal of political marketing is the opportunity to govern for the benefit of society” (Hughes & Dann, 2009, p.253), female politicians should have the same opportunities as men do. One way to achieve it is to eliminate gender stereotypes in media coverage that have significant influence on voting behaviour in particular.

The term “stereotype” has its roots in psychology, and it can be defined as the energy-saving mechanism that facilitates the processing of information (Fridkin, Kenney, & Woodall, 2009, p. 55). As relevant for this study, it is believed that gender stereotypes are shared by members of different society groups and are not easily eliminated (Heilman, 2001). According to Fridkin et al., “people transfer gender stereotypes to their expectations about men and women candidates” (Fridkin, Kenney, & Woodall, 2009, p. 55). For instance, female politicians are believed to be more compromise-oriented and warm, while male candidates are usually perceived as tough and aggressive. These are the so-called gender congeniality stereotypes that can be described as “the fit between gender roles and particular leadership roles” (Eagly & Johnson, 1990). In terms of the political sphere, which is considered to be more masculine (Rosenwasser & Dean, 1989), politicians should adopt more masculine characteristics to be deemed suitable for the position. It seems obvious that for female politicians there is a clash between stereotypically feminine behaviour and that of a high-profile politician.

Remarkably though, gender stereotypes can actually foster female politicians' career in terms of state and local elections (Bauer, 2015, p. 692). It can occur due to the corresponding nature of female stereotyping and this level of office. For instance, there are some issues of educational or healthcare nature at the state level that need to be resolved. As it was described earlier, female politicians are deemed more competent in “soft issues” which makes a woman to stand as a perfect candidate at this level. However, that is not the case at higher levels of political office where an arguably strong and combative leader is demanded.

However, willing to comply with the behavioural patterns ascribed to a successful politician, some women tend to adopt “a more efficient communicative strategy” (Aalberg & Strцmbдck, 2011, p. 171), i.e. a more man-like communication style to receive media attention (Getman, 2019). Unfortunately, it influences public perception significantly. It turns out that the audience perceives such behaviour as cold and hostile (Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu, 2002) and still it may not be enough to “appear credible and convincing” (Aalberg & Strцmbдck, 2011, p. 171). Even when it is enough, such a behaviour can still be viewed as extreme. For instance, when Hillary Clinton ran for the office, she “was portrayed as competent for the position, yet cold and even a she-devil. In contrast, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin often was portrayed as warm and likable, yet incompetent in terms of leadership ability” (Bligh, Schlehofer, Casad, & Gaffney, 2012, p. 580). On the other hand, Brooks D. provides experimental evidence that female politicians who display strong emotions, e.g. show their anger, are not covered significantly different compared to men who engage in the same activities (Brooks D. , 2013).

Though behaviour is the aspect that media mostly pay attention to, there are other aspects of coverage that actually help reinforce gender stereotypes. If we address the Russian realia, we are likely to find out that the patterns employed by the Russian media to cover female politicians are quite the same. For example, according to a comprehensive study of different printed media in Russia (Vartanova, Smirnova, & Frolova, 2013), it can be concluded that the Russian media have a tendency to cover:

a) appearance;

b) body and body parts constitution;

c) functional and physical characteristics (tone of voice, demeanor, etc.);

d) age and physical state;

e) the appearance related characteristics (clothes, makeup, etc.)

Interestingly though, an inclusive study by Hayes, Lawless, and Baitinger provides evidence that a hypothetical women candidate created specifically for the experiment was rated higher on integrity, empathy, and professionalism when the coverage carried no description of her appearance (Hayes, Lawless, & Baitinger, 2014, p. 1203).

Media Coverage of Female Politicians: Western Media

Since one of the aims of this study is to compare and contrast Western and Russian media patterns for covering female politicians, it is necessary to outline already conducted research with a focus on regional characteristics or particular personas.

To begin with, it seems relevant to mention an extensive study by Meeks (Meeks, 2012) in which the author examines the media coverage of four female politicians in elections between 1999 and 2008 in the USA. Specifically, the study focuses on Elizabeth Dole, Claire McCaskill, Hillary Clintion, and Sarah Palin and their run to the offices of Senator, Governor, Vice President, or President. Furthermore, the author selects eight high-circulation newspapers depending on the corresponding candidate's state to ensure a suitable level of representativeness. The variables are set in terms of six categories:

1) gender labels (explicit and implicit references to gender);

2) uniqueness labels (explicit referencing to pioneering the sphere);

3) feminine issues (referencing to “soft issues” and women's issues);

4) masculine issues (referencing to “military/defense/war, crime, foreign affairs, and economy” (Meeks, 2012, p. 183));

5) feminine traits (referencing to character traits correspondent with feminine gender);

6) masculine traits (referencing to character traits correspondent with masculine gender).

The hypothesis is as follows: “[N]ews coverage of women will be greater than that of men, and the gender gaps will be greater when candidates run for higher office” (Meeks, 2012, p. 182). Ultimately, the results of the study reveal that news coverage of women politicians contains more references to their gender than that of men. It seems noteworthy that the higher the office is, the more prominent gender labeling is concerning women politicians. For example, the news coverage of Sarah Palin in campaigning for the White House is 40% more gender-labeled than that of her male opponents (Meeks, 2012, p. 185). Furthermore, the same pattern is reflected through referencing to stereotypically feminine traits (e.g. compassion, emotionality, etc.). Extending the example of Sarah Palin's coverage, there is a 26% increase in mentioning of feminine traits in the news coverage for her running for Vice President. Finally, it is concluded that in spite of increasing number of female politicians in the USA over 1999 and 2008, “news media continue to cast women as novelties and norm breakers” (Meeks, 2012, p. 188).

Another significant study is the one conducted by Rainbow Murray (Murray, 2012). It presents a qualitative and quantitative analysis of women candidates' media coverage in the 2012 presidential elections in France. In particular, the author analyzed media coverage of five candidates including Sйgolиne Royal and Martine Aubry. In addition, the obtained results are compared to those of the 2007 elections when Sйgolиne Royal campaigned for the office. The paper looks at news articles in the three most prominent French daily newspapers. Primarily, the author indicates a substantial discrepancy between the newspapers in terms of the use of the candidates' names. For example, only one newspaper tends to refer to women candidates by their full name, while the other two prefer using the first names (Murray, 2012, p. 52). It seems noteworthy that in 2007, Sйgolиne Royal was more often addressed by her first name as compared to male candidates “which had the effect of reducing her presidential stature” (Murray, 2012, p. 49). Furthermore, some news articles contain gender-biased coverage. For instance, Martine Aubry was described as “femme d'autoritй et autoritaire” (“a woman of authority and authoritarianism”) (Murray, 2012, p. 52) which signals gender inconruent stereotyping. In addition, Sйgolиne Royal was described in terms of “classic gendered frames of reporting on a woman's appearance and emotional state rather than her policies” (Murray, 2012, p. 52). Nevertheless, the author highlights that the scale of gender stereotyping in media coverage in French newspapers has decreased since 2007.

Furthermore, there is a comprehensive study of media coverage of Conservative Party leadership races in Canada with a focus on three women politicians in three different races (Trimble, 2007). Through content analysis of articles in Globe and Mail which is a prominent newspaper and has covered Canadian political issues for more than a century and a half, the author studies the relationship between candidates' sex and their visibility in news. The following women candidates are taken as a point of reference: Flora McDonald in the 1976 race, Kim Campbell in the 1993 race, and Belinda Stronach in the 2004 race. The article puts forward two hypotheses: the gender-specific and gender-neutral hypothesis. The former states that gendered coverage tends to enhance the visibility of women candidates due to increased attention to them. The latter implies that gender does not account for the increased visibility of women candidates through news coverage. Surprisingly, the findings do not seem to support some of previously discussed patterns. First of all, there is no sufficient evidence that news articles in Globe and Mail tend to sideline female politicians. For example, “[f]ully 95 per cent of the articles (published in 1976) mentioning MacDonald focused on her place in the race, similar to the results for Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney (male candidates)” (Trimble, 2007, p. 984). However, it is not the case in the 1993 and 2004 coverage when the news articles centered more on Kim Campbell's background than on her political stance and on Belinda Stronach's background which was addressed to in 27% of the news stories as compared to 7-8% of her male competitors. Another notable finding of 2004 is that media tend to pay more attention to women's looks and private lives than to those of male politicians. For instance, while there is virtually no or little referencing to male candidates' appearance, the media scrutiny revolved around Belinda Stronach's appearance, clothes, and sexual attractiveness in 33% of news articles featuring her. All in all, the study presents controversial results which can be justified by stating that “the nature of the party leadership race - who the competitors are, how many are seeking the job, who is in front, and what's at stake politically - shapes the media response to the story as it unfolds” (Trimble, 2007, p. 988).

Media Coverage of Female Politicians: Russian Media

Since the aim of this work is to compare the media coverage of female politicians in the Western and Russian media sources, it seems relevant to present the findings of the 2019 study (Getman, 2019). The paper examines the media coverage of two well-known female politicians, namely Valentina Matviyenko and Irina Khakamada, in three prominent broadsheets and in three popular online media sources. The study focuses on articles published between 2004 and 2019 so the results represent the current situation. First, the words employed by the selected media sources do not appear to carry gender bias. The words that are used most frequently both in broadsheets and online media are:

· to state (заявить);

· to note, to point out (заметить, отметить);

· to tell (рассказать);

· to emphasize (подчеркнуть);

· to assure (заверить) (Getman, 2019, pp. 17-20).

However, there are certain diffrences between news articles in traditional newspapers and popular online media. Firstly, the traditional media sources attract attention to the women politicians' colloquial speech. For example, as it concerns Valentina Matviyenko, “отчитала сенаторов” (“told the senators off”) or “«наехать» на кабинет министров” (“to gang up on the Cabinet of Ministers”) (Getman, 2019, p. 17). Moreover, as it concerns Irina Khakamada, the media use rather derogative expressions to describe her 2008 resign. For instance, “забросившая партийные заседания” (“abandoned the party sessions”), “убежавшая из политики” (“fled politics”), “вышла вон из политики” (“got [the hell] out of politics”) (Getman, 2019, p. 15). Furthemore, while both Valentina Matviyenko and Irina Khakamada receive mostly positive evaluation of their personal characteristics and cognitive skills, Irina Khakamada's behaviour is often criticized, for instance, she is compared to a man, to a fishwife, etc. (Getman, 2019, pp. 16-17).

Further on, there are a few examples of the women politicians' coverage from online publications in popular media sources. For instance, one of the analyzed articles which covered Valentina Matviyenko's projects represents the politician in a critisized way. Nevertheless, it should be mentioned that “this criticism regards only the political and social implications of the proposed iniciatives” which can be justified especially provided that there are no instances of gender bias (Getman, 2019, p. 19). Furthermore, as compared with news articles about Irina Khakamada's resignation published in broadsheets, online articles do not cover this situation in gender-labeled manner. The analyzed online media sources use neutral verb phrase “заявить об уходе [из политики]” (“to report one's leaving [politics]). It is also crucial to highlight that none of the analyzed articles in online media sources includes description of women politicians' appearance in their coverage.

Overall, the 2019 study helps reveal that the studied broadsheets have a tendency to represent women politicians through gender-labeled frame often undermining their suitability for the political office. On the contrary, the analyzed popular online media sources tend to avoid gender-biased coverage and prefer to depict women politicians in accord with their conduct as political actors.

All things considered, it seems essential to continue research on the issue of female politicians media representation and broaden the scientific knowledge by comparing and contrasting Russian tendencies in women politicians' media coverage with Western tendencies.

Methods

To suffice the research purpose and to answer the research questions in particular, I will employ content analysis of coverage of several newspapers in Russia, the USA, and Great Britain. Specifically, the media source sample includes the following news agencies:

- КоммерсантЪ (Kommersant) and РИА Новости (Ria.ru) for Russia;

- The Wall Street Journal and Politico.com for the USA;

- The Times and The Independent for Great Britain.

In each group, the first source is a broadsheet and the second is a popular online source. The selection of media sources relies on the information found on medialandscapes.org which is an online project funded by European Journalism Centre. It represents current information and analyses of the state of media in 54 countries including the countries chosen for this studies.

According to Vartanova, the most influential Russian quality newspapers are Российская Газета (Rossiyskaya Gazeta), Известия (Izvestia), КоммерсантЪ (Kommersant), Ведомости (Vedomosti), and Независимая Газета (Nezavisimaya Gazeta) Vartanova E. (n.d.). Russia - Media Landscapes. Retrieved from https://medialandscapes.org/country/russia/media/print. However, Ведомости (Vedomosti) was used for the last year research (Getman, 2019), thus analyzing it two years consequentially seems irrelevant. More than that, in deciding on the news sources I sought to ensure that all the chosen media sources represent the selected female politicians in their coverage. Therefore, I conducted a preliminary keyword search to make sure that all the news sources chosen for each country mention each female politician at least once.

The female politicians analyzed are:

- Elvira Nabiullina and Ella Pamfilova for Russia;

- Nancy Pelosi and Elizabeth Warren for the USA;

- Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon for Great Britain.

It seems crucial to provide basic information on the chosen female politicians. So, Elvira Nabiullina is the head of the Central Bank of Russia and Ella Pamfilova is the chair of the Central Election Commission of Russia. Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and she is also the first woman to occupy this position, and Elizabeth Warren is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts. It is noteworthy that she is also running for office in the 2020 presidential election. Finally, Theresa May was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. Nicola Sturgeon is the First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party.

The data for this study come from online publications from the selected media sources' websites. Although in each sample group the first source is a broadsheet which commonly has a print version, all large-scale newspapers have their online platforms to address the needs of modern readers Hallin, D. C. (n.d.). States - Media Landscapes. Retrieved from https://medialandscapes.org/country/united-states/media/digital-media.

Media Analysis

Quantity of Coverage

Before conducting a comparative analysis of the primary data obtained through the keyword search, it seems crucial to present aggregate results of the quantity of news articles that mention the selected female politicians.

The data are displayed in two Figures: Figure 1 indicates the number of times each female politician was mentioned throughout a one-year period. It can be seen that The Independent is not presented since its platform is powered by Google Custom Search which does not allow choosing a period for the selection of news articles and presents only ten pages with ten news articles each. Sorted by the date, the first ten pages present articles published between 11/12/2019 and 8/04/2020. That is why it was decided to include Figure 2 that presents the total number of references to the selected female politicians between 1997 and 2020.

Figure 1

Number of references between 2019 and 2020

Figure 2

Number of references between 1997 and 2020

Overall, it can be seen from the bar graphs that the British and American media sources have a tendency to mention women politicians in their publications more often compared to the Russian news sources. Furthermore, one rational and predictable trend is the specific inclination of media sources to cover more often those female politicians who represent the same country that is native for a particular media source. Therefore, for example, the Russian mass media tend to cover Russian female politicians more often, and the tendency holds true for other news sources in the sample.

The specific aspects of coverage will be described in more detail in the following part of the paper.

How does the media coverage of Western female politicians differ in the Western and the Russian media sources?

The first stage of research aims to analyze the chosen female politicians' coverage in the Russian sources. To study the differences and similarities in media coverage of the chosen Western female politicians, I conducted a preliminary keyword search to find out what verbs are more often used to describe the speech of female politicians. I used the following pattern for the keyword search: “A female politician's name + verb”. Firstly, I analyzed the search results for the news articles about Nancy Pelosi published during the last year in КоммерсантЪ (Kommersant):

· “Нэнси Пелоси заявила” (“Nancy Pelosi stated”) - used 34 times;

· “Нэнси Пелоси сообщила” (“Nancy Pelosi reported”) - used 25 times;

· “Нэнси Пелоси считает” (“Nancy Pelosi believes”) - used 8 times;

· “Нэнси Пелоси сказала” (“Nancy Pelosi said”) - used 10 times;

· “Нэнси Пелоси объявила” (“Nancy Pelosi announced”) - used 25 times;

· “Нэнси Пелоси обвинила” (“Nancy Pelosi accused”) - used twice;

· “Нэнси Пелоси отметила” (“Nancy Pelosi noted”) - used 5 times;

· “Нэнси Пелоси утверждает” (“Nancy Pelosi claims”) - used 4 times;

· “Нэнси Пелоси подчеркнула” (“Nancy Pelosi highlighted”) - used 7 times.

All the aforementioned verbs are neutral and do not have any additional connotation. These are common verbs used by media for restating a politician's opinion or statement.

Furthermore, all the analyzed articles that mention Nancy Pelosi follow the same structure: she is first referred to by her official title, for instance, “Спикер Палаты представителей Конгресса США Нэнси Пелоси” (“the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi”) and further she is referred to as “госпожа Пелоси” (“lady Pelosi”) Pelosi called Trump a threat to the USA's democracy. (2020, February 6). Retrieved from https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4243756?query=Нэнси%20Пелоси.

Overall, the majority of articles employ gender neutral linguistic means and if Nancy Pelosi is described unfavorably, those instances are direct quotations of somebody's speech, e.g. the President of the USA Donald Trump's statements:

“<…> Нэнси Пелоси войдет в историю как наименее успешный спикер Палаты представителей в истории нашей страны. Она ничего не сделала” Trump believes Pelosi's promises to pass the decision on impeachment are funny. (2020, January 11). Retrieved from https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4218874?query=Нэнси%20Пелоси .

(“<…> Nancy Pelosi will go down in history as the least successful Speaker of the House of Representatives. She has done nothing”).

“Нэнси Пелоси нужна немедленная помощь! Либо у нее что-то не в порядке с мозгами, либо ей просто не нравится наша великая страна. Она совершенно вышла из себя сегодня в Белом доме. На это было очень грустно смотреть. Молитесь за нее, она очень больной человек!» - написал Дональд Трамп о госпоже Пелоси, занимающей третью позицию в американской власти” Impeachment gets confused in testimony. (2019, October 17). Retrieved from https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4127777?query=Нэнси%20Пелоси.

(“`Nancy Pelosi needs help fast! There is either something wrong with her “upstairs,” or she just plain doesn't like our great Country. She had a total meltdown in the White House today. It was very sad to watch. Pray for her, she is a very sick person!' - Donald Trump wrote about lady Pelosi who occupies the third place in the American political hierarchy”).

It should be mentioned that the cited Kommersant's articles do not provide any further comments, i.e. neither oppose, nor support, on the aforementioned statements. Thus, it can be stated that they follow a gender-neutral representation.

One of the rare examples of referring to Nancy Pelosi's performance is as follows:

“Без эмоций, спокойным голосом она попросила лидеров нескольких комитетов Палаты представителей сформулировать конкретные обвинения в адрес президента для дальнейшего голосования полного состава палаты” A way to impeachment was outlined for Donald Trump. (2019, December 6). Retrieved from https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4181718?query=Нэнси%20Пелоси.

(“Emotionless, in a calm voice she asked the leaders of the House committees to formulate charges against the President for further voting amongst the whole House.”).

It can be assumed that such representation is like to provoke positive attitudes towards Nancy Pelosi since self-control is a crucial feature in the field of politics. Moreover, it has been suggested that manifestation of emotions like anger or tears has an impact of people's evaluation of a politician's credibility (Brooks D. J., 2011).

However, the analysis of the articles in Kommersant revealed some inconsistency in the transcription of Nancy Pelosi's name into Russian. Throughout the article, she is referred to as “Нэнси Пелоси” and then as “Ненси Пелоси” Foreign Media: How did Trump testify before the US Congress. (2020, February 5). Retrieved from https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4243323?query=Нэнси%20Пелоси, “Now it seems likely that Trump will be re-elected”. (2020, February 6). Retrieved from https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4249696?query=Нэнси%20Пелоси. Although it can be suggested that this inconsistency does not incur any unfavorable effect on readers' perception, it is indicative of other phenomena, for example, lack of agreement on the chosen pattern for the name transcription. Nevertheless, this issue lies beyond the scope of the study, consequently, the reasons and effects of it will not be studied further.

The next Western female politician to be analyzed is Elizabeth Warren. Since last year's number of references to Elizabeth Warren is significantly lower, the pattern “A female politician's name + verb” does not seem to provide any sufficient information:

· “Элизабет Уоррен предложила” (“Elizabeth Warren suggested”) - used once;

· “Элизабет Уоррен настаивала” (“Elizabeth Warren insisted”) - used once;

· “Элизабет Уоррен сказала” (“Elizabeth Warren said”) - used twice;

· “Элизабет Уоррен заверила” (“Elizabeth Warren assured”) - used once;

· “Элизабет Уоррен критиковала” (“Elizabeth Warren criticized”) - used once.

It is possible to assume that this trend is bound to the fact that the majority of articles that mention her revolve around the 2020 Presidential Race and, consequently, they tend to just mention her among other candidates without specific attention to her candidacy. However, some news articles focus on Elizabeth Warren particularly. Following the pattern with Nancy Pelosi, the first mentioning is official, e.g. “Сенатор от штата Массачусетс Элизабет Уоррен” (“The senator from Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren”), and the following are “госпожа Уоррен” (“lady Warren”) Elizabeth Warren quitted the Presidential race. (2020, March 3). Retrieved from https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4277401?query=Элизабет%20Уоррен. In the article which describes Elizabeth Warren leaving the Presidential race Ibid. , there is no instance of negative labelling compared with the article on Irina Khakamada's leaving politics which was analyzed in the last year's research (Getman, 2019). What is more, other articles featuring Elizabeth Warren highlight her characteristics beneficial for a politician:

“<…> Элизабет Уоррен, показавш[ая] свое традиционно прекрасное умение дебатировать” A billionaire cast to the lions. (2020, February 20). Retrieved from https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4261055?query=Элизабет%20Уоррен.

(“<…> Elizabeth Warren who showed her excellence at debating”).

On the other hand, there are also news reports that cover her failures:

“<…> но временами она не находила, что ответить” Democratic passion. (2019, October 17). Retrieved from https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4126963?query=Элизабет%20Уоррен.

(“<…> but sometimes she did not know how to answer”).

“<…> но ее популярность довольно сильно пошатнулась, когда она не смогла пояснить, за счет каких средств собирается обеспечить всех американцев медицинской страховкой” Sanders' jokes. (2020, January 30). Retrieved from https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4235196?query=Элизабет%20Уоррен.

(“<…> but it undermined her popularity when she could not explain what resources she would use to provide health insurance for all Americans”).

However, it should be noted that these phrases are neutral and refer to Elizabeth Warren's stance as a politician, thus they can be regarded as constructive criticism.

Further on, I analyzed the coverage of the chosen British female politicians. Firstly, I studied the representation of Theresa May who received much media attention especially when she occupied the position of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The results of the keyword search reveal that there are no verbs with additional connotational value that may represent a female politician unfavorably.

However, a thorough content analysis helped reveal more distinctive patterns. I placed particular attention to one Kommersant article with a headline “Не железная” Anichkin A. (2019, June 3). Not iron. Retrieved from https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3982610 (“Not iron”) which describes Theresa May political actions as the Prime Minister. It can be suggested that such expression is a reference to Margaret Thatcher who was the Prime Minister of the UK in 1979-1990 and was called “The Iron Lady” for her uncompromising political actions. Thus, the negation in the aforementioned article headline aims to undermine the image of Theresa May. However, the content is quite controversial. The article begins with a parallel construction which already presents opposing statements:

“Когда Тереза Мэй стала во главе правительства почти три года назад, у нее была репутация «надежной пары рук» <…> Когда она объявила о своей отставке, у нее был один из самых низких рейтингов британских лидеров последнего времени” Anichkin A. (2019, June 3). Not iron. Retrieved from https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3982610. 

(“When Theresa May became the Prime Minister nearly three years ago, she had a reputation of being a very reliable person <…> When she announced her resignation, her rating was one of the lowest among the latest British politicians”).

Nevertheless, the following paragraph starts with a supportive expression that underlines the complicated nature of the state of affairs, Brexit in particular, that Theresa May had to deal with. On the other hand, the following paragraphs seem to be more negative in coverage of Theresa May's political standing:

“Вся ее нехаризматичнсть (author's spelling is preserved), еще терпимая в обычное время, на фоне ожесточенной полемики вокруг «Брексита» и социальных проблем страны вылезла наружу. То, что казалось советникам сильным моментом [о предвыборной кампании 2017 года] <…> у премьер-министра выходило деревянно и неубедительно” Ibid.. 

(“Her lack of charisma, usually tolerable, was finally seen amidst heated debates on Brexit and social problems. What counselors thought would be the strongest points [on the 2017 campaign] <…> turned out to be plain and unconvincing”).

This example refers to Theresa May's personal characteristics and their effect on her performance, in the 2017 campaign in particular. Such scope of media attention is common in politics since media aim to find the reason behind the failure including the candidate's personal faults (Jamieson & Waldman, 2002, p. 25).

The following paragraph also presents controversial statements. On the one hand, it extols her persistence and sense of duty but on the other hand, it highlights a “toxic nature” of her legacy. The latter refers to those of her actions as the Prime Minister that made the public deem her ruthless. Among the cited examples is the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire when Theresa May failed to take the time to meet the victims. According to the article, not only did it later become the symbol of her callousness but also of the Tories.

Overall, the analyzed Kommersant article is assumed to be rather controversial since it covers Theresa May both favorably and unfavorably. I suppose that one of the most powerful means employed in this article is labelling Theresa May as a ruthless person since such representation contradicts public expectations based on gender congruency. Consequently, such labelling leads to negative perception (Gidengil & Everitt, 2003).

Another Kommersant article that seems to be worthy of attention is the one which revolves around Theresa May's outfits Outing. (2019, May 15). Retrieved from https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3968572?query=Тереза%20Мэй . It should be noted that it is an article dedicated only to Theresa May's appearance and does not contain any news material. It is possible to use reverse logic to explain such a pattern: paying much attention to a politician's appearance may contravene with appropriate themes for news coverage (Hayes, Lawless, & Baitinger, 2014, p. 1207). What is more, it is the only article amongst analyzed that refers to Theresa May by her first name thus distracting from her political affiliation.