VISIBILITY AND INVISIBILITY: EXPLORING THE REPRESENTATION OFWOMEN AND MEN IN IRISH POLITICS. THE EXAMPLE OF THE 2011 BROADCASTS

Abstract

Although the socio-economic situation of Ireland has improved in the last decade, the situation of women continues to be unequal to men and there are certain limitations in their rights. Despite well-known exceptions, women have tended to be underrepresented in Irish politics. However, in the last elections some of them decided to run for the Republic’s presidency as well as to become the first female Irish Prime Minister. In this sense, this research paper will try to contrib-ute to the representation of women in the 2011 campaigns. Both general and presidential referendums will be under analysis. Our sample will consist of the most representative TV broadcasts of the main political parties (i.e. Fianna Feil, Fine Gael, Sinn Fein, among others).