Gender Bias in Canadian Politics: A Content Analysis of a Canadian Prime Minister’s Speeches in 2015

Abstract

This study examines the way former Prime Minister Stephen Harper addresses men and women in his speeches, and how this political rhetoric can manipulate media messaging. We performed a content analysis of individuals mentioned in a sample of Stephen Harper’s 2015 speeches using seven coding categories: Name, Age, Sex, Occupation, Title Used, Speech Mentions, and Total Mentions. The research design follows a sequential explanatory style, supplementing quantitative findings with qualitative analysis. We hypothesize that Harper’s speeches contribute to the unfair representation of women in politics by continuing the patriarchal cultural practice of overlooking, belittling, or ignoring female accomplishments; this translates to unfair treatment (i.e. stereotyping, under- or mis-representation) of women in mainstream media. This research is a continuation of Dr. Peter Ryan’s research on Harper’s speeches from 2004–2014, and contributes to this previous research by shedding light upon the relationship between gender and politics in Canada. The results of the current study show that there is a disparity in the way that Stephen Harper referenced men and women: not only are women mentioned less frequently, but they are also less likely to be the focus of the speech and to be given a formal title. The literature supports the notion that this disparity inevitably results in a distorted representation of women in media.

Keywords

• canada
• gender bias
• media
• politics
• speeches