Comparative study of feminist positioning on Twitter by Spanish politicians

Abstract

This research analyses feminism-related tweets produced over a period of two months by both a male representative and a female representative of each of the four principal political parties in Spain (PP, PSOE, Ciudadanos and Podemos). Although their behaviour on Twitter is similar, the differences found are more marked by ideology than by gender. A content analysis shows that the parties tend to reinforce their ideological programme on Twitter, which is corroborated as a space for disseminating topics related to feminism, but not as a space for debate. Men tend to publish more than women and on less controversial topics, which allows us to observe the reproduction of patriarchal roles in the net.

Keywords

• Twitter
• feminism
• Spanish politics
• content analysis
• social media
• political discourse