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Chapter 13. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Media’s “Ma Ellen” or the “Iron Lady” of West Africa? Textual discourse & brand of a leader
  • Lennie M. Jones
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Discourse, Politics and Women as Global Leaders
This chapter is in the book Discourse, Politics and Women as Global Leaders

Abstract

Incumbent president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, currently serving her second term, is the first democratically elected female head of state in modern Africa. During the 2005 and 2011 elections, Sirleaf strategically performed multiple discursive identities, appealing to both male and female constituents. This qualitative pragmatic discourse analysis supplemented by quantitative data, reveals media stylizations of Sirleaf ranging from that of a “grandmother” to the “Iron Lady” to “Ma Ellen,” mother of a country. The present study demonstrates the gendered and non-gendered discourses Sirleaf employs, and introduces the theoretical framework of gender-neutral, gender-polar and gender-biased text. The political brands Sirleaf discursively establishes for herself are compared with and contrasted to brands of the Liberian president as styled by international media.

Abstract

Incumbent president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, currently serving her second term, is the first democratically elected female head of state in modern Africa. During the 2005 and 2011 elections, Sirleaf strategically performed multiple discursive identities, appealing to both male and female constituents. This qualitative pragmatic discourse analysis supplemented by quantitative data, reveals media stylizations of Sirleaf ranging from that of a “grandmother” to the “Iron Lady” to “Ma Ellen,” mother of a country. The present study demonstrates the gendered and non-gendered discourses Sirleaf employs, and introduces the theoretical framework of gender-neutral, gender-polar and gender-biased text. The political brands Sirleaf discursively establishes for herself are compared with and contrasted to brands of the Liberian president as styled by international media.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Discourse, politics and women 1
  4. Part I. Discursive features of leadership
  5. Chapter 1. “Why can’t a woman be more like a man?” 21
  6. Chapter 2. Breaking the glass & keeping the ceiling 43
  7. Chapter 3. Under fire 67
  8. Part II. Discourse, media and power
  9. Chapter 4. Twitter as political discourse 93
  10. Chapter 5. Gender and political discourse in Tunisia 121
  11. Chapter 6. Julia Gillard 149
  12. Chapter 7. Women in politics and the media 169
  13. Part III. Leadership, identity and the public
  14. Chapter 8. “Thank you for heckling me” 195
  15. Chapter 9. Governors debating 217
  16. Chapter 10. Discourses of female leaders in postcolonial Hong Kong 251
  17. Part IV. Styling the leader
  18. Chapter 11. Governing in the gendered structure of power 275
  19. Chapter 12. The ball is in the women’s court 293
  20. Chapter 13. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf 315
  21. Conclusion 345
  22. About the authors 353
  23. Index 359
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.63.14jon

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Discourse, politics and women 1
  4. Part I. Discursive features of leadership
  5. Chapter 1. “Why can’t a woman be more like a man?” 21
  6. Chapter 2. Breaking the glass & keeping the ceiling 43
  7. Chapter 3. Under fire 67
  8. Part II. Discourse, media and power
  9. Chapter 4. Twitter as political discourse 93
  10. Chapter 5. Gender and political discourse in Tunisia 121
  11. Chapter 6. Julia Gillard 149
  12. Chapter 7. Women in politics and the media 169
  13. Part III. Leadership, identity and the public
  14. Chapter 8. “Thank you for heckling me” 195
  15. Chapter 9. Governors debating 217
  16. Chapter 10. Discourses of female leaders in postcolonial Hong Kong 251
  17. Part IV. Styling the leader
  18. Chapter 11. Governing in the gendered structure of power 275
  19. Chapter 12. The ball is in the women’s court 293
  20. Chapter 13. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf 315
  21. Conclusion 345
  22. About the authors 353
  23. Index 359
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