Kön och hierarki i politiska tv-debatter eller Hur man skapar en outsider

Abstract

This paper presents four out of eleven Danish television debates leading up to the 1993-referendum about the Edinburgh Amendments to the EU-Maastricht Treaty. These debates are analyzed in terms of female and male politicians' visibility, authority and control. Key notions are 'doing politics' and 'doing gender'. The methods used are derived from sociolinguistics, conversation analysis and critical discourse analysis. The working conditions and the communicative strategies of four female politicians are the special focus of this paper. It shows how two of them become outsiders on their panels lacking visibility, authority and control while the other two have to fight extremely hard not to become outsiders. The conclusion polemically lists the possible strategies for making a woman an outsider in a television debate: Those responsible for the program format on television must make sure that the format is as aggressive and competitive as possible. Those politicians responsible for the composition of a panel of politicians must choose a woman who has not been trained to function on a panel. The chairman must not ask the woman any questions and must also remember to interrupt her if she takes the floor without being asked. Male politicians on the panel must form alliances with each other ignoring the woman and undermining the woman's authority by making supplementary remarks or taking the floor from her. They should also increase their own visibility, authority and control by using competitive strategies and making long contributions. Two of the women - the two who actually became outsiders - cooperated in the creation of this position by very rarely taking the floor unasked and only making short contributions. In contrast the two women who in spite of very stressful working conditions managed to create some degree of visibility, authority, and control for themselves, did so by taking the floor unasked and making long contributions whenever they had the opportunity.