MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE FIRST FEMALE PRIME MINISTER IN THE HISTORY IF ROMANIA. MEDIA COVERAGE OF ROMANIA’S FIRST FEMALE PRIME MINISTER

On 29 January 2018, Vasilica Viorica Dăncilă became the first female prime minister of Romania. Beyond the usual media debates whenever a new prime minister is appointed, regardless of if a man or a woman, including references to political, organizational, administrative, strategic or economic qualities or virtues, the appointment of Mrs. Dăncilă has caused in Romanian media approaches and discussions that, in this form, did not appear in the case of the prior appointed male prime ministers. The present paper aims to analyse the prevailing discussion topics regarding both the appointment of Mrs. Dăncilă as prime minister and, further on, her activity and her public appearance since she is in office. In this regard, starting from a theoretical framework opened by the concept of “hegemonic femininity”, a content analysis on the main online Romanian media during January-April 2018 was carried out, on the basis of which the main features of the media covered portrait of the first woman in a political executive leading position in Romania are outlined.The article argues that the media constructed image of the first female prime minister of Romania does not fit into the image of hegemonic femininity.

Keywords: female prime minister; hegemonic femininity, hegemonic masculinity, media coverage, content analysis.

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