Hussen, T. S. (2020). Gendered inequalities and media representation: Social media contestations on Ethiopia’s ‘gender-balanced political leadership. Agenda, 34(1), 55-63.
Overview: This briefing explores the gendered framing of Ethiopian women’s political roles and responsibilities on digital platforms, including tweets, memes, pictures, and short articles. The research aims to analyze the diversity of the Ethiopian elite, middle-class, and diaspora community’s perception of Ethiopian women’s gendered identities, political power, and leadership. The analysis focuses on the subtle backlash against women’s political participation and how this impacts future political engagement. The research aims to provide a holistic understanding of the diverse perspectives on Ethiopian women’s gendered identities, political power, and leadership.
Methodology: The research uses a qualitative research method with purposive sampling, and focuses particularly on publicly available tweets, shared comics, images, reflections and arguments.
Finding: According to the finding, the author states, in a country with limited opportunities for women to participate in public and political spaces, the appointment of women as role models and game changers may seem positive. However, the content of social media discourse suggests an invasion of men’s political space and the limited representation of women in political roles. This may threaten patriarchal social order and power dynamics. However, exposure to feminism, local movements, solidarity with global women’s movements, and the international community’s requirement for gender-balanced political participation have allowed some women to gain access to these male-centered political spaces. These political shifts intensify the symbolic effects of women’s representation on citizens’ attitudinal, cultural, and behavioral shifts.
Conclusion: The analysis of tweets and images suggests that Ethiopia’s political reformation, particularly women’s equal participation, is being seen as a polarized symbolic representation of the political future. Supporters of women’s involvement have cheered and supported the appointment, while hesitant opponents downplay it as symbolic political currency. Both reactions are not sustainable political positions, as they oversimplify women’s involvement as political tokenism. To challenge mindsets and cultural beliefs that exclude women from political structures, the Ethiopian government, women’s organizations, and civil society need to work to reverse the cycle of symbolic representation and go beyond the number/quota system. The next challenge for Ethiopia is how appointed women actively participate without being intimidated or silenced by political structure or public pressure.