Social and Linguistic Analysis of Women's Political Discourse

Abstract

This paper presents a qualitative study of the women's political discourse. The relationship between the political discourse and the social status and power of women is investigated based on a combination of a social and a linguistic framework. Tajfel's social identity theory (Tajfel 1974) serves as the social theoretical framework for this analysis. This theory describes three strategies through which inferior social groups reject their inferior status. First, they will adopt the values of the dominant group. Second, they will try to revalue positively the characteristics previously defined as negative by the society, and last, they will create new positive dimensions to compare with the dominant group. In terms of language, this paper investigates the political discourse of one of the most powerful women in the world, Mrs. Hillary Clinton, in four televised political debates. With reference to the three above-mentioned strategies, it attempts (a) to detect the masculine linguistic component in her political discourse, (b) to acknowledge the values of the feminine linguistic characteristics in her speech, and (c) finally, to envision her political language in accordance with the social identity theory. The results demonstrate that Mrs. Clinton gains agency and power by adopting a fine and sophisticated balance of feminine and masculine speech styles. This paper hopes to enlighten how the power of speech of women politicians is a means to establish their position in society today, and it is, as well, an indicator of this position.