Abstract
This chapter challenges the extent to which political leadership remains a male-dominated institution, and asserts that the feminine has in fact become institutionalised in global political culture . We analyse the discourse of (1) Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, former president of Argentina ; (2) Michelle Bachelet Jeria, president of Chile ; and (3) Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia , three incumbent female presidents of countries that have a long patriarchal tradition of masculine political and social hegemony.
We apply a pragmatic and critical discourse analysis perspective in analysing the inaugural addresses, oaths, political speeches and visual and media representation s of these three incumbent presidents, and demonstrate how each of these women successfully manipulates gender perceptions in multiple intersecting public and private 'linguistic markets' through the skilful execution of successful discursive and semiotic strategies .
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Boxer, D., Jones, L.M., Cortés-Conde, F. (2017). Cracking the Concrete Ceiling in Male-Dominated Societies: A Tale of Three ‘Presidentas’. In: Ilie, C., Schnurr, S. (eds) Challenging Leadership Stereotypes through Discourse. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4319-2_9
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