Female politicians in the media: Hillary Rodham Clinton and Hsiu-Lien Lu. An examination of patriarchal and feminist word usage in political news: Case analyses of 'The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY)' and 'China Times (Taiwan)'

This thesis examined newspapers' coverage of two female politicians. One is U.S. Senator and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. The newspaper is The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY). The other is Hsiu-Lien Lu, the first female vice president of Taiwan. The newspaper is China Times (Taiwan).;The research analyzed articles in these two newspapers to determine whether the terms associated with Clinton and Lu were gender neutral, feminist or patriarchal. The study compares how media represent female politicians in the two societies, and further illustrates the similarities and differences in the American and Taiwanese societies.;The study found that Hillary Rodham Clinton received more patriarchal than feminist descriptions. However, Lu's coverage revealed the opposite results. The research suggests that the media uses more feminist ideology when covering Lu because of her strong feminist image and ideology.;However, gender-neutral language was more prevalent. The research also shows that general public and even the female politicians themselves tend towards gender-specific stereotypes.