This book has provided a systematic quantitative and qualitative analysis of the mediated representation of women in UK election coverage. The preceding chapters have shown that there have been both significant continuities and changes over time, and they also demonstrate how some of the observable changes in political communication have gendered consequences for the representation of women party leaders, ordinary politicians, voters, and female relatives of male politicians. In this final chapter of the book, the similarities and differences between these groups of women will first be discussed, showing the importance of analyzing the mediated representation of more than just political representatives, then the chapter will revisit the academic literature on changes to election coverage to demonstrate that taking gendered mediation into account is crucial for our understanding of these trends, and to call for more scholars of election coverage to engage with the literature on gendered mediation.

Women in election news: similarities and differences

There have been many studies which compare the representation of men and women politicians in order to determine gender differences between their portrayal (see Semetko & Boomgaarden, 2005; Trimble et al, 2013; Harmer et al, 2017; Trimble, 2017; Harmer et al, 2020). For the most part, however, studies of gendered mediation take women politicians as their focus. This study followed in that tradition, but also sought to extend the value of such work by analyzing how women voters and female relatives of politicians were represented. It is also necessary to compare the four groups of women to identify any disparities, because the mediated representation of women goes a long way to determining how both the public and political elites alike conceive of who matters in formal politics. This inevitably impacts on how they campaign. Stereotypical and partial coverage of even one group of women has consequences for the way all women are represented politically.

There were several similarities and differences in the way all four groups of women were mediated over time. This section will bring together these findings to assess how UK election news represents women. Firstly, the presence and voices of women in the coverage will be explored. The discussion will then consider whether women are portrayed as specifically interested in gendered policy areas, followed by some discussion of how regardless of their role in elections, women are always presented as women first and politicians, activists, or citizens second.