Abstract
For a long period, we have been impressed with, and accustomed to female leaders, for example, Angela Merkel, Hillary Clinton, Jacinda Ardern and Theresa May, any of whom might become our idol. But, have you ever wondered about questions like how they ‘do’ politics. More specifically, are there identifiable stylistic differences between men and women politicians? How similar or different are the women themselves? If these questions have occurred to you, you will find answers in Gender, Power and Political Speech: Women and Language in the 2015 UK General Election, co-authored by Deborah Cameron and Sylvia Shaw. Cameron and Shaw’s book serves to refresh the conventional wisdom that women politicians speak in a ‘different voice’. In comparison with previous work in this area, their book centres more on interactions and interplay between women’s language and politics by focusing not only on linguistic styles but also on political substance. In doing so, it is a strong reminder that politicians speak and act linguistically beyond the male–female binary.
Structurally, apart from the four-page index, this slim 140-page text is divided into four chapters. The title of the opening chapter asks, ‘A different voice?’ To answer the question, Cameron and Shaw start with a brief interpretation of the (different) voice, namely women’s language identity, from a metaphorical perspective. It provides a comprehensive literature review of gender-oriented political studies. At the end of this chapter, the authors detail their case study approach to the performances of the three women politicians – Natalie Bennett (leader of the Green Party of England and Wales), Nicola Sturgeon (First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party) and Leanne Wood (leader of the Party of Wales Plaid Cymru) – in two debates. Readers outside the UK may be particularly interested in the authors’ excellent introduction to the 2015 General Election campaign in the UK. Its first-past-the-post system is also discussed.
In the second chapter, the authors delve into the performances/styles, particularly the linguistic behaviour, of seven politicians within two televised UK political debates – on ITV and on the BBC. In doing so, they scrutinize and compare the potential similarities and differences between men and women leaders. Cameron and Shaw conclude their chapter by explaining why male–female similarities outnumber differences in terms of the status of the party he/she represents, political experiences, and so on. Of particular note is Nicola Sturgeon’s performance. During the debates, she is adept at using adversarial discourse strategies, including voice, metalinguistic statement, laughter, interruptions, humour and hedges in ways more generally associated with male politicians.
Unlike Chapter 2, which focuses on the performances of politicians on stage, Chapter 3 deals with the media coverage of them off stage. With reference to evaluations of the three women politicians from the press coverage, Cameron and Shaw highlight that the three do receive different coverage, with Sturgeon’s being extreme (‘positive-&-negative’). They show that most of the coverage is preoccupied with the women’s appearance, clothing and families, in ways that seem far removed from politics. Two general conclusions are explicated. The first is that the reception of women’s political speech is shaped, to a significant extent, by the ‘different voice’ ideology. Readers will not be surprised at the second, which is that the female politicians gain recognition only if their gendered features are salient. At this point, I felt a lack of discussion of public reception of the women’s performances, through voting, attitudes or stances. The title of the chapter suggests that reception is a pivotal theme.
The conclusion to the book provides a brief summary of the previous chapters. Central to this chapter is the authors’ dedication to answering questions raised in Chapter 1. They do so by examining Nicola Sturgeon’s performances and, perhaps surprisingly to some readers, conclude that the stylistic differences in debates are not so much intra-gender as between the genders.
Overall, by examining the performances of three female politicians in the 2015 UK General Election debates, the book presents us with a linguistically oriented analysis of women’s voices. Amongst the many contributions made by the text is its multidisciplinary lens. Cameron and Shaw bring together conversation analysis, interactional linguistics, critical discourse analysis, along with rhetoric. In doing so, they examine the transcripts of video-recorded data in ways that are appealing and interesting. The structure of the book is very clear. Cameron and Shaw’s concise writing style and in-depth argumentation are an impressive model of pleasing academic writing, despite a few typographical errors such as, Nicola Bennett instead of Nicola Sturgeon (p. 75).
Given the strengths of this book, it is particularly to be recommended to scholars of politics, and general audiences from the areas of sociology, women’s studies, discourse analysis, stylistics, communication as well as sociolinguistics. Gender, Power and Political Speech will no doubt inspire many other students too.