Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has long dominated the Australian media landscape, wielding great .
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd’s calling for a royal commission into Australian media ownership has once again put this issue in the spotlight. It has gained more than and led to a into media diversity.
Rudd has described News Corp as a “”, while fellow former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has labelled it “,” and slammed its “campaign on climate denial”. Labor’s Julia Gillard, has also made .
However, these discussions fail to consider how the Murdoch press is particularly hostile towards women politicians.
How does the Murdoch press represent women?
While of women in politics, I’ve noticed a stark difference in Murdoch press coverage of men and women leaders.
My research, recently published in , compared Australian media portrayals of Gillard’s prime ministerial rise with that of Helen Clark’s in New Zealand. Both leaders experienced a sexist focus on their gender, appearance and personal lives. But it was far more frequent and intense for Gillard.
There is a difference in the way male and female leaders are represented in News Corp papers. Source: Getty Images AsiaPac
My research suggests two key explanations for this contrast: the different political contexts they operated in, and the dominating influence of the Murdoch press in Australia versus its absence in New Zealand.
As Rudd has argued, the Murdoch press is hyper-partisan and ideologically driven, “”. News Corp is also known to reward Murdoch’s allies, while .
Yet this has notably gendered ramifications. Murdoch’s conservative morality, traditionalist values, and opposition to left-wing movements appear constantly in his newspapers, making them uniquely hostile to women.
Gillard did not simply threaten the political status quo as Australia’s first woman prime minister. As an unmarried, child-free, atheist woman from the left of the ALP, she also threatened Murdoch’s conservative ideology. His newspaper therefore portrayed Gillard in a highly gendered — even misogynistic — manner her. This was evident in the criticisms of her fashion choices, such as a headline condemning her “technicolour screamcoat” in The Daily Telegraph.
Things have not changed since Gillard’s days
Though it’s been ten years since Gillard became prime minister, not much has changed. News Corp papers continue to attack women in politics, especially if they are from the left.
Queensland Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is another seasoned veteran of News Corps’ sexist coverage. This includes the Sunshine Coast Daily’s 2019 , which featured Palaszczuk in crosshairs with the headline, “Anna, you’re next”.
More recently, labelled her dealings with Liberal NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian over border closures, “schoolgirl behaviour”.
Even Liberal women aren’t immune from sexist coverage. Julie Bishop, the Coalition’s former foreign affairs minister, was likened to the power-hungry “Lady Macbeth” by for her 2018 leadership tilt. She was also by the same paper for calling out the Liberal party’s sexist bullying culture.
Berejiklian has also endured sexist reportage, particularly during the recent scandal over her relationship with disgraced former NSW MP Daryl Maguire. One article waxed lyrical about her supposed “wedding fantasy”, a “feminine albeit old-fashioned thing to do” which, they argued, might have kept a workaholic like Berejiiklian “sane”.
However, the News Corp’s partisan bias towards the Coalition is also evident in these stories. Rather than holding Berejiklian to account, the Murdoch press largely ran about the premier’s behaviour. This starkly contrasts with the onslaught of sexist coverage Gillard received during the , which haunted her for the rest of her term in office.
International leaders also under attack
Australian women aren’t the only targets. The New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has frequently borne the brunt of biased News Corp coverage.
In the lead up to the 2020 New Zealand election, columnist Greg Sheridan argued Ardern doesn’t live up to the hype, in The Australian,
…Part of the international Jacindamania comes from the fact she is a young left-wing woman who gave birth in office and took maternity leave.
Sheridan also labelled her government’s COVID-19 response and progressive style of politics as “inherently authoritarian” that also “enjoys bossing people around”.
When Ardern won the election in a historic landslide, The Australian describing her as “grossly incompetent” and “the worst person to lead New Zealand through this economic turbulence”.
In August, Johannes Leak’s in The Australian, also received for its misogynistic and racist depiction of vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Don’t forget gender
It is clear the Murdoch press has a “woman problem”.
This poses a real obstacle for women in politics, especially those who oppose Murdoch’s conservative ideology. But it also broadcasts a message about women’s roles and place in society more generally — that no matter how privileged or powerful a woman might be, it’s nearly impossible to escape sexist commentary and the objectifying male gaze.
This is why it is so essential to hold the Murdoch press to account in a specifically gendered light.
