The lack of conditions and the social resistance to women’s participation in political life is a matter of social justice and an object of the politics of equity as it endangers the fulfilment of democracy (Philips 2000). The poor representation of women in many of the traditional spaces of participation – as voters and candidates – expresses this problem (Araújo et al 2015). The reproduction of stereotypes about women’s incapacity to participate in public/political life is supported, for instance, by the media, as wide-reaching process of informal education that many times contributes to the invisibility and non-participation of women as citizens (Arnot et al 2000). One may emphasise that “media narratives regularly suggest that the struggles launched by the women’s movement (…) are no longer relevant, or that women’s rights have been achieved at the expense of men, who are the new ‘victims, or that the pursuet of equality has resulted in women’s ‘unhapiness’.” (Gallagher 2011:132). As Philips (1991:3) stresses in a remarkable study: “Excluded first overtly and then more subtly from the ranks of full citizens, women have pressed their demands not just as a matter of justice, but in the name of a vision that transforms the world”. Several institutions within the democratic state have strong influence on education matters through their activities. Some, such as schools, prepare young people, for their life trajectories in a systematic and formal way (Arshad et al 2012); others also play an informal educational influence. Both should follow rules of equity and fairness according to civic, political, social and cultural rights – but many times they affect lives by provoking distributive injustices (Bernstein 2000). As agents of symbolic control (Bernstein 1996), teachers and media producers have strong impact on these life trajectories.
The impact of the media in generating obstacles and trends in women’s political participation is at the core of this paper which is part of the European project Commitment to Democracy through Increasing Women's Participation (CODE – IWP), co-funded by the Europe for Citizens Programme of the European Union. The project aims the continual encouragement of female participation and, more specifically, the increase of women's participation as voters and candidates in both the National and the European political life. The consortium was designed to include four countries with low percentages of female representation in National and European decision-making (Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal) and a country with relatively high percentages of female representation (Finland). As an example, the representation of women of these countries in the national Single/Lower House of Parliament in 2014 is 42% in Finland, 31% in Portugal, 24% in Lithuania, 18% in Latvia and 14% in Cyprus - above or below the European Union average of 28%. In the same vein, the distribution of women and men in the European Parliament in the elections of 2014 was of 54% in Finland, 38% in Portugal, 37% Latvia, 17% in Cyprus and 9% for Lithuania (EP, 2014).
Mass media have certainly educational impact and influence in people’s lives, perspectives and trajectories as gender stereotypes in politics are created and thickened by the media (Voronova, 2009). Moreover among its key findings, GMMP 2015 reveals that “the rate of progress towards media gender parity has almost ground to a halt over the past five years (…) In 2015, women make up only 24% of the persons heard, read about or seen in newspaper, television and radio news, exactly as they did in 2010” (GMMP, 2015). That is why the voices of different actors - politicians and journalists as well as representatives of civic associations - are called for in this paper.
