The world's first mainly female cabinet: 'the council of female ministers' in the Spanish cabinet (2018) on Twitter Articles uri icon

authors

  • Bernardez Rodal, Asuncion
  • CONGOSTO MARTINEZ, MARIA LUZ
  • Lopez Priego, Nuria

publication date

  • November 2020

start page

  • 788

end page

  • 813

issue

  • s1

volume

  • 45

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0341-2059

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1613-4087

abstract

  • 1 June 2018 marked a historic moment in Spanish politics, when the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE) announced a cabinet with the largest proportion of female ministers in the world. This announcement received extensive coverage in the traditional media. The objective of this research was to measure whether the news had an equivalent impact on Twitter users. To this end, we analyzed the reaction to the appointments based on the popularity of the hashtags #GobiernoSanchez ("Sanchez Government"), #GobiernoFeminista ("Feminist Government") and #ConsejoMinistras ("Council of Female Ministers"). The most significant findings are that women had even less visibility than they were given in traditional media because of what is not retweeted does not exist, and that the extreme polarization of political life and the media in the public sphere appears to extend to the digital environment of Twitter.

keywords

  • gender; journalism; politics; public opinion; social networks; twitter