Women in the lockdown in Europe. Media representations of gender differences in “phase 1” of the coronavirus pandemic

Authors

  • Chiara Gius Università di Bologna

Keywords:

Women, Gender inequality, Media representations, COVID-19, Lockdown

Abstract

How have women been portrayed during the initial phase of the coronavirus pandemic? What issues were discussed across European newspapers when women were at the center of the narrative during the lockdown? This paper aims to provide some initial answers to these questions by looking at a bulk of 462 articles collected across 5 different European countries during the so-called “phase 1” of the COVID-19 pandemic when strict stay-at-home policies were imposed to contain the spread of the virus. Results show that four frames were mostly used by the media: women as a vulnerable group, women as actors in the pandemic, women’s health, and women as a transformative force in society.  Implications of these findings will be discussed and the emergence of a “women’s narrative” in the coronavirus crisis will be proposed. 

Author Biography

Chiara Gius, Università di Bologna

Chiara Gius è docente a contratto presso il Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche e Sociali dell’Università di Bologna dove insegna Humanitarian and Social Communication. E’ stata research fellow presso l’università di Bologna e visiting fellow presso la York University (CA), dove ha anche svolto attività di insegnamento, e la University of Toronto (CA). I suoi interessi di ricerca vertono sullo studio delle rappresentazioni sociali con focus in particolare sulle problematiche inerenti le disuguaglianze e la violenza di genere, la comunicazione sociale e umanitaria, la comunicazione interculturale.Tra le più recenti pubblicazioni: Online communities as points of observation of the transnational migrant career: a case study on Italian immigrants in Toronto, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (2019); Facing the pain of others: perspectives on international volunteer tourism between agency and spectatorship, Current Issue in Tourism (2017); Raccontare il femminicidio: semplice cronaca o nuove responsabilità? (con Lalli P.), Comunicazionepuntodoc (2016).

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Published

2020-11-06

How to Cite

Gius, C. (2020). Women in the lockdown in Europe. Media representations of gender differences in “phase 1” of the coronavirus pandemic. Mediascapes Journal, (16), 115–128. Retrieved from https://rosa.uniroma1.it/rosa03/mediascapes/article/view/17199

Issue

No. 16 (2020): La serialità nell’era post-televisiva

Section

Research

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