Gender Issues as a Political Resource: Reflections about the Representation of Women, Stereotypes and Gender-Based Violence

According to the World Economic Forums Global Gender Gap Index on gender equity issues, Italy gained 13 positions in 2020, rising from 76th to 63rd place out of 156 countries. This important improvement was most likely due to Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who during his second government reached an historical record with 34% of Women represented within his governments staff. But as happensin other fields, such as the economic sector, Women leaders who hold top positions in institutions or establish themselves as party leaders are still a minority. In Europe, for example, there are only six countries with women at the head of Government. Among them, the Finnish Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, who is one of the youngest premieres in the World, and who has made gender equity a tool to aggregate consensus, conveying new rhetoric and imaginaries that challenge gender expectations. In Italy, one of the few examples of a Woman in a senior political position is represented by the right-wing party leader Giorgia Meloni. This unusual prominent position opens up many questions: What happens when a political leader is a woman? Does identity recognition become political good practice? Are these leadership models capable of deconstructing stereotypes and prejudices therefore triggering a new culture of gender equity? This paper has carried out an analysis of the relationship between politics and gender representations through a specific case study. The research focuses on the Italian populist leader, Giorgia Meloni's use of public communication to reconstruct gender representations through the way that she uses the topic of gender-based violence. The content analysis methodology will include the contents of tweets published by Meloni throughout 2020, her public statements and her official speeches relating to gender-based violence issues. The results of the research show how gender issues become a resource to rearticulate the more traditional political dynamics typical of populism as well as other traditionalist and xenophobic parties without deconstructing consolidated social stereotypes and helping their reproduction.