In a context that is concerned with perceptions and masculinity, what is the relationship between female political figures, structures of power, and how this relationship is portrayed in digital news media?

This is the topic that Lecturer in Indonesian Studies at UNE and Early Career Researcher, Dr Jane Ahlstrand, has been investigating through a research project that can be traced all the way back to her PhD studies, completed in 2018.

Dr Ahlstrand’s insightful project uses three high profile Indonesian women in politics as a case study, however the research also draws links to perceptions of women in leadership positions across the world, particularly Asia.

While Dr Ahlstrand’s research began as a PhD that was focused specifically on Indonesian studies, it has evolved over time and will soon be a multi-disciplinary book for the Routledge Women in Asia series, which has now reached the production stage. If there are no set-backs the research book is expected in late 2021.

“The research itself focuses on women and their relationship with power in Indonesia,” said Dr Ahlstrand while discussing the various nuances of the upcoming book. “It is about female political leadership, how the online news media portrays them and how it shows the different facets of their political persona. Originally the project was more about a study on Indonesian politics using these women icons to measure how Indonesia’s democratic transition is going, but then I was encouraged to look more at the women themselves, and think more about the position of political women throughout Asia.”

“I am glad that I turned when I did, that is when the focus went to the women in politics, rather than just the Indonesian political context.” With this shift came many new insights into the field of politics and the nuances in the female politician experience. The original research is based on the experiences of three Indonesian women in politics, however a wealth of literary research provides further exploration into treatment and media perceptions of women in leadership positions.

“I found that there are so many similarities in the experience of women in politics – there are universal factors, such as: the focus on the outsider. Women are naturally novel figures in politics so when they come into the political domain they’re seen as someone bringing something new, something different. This unfortunately also becomes a kind of burden or expectation that women will make a change and that is a double-edged sword.”

“Another factor is one that focuses on their physical appearance as well as their novel behaviour… at the same time they are really heavily scrutinised, so it’s almost like they become an object of scrutiny, and because of that, their agency, meaning their ability to act freely, is really constrained.”

“Basically, we will see this phenomenon in a business that brings in a woman as a new leader. With this new female figure there will be hopes of renewal, this change, but at the same time this female leader is subject to a lot more scrutiny than their male counterpart would be. The way that they scrutinise her isn’t just about her leadership practices, like decision making, but also how she looks and behaves. This is something that is common all over the world, including Indonesia. That’s one of the key findings.”

As an early career researcher, Dr Ahlstrand is only at the very beginning of her career-long research journey, but this project represents a fantastic jumping off point for what is to come. As such, creating this research book has gifted her with valuable insights into the process of research itself. When asked about what she had taken away from the project thus far she noted the importance of her time learning ‘critical discourse analysis’.

“Before I did my PhD, I had never done critical discourse analyses, and had hardly any skills in the area, but now I am much more skilled in the art. Critical discourse analyses involves collecting samples of language in use, in this case it was online news media articles, and analysing the linguistic features of the news reports. It’s not just for the sake of saying ‘This was a transitive verb coupled with a direct object’ … it is not for purely linguistic purposes – you have to take the next step and link these linguistics features to the context, which will help you understand the causes and consequences”

Projects that have been in the works for as long as Dr Ahlstrand’s book often provide a researcher the time to dwell upon the impacts that that their work will have once it is finally released. Dr Ahlstrand discussed that as an early career researcher it would mean a lot to her for the book to do well within academia, but she also has hopes for its potential to influence change.

“I think the book will provide even more evidence of the really precarious role that women have in leadership positions, not just in politics but business as well. Sometimes when it looks as though they are getting ahead there is a flip side to that. They might appear to getting a lot of media attention, but what kind of attention are they getting and whose agenda are they actually fulfilling?”

“So hopefully my book can help to better understand of women in positions of leadership all over the world, the barriers and opportunities, and also the consequences of these different leadership styles for society and its structures of power.”

With this long standing and exciting project coming to an end, Dr Ahlstrand has been thinking about what comes next in her research journey:

“I think I will continue with the focus on women in politics because I realise that is actually a really pressing issue. As someone who comes from an Indonesian studies background, I am trying to deal with this precarious world at the moment and strategically tailoring my research to have a broader, cross-disciplinary appeal so I don’t get silo-ed into Indonesian studies. Although it would be lovely to have the privilege to focus exactly on the area of research that I deeply know and care about, but a lot of researchers these days are being trying to be strategic and moving beyond a silo so that they can be more resilient.”