Performing Leadership: Discourse Analysis of Politicians' Twitter Posts on Women's Day

Abstract

This qualitative study explores how politicians construct and perform leadership identities on Twitter, particularly in the context of International Women's Day, building on Judith Butler's performativity theory and recent research on women's leadership identities on social media. This study analyzes ten selected tweets from politicians, classified into three themes: Empowering Women and Girls, Call to Action for Gender Equality, and Personal Tribute. Using discourse analysis, the study reveals that female politicians utilize Twitter to construct and perform leadership identities for themselves by emphasizing themes of Empowering Women and Girls, using empowering language and hashtags to promote women's empowerment and challenge patriarchal norms, and employ discursive strategies such as using empowering language and hashtags to negotiate and reinforce their leadership personas on Twitter.   The key findings show that female politicians prioritize women's empowerment and inclusivity, while male politicians focus on paying Personal Tribute to women and issuing Calls to Action for Gender Equality.  This indicates that though in the modern era of technology and gender equality, still a gap exists of patriarch across the globe. Females still trying to prove themselves and males sympathized them to show equality, Based on these findings, the study recommends future research on the role of social media in shaping public discourse and promoting social change, longitudinal studies to examine the evolution of politicians Twitter discourse, and comparative analyses of Twitters discourse across different social media platforms and cultural contexts, contributing to a deeper understanding of leadership identity construction and performance on Twitter, with significant implications for future research on social media, politics, and gender equality.