The Amazing Mrs Politician: Television Entertainment and Women in Politics

Abstract

The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard was the first British television series production that featured a woman Prime Minister, backed by an all-women party and elected by the large majority of voters. This article investigates whether the series was an attempt to provide a feminist portrayal of women politicians. It addresses three main issues: whether and how the series inscribes gender frames to place expectations upon women leaders; if it constructs sex stereotypes with regard to political women’s presentation and policies, which distort the roles that these women play in public life and finally it problematises the kind of visibility given to women politicians in the series.