Media coverage of female politicians in Slovak Republic during the presidential elections in 2009

Slovak Republic is a country where women are still underrepresented in the public life. Only recently, after the Parliamentary elections in June 2010, a woman became Prime Minister of Slovak Republic. Slovak and international media appreciated Slovakia for being a first country in central-eastern Europe to have a female leader of the country (Zsilleova 2010). This fact doesn`t change, that women are almost absent from high posts in Parliament, Government, public life, media or high managerial posts. Women in Slovakia still have a long way to the equality. This study focuses on the way female candidate for President Iveta Radičová is represented in the media during 2009 campaign. The research compares her coverage with male candidate`s coverage. The coverage of personal traits of candidates was gender biased and media mentioned female candidate`s gender very often, meanwhile they didn`t mention male candidates gender except in few occasions. However, there was no gender bias in the coverage of candidates` viability, the issues discussed, and the tone of coverage. Even thought male candidate was favored in amount and prominence of coverage, he was covered in more negative way, which can turn his advantage into disadvantage