ABSTRACT
Research indicates that print and broadcast media have considerable power to frame and influence people's understanding of public life and the political process. This chapter demonstrates further how the Ugandan press perpetuates women's subordination by constantly feeding readers with demeaning, patronizing, stereotypical, and overtly hostile reports about women politicians. Through its biased, sexist reporting on women politicians, the media reinforce the gender hierarchy in patriarchal Uganda. Apart from trivializing issues raised by women politicians, the media perpetuate stereotypes about women by presenting female legislators as people who are basically apolitical and ignorant of the complexities of public life. Women politicians are painted as incompetent through reports which suggest that women cannot succeed in the public sphere because their "natural" place lies in the private sphere. References to women politicians often include irrelevant descriptions that draw attention either to their physical characteristics or to their femininity and derogate their stature as unserious and incapable politicians.
