Critical Content and Discourse Analysis on Post-Feminism and Neoliberalism - Paper Example

In the 21st century, women and gender affairs have been in the spotlight a variety of occasions and have been the subject matter of most content and discourse analysis. Content and discourse analysis is involved with analyzing data: verbal, pictorial, video, digital, printed media and so on to come up with inferences and address critical elements. Efforts towards women empowerment have been stepped up and most of the issues of thirty years past have now been handled appropriately and something done towards equity in the treatment of the genders. However, with the passing of time come new problems for women addressed in discourse analyses.

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The issue of gender equity entails treating both men and females not only with fairness but according to what they need to have (almost) the same opportunities. Equal treatment is a sensitive measure to the fact that no two people are equal and that is why equity addresses personal needs rather than fairness applicable en masse. In essence focusing on equity when it comes to gender affairs is better than equality. Policies implemented in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom among other countries more so in Europe have proven that equity is a fundamental if not the most significant aspect of gender affairs.

Content analysis of the treatment of women in different circumstances and scenarios in the 21st century is an oft-common topic because of the age of technology we live. We have news reports on stations such as CNN and the BBC, social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, scholarly articles on content analysis and so on which are useful in focusing on the current issues that women face in the 21st-century era of post-feminism and neoliberalism. The feminism wave in women empowerment had women questioning and challenging male dominance, which scholars will agree is the first step towards achieving any revolution.

Women reporters in dangerous environments is a common enough topic for content analysis. Training manuals for journalists working in war zones and high-risk environments tend to be gendered. Women face much more danger than their male counterparts in risky situations- dangers such as rape and being susceptible to shock and panic attacks. The reason for such susceptibility could be in the training and the biased treatment of the sexes. Men reporters in most media such as photographs and video are shown braving the elements and exposing themselves to danger, in essence, being the heroes.

The female reporter is stereotyped to be the caregiving neutral say on a battlefield and as much as they face violence as much as men news reports tend to focus on the treatment they get rather than the seriousness of their injuries. For some reason, men reporters are naturally suffering individuals say in the case of reporters on male reporters who die from exposure in the warzone. The same cannot be said for women journalists though they face as much danger of getting injured or death. Feminist causes have used the non-equal treatment example of female reporters who are injured or succumb to their injuries to try and further the post-feminist and neo-liberalism cause. Few texts are unique to the unique problems women face in hostile environments and to that effect equity should be implemented to ensure their security.

The recession of 2008 hit the world hard, and many employees were laid off, a significant percentage being women. In the case of stay-at-home moms, the trends noted in the United Kingdom, Europe, and other countries is counter-developmental to a great extent. A content analysis done on UK newspapers on stay at home/full-time mothers starting on August 2009 to August 2013 came to the conclusion that most reports on women tend to lean towards lifestyle, popular culture and entertainment termed the "new form of common sense."

The issue of choice when it comes to a woman deciding to become a stay at home mom has been the subject of most discourse analyses. 63% of full-time moms choose to stay at home. Only 18% were laid off following circumstances such as recession and uncontrollable events such as divorce. Traditionally mothers are the providers of love in the family. Mothers are the ones who traditionally shape up their children, and from a young age, they are the people who understand the needs and wants of their children first-hand, acting as the go-between for the children and their father. Female self-reliance is a key neoliberalism tenet which stays at home moms do not enjoy. These mothers have to rely on their husbands almost for every financial support. Mothers are an important part of every society, country and least of all economy. They should have special-interest opportunities for jobs.

Special interest women such as reporters in hazardous environments and stay at home mothers need to be treated with equity. Two pertinent issues arise for each of these groups. Is choice a valid point for women reporters and photographers who get raped? Does anybody choose to be raped? In any case, the perpetrator is in more wrong and perhaps what a woman may do is abide by safety regulations and limit her exposure to danger Another issue is towards stay at home mothers. Is it a bad title being a stay at home mother? Working from home is an option that is nowadays available for anybody and least of all mothers.

Works Cited

Krippendorff, Klaus. Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. Sage, 2004.

Orgad, Shani, and Sara De Benedictis. "The stay-at-homemother, postfeminism and neoliberalism: Content analysis of UK news coverage." European Journal of Communication 30.4 (2015): 418-436.

Rentschler, Carrie A. "Risky assignments: Sexing security in hostile environment reporting." Feminist Media Studies 7.3 (2007): 257-279.