1. Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh; mdhossainakhter29@gmail.com
2. Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh; halimaSadia2386@sust.edu

*             Correspondence: mdhossainakhter29@gmail.com

Keywords: feminist, positivism, social media, women political leaders

1. INTRODUCTION

‘The beauty Discrimination against women has long been an element of most cultural and social structures. Historically, Women rights, empowerment and their place and role in the society have battled to gain its appropriate identification and respect in societal institutions. Females have made enormous achievements in many nations in terms of autonomy, however many continue battle to reach equality. Such daily concerns that women confront are not isolated to a single geographic place but are global challenges that affect women all over the world. Women aren’t constrained to identifying just by one’s gender. Women experience persecution on a variety of fronts, encompassing race, sexuality, and physical limitations, amongst others. Feminist activists on Twitter are fiercely denouncing this form of involvement, which is technically termed as “intersectional feminism”. States possess gender, as Tickner put it in 1997 (Singh, 2020). Gender effects all agencies as well as the behavior of players, affecting all parts of decision-making in and around political institutions, as well as our cultures, communities, and diplomacy. As a result, even during a worldwide health epidemic, gender may effect a political choice about whether, why, as well as how to intervene. Feminists have underlined the need of addressing gender while analyzing state behavior as well as global events during the previous few decades. This requirement for methodological knowledge began with a study of men’s responsibilities in political leadership & its worldwide repercussions. Nonetheless, from 1995, new analytical frameworks have formed, while emerging female leaders have begun to evolve in numerous democratic nations, owing to the “Beijing guidelines” & conditions to enhance women’s representation in government, as well as to encourage women’s involvement in judgment processes, develop institutional arrangements for women, as well as support their development within political leadership. Now is the moment to address the repercussions of having such women in senior positions on either side of the gender divide. On 19th of March, 2020, New Zealand’s chief of state elected to move promptly as well as, with the agreement of the Cabinet, issued a “Level 4 Alert” throughout the nation, resulting in the installation of obstructive legislation in the beginning phases of the pandemic. With 102 proven illnesses of COVID-19, Ardern determined it was vital to intervene to rescue lives, stop the virus’s dissemination, & preserve the country’s healthcare system. The prime minister acknowledged responsibility for the pandemic’s result and tackled the goal of limiting a health crisis by displaying effective leadership (Lopes Campos, 2021). Ardern informed the public that key services will be available because while the population was isolated, thorough case tracking utilizing efficient testing would monitor any prospective loosening of these limitations. New Zealand announced the country clear of the virus & eliminated many constraints on COVID-19, with the exception of reopening the border to foreign passengers, following three months of remarkable effort and continued work. Social media is a great platform to share the daily activities of life in the current information and technology era. Here people share most of their life events with their friends over different social media website. Twitter provides a place for female politicians to conduct political public affairs while also allowing them to skirt customary constraints to their exposure. Some research undertook a content analysis of tweets posted by Jacinda Ardern as well as Nikki Kaye during the “2014 New Zealand electoral campaign” to see how young women utilize Twitter to fit in there during electoral campaigns. Their communications were led by an empathic structure, which was backed up by secondary structures of the occupied regional parliamentarian as well as the interpersonal politician. These features were reinforced by the utilization of coercive & interpersonal conditions (Fountaine, 2017). The tweets by various female politicians like Jacinda Ardern emphasised their important good feminism by using Twitter, both during the pandemic as well as before it. It highlights the active participation of women in politics through online media. A number of influential women, including Jacinda Ardern, took to Twitter in order to highlight the significant good aspects of their feminism, both during and before the outbreak of the epidemic. It is a demonstration of the active role that women play in politics through the medium of internet media. The purpose of this study is to investigate the ways in which female politicians, specifically Jacinda Ardern, used Twitter to promote positive feminism between the dates of October 26, 2020 and May 30, 2021.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

Fernández-Rovira, & Villegas-Simón (2019) found that Twitter’s feminist views may not vary by gender like they do by politics. Thus, ideology determines how each political party addresses feminist issues online. Mainstream parties use ideas from feminist movements that shaped social media. Content analysis of tweets by the leaders of the four largest Spanish parliament political groups. Prior studies on Twitter and political discourse have shown that content analysis is the best quantitative method for measuring and categorising the number of tweets by select politicians. The article’s strongest claim is that leaders use it to inform and express their political views on specific issues, not to spark debate. Both points cast doubt on Twitter’s ability to spark discussion and set a media agenda. Although short, the study shows that heteropatriarchal positions are repeated on Twitter, given that political parties are still dominated by men. According to Goehring (2019), hashtags aren’t just for slacker activists and can’t replace any other form of information communication. Posting tweets as part of a larger discourse defines its social nature. Hashtags are powerful tools for educating, criticising, and expressing solidarity when used with Twitter, which encourages users to connect with others worldwide. Muslim women were used to questioning, criticising, responding to, and reinforcing Muslim, feminist, femininity, and other identities. The work method was qualitative secondary inquiry. Method: The author examined four hashtags created by Muslim women in the West that were related to feminism. Each hashtag was a Twitter trend that sparked debates about a specific mixed Muslim woman identity and who they agreed or disagreed with. This study found that Western Islam’s female power dynamics are revealed by hashtags, regardless of the tweeter’s position. These hashtags allow both sides to express themselves and discuss gender and Islam, but they don’t lead to conclusions. Ureta, Terradillos, & I Gras (2021) found that internet feminism lacks its offline traits. The research shows that feminism mostly online is unaffected by strong leaders or ideological references. The study also casts doubt on Twitter’s ability to debate and advance feminism as a street-level movement and unite and strengthen affiliates and defenders worldwide. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used. The study used “the Twitter Capture & Analysis Toolset” from “University of Amsterdam’s Digital Methods Initiative (DMITCAT)” to study Twitter. Many analyses of “feminist hashtivism” dispute its use in uniting a new class of women activists as a first step towards increased mobilisation and awareness in the fight for equality on a global scale. The study’s strength is its fresh conceptual approach. According to Abras, Fava, & Kuwahara (2021), women-led states had higher universal health insurance, lower emission rates, more nurses and physicians per 1000 people, fewer sanitation-related deaths, and more women in legislatures. According to research, women politicians tweet about people’s concerns, especially those most affected by care work and income support. This quantitative study uses secondary data. Its strength is that it uses data on illness and fatality rates in 144 countries, current heads of state’s gender, and socioeconomic variables to analyse women in power’s role in fighting the epidemic. COVID-19 findings relate. No major flaws appear in the study. Curtin & Greaves (2020) also noted that Jacinda Ardern challenged many political paradoxes and established new leadership and governance styles. Giving birth to her second child in July 2018 while in office and taking it to the UN General Assembly were unprecedented. Her empathy, sorrow, kindness, and care after the Christchurch massacre demonstrated her population-centric leadership style. Her overall leadership was positive because she focused on people-related issues like climate change, human rights, and economic and social reforms. Craig (2021) describes Jacinda’s Covid-19 pandemic leadership as kindness and political control. Her interactive style of communication through regular press conferences, national cohesion, caring words, and active governance has built trust between her government and the people. Therefore, her positive leadership has increased her popularity in New Zealand and worldwide. McGuire et al. (2020) explained Jacinda’s crisis communication leadership style. In this context, leaders set the state’s overall communication direction to address the issue using all media to directly engage the public. Leaders also manage decision-making and comfort crisis victims. The writers explained that Jacinda created a positive leader-society relationship. The primary data revealed three main trends in Jacinda Ardern’s pandemic communication with all government departments: balanced precautionary approach, evidence-based approach, and emphasis on ‘go hard and go early’ approach. It helped the government convince the public that expert opinion and institutionalism underpin the pandemic response. Cardo (2021) compared Hillary Clinton, Theresa May, and Jacinda Adern campaigns. Social media was crucial for political image and campaigning in all three countries, despite political differences. They communicated like men and women by opposing her opponent and showing care and compromise. They also discussed hard and soft policy. This style shows that these leaders used Twitter and Facebook for political representation and to demonstrate their traditional responsibilities as women, which connected them to the public.

3. MATERIAL AND METHODS

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is the methodology that is utilized in this paper. The purpose of this methodology is to access and explain the language use in discourse in an interpretative manner (Mullet, 2018). When words are used to explain and predict things, critical discourse analysis is a method that allows for a comprehensive examination of what is intended each and every time those words are used. There is a plethora of terminology that is used in critical discourse analysis, and these terms represent the various influences that have been on the development of methodology. In order to gain a deeper comprehension of the process of discourse formation, researchers investigated the linguistic strategies of generalization, comparison, actor description, euphemism, victimization, and exaggeration (Van Dijk, 1997). A content analysis of tweets sent by Jacinda Ardern during the aforementioned time period (October 26, 2020 to May 30, 2021) was carried out for the purpose of the study. Bringing attention to the fact that Ardern’s tweets reflect a positive form of feminism is the goal of this endeavor. One of the primary objectives of the inductive methodology is to liberate the findings of research from the constraints that are imposed by organized methodologies. This is accomplished by enabling the findings to emerge from the patterns that are prevalent, significant, or frequent in the raw data. There are times when the primary themes are obscured, rephrased, or rendered invisible as a result of the assumptions that are imposed by deductive data analysis techniques. These techniques include those that are utilized in experimental and hypothesis testing research procedures.

4. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The current leader of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, who is 39 years old, is pursuing a path that is exclusively hers. A style of leadership that is characterised by empathy is one that he employs in circumstances in which individuals are tempted to fend for themselves. In some way, her statements are reassuring and calming, despite the fact that they are straightforward and consistent. Not only does her approach connect with her audience on an emotional level, but it also does so on other platforms. In addition to that, it is operating superbly. An ascending analysis of the leader’s tweets from October 26, 2020 to May 30, 2021 is presented below. The tweets are analysed from a critical discourse perspective. It was discovered that she tweeted a very small amount during that time period; however, she has been active on other social media platforms, and her voice is one that carries a lot of weight. After conducting an inductive analysis on her tweets, which were first coded and then summarised as shown below, the tweets were subsequently categorised according to a model. In a single tweet, she extended her congratulations to Joe Biden, who had just been elected President of the United States, as well as to Kamala Harris, who was elected Vice President. In light of the fact that the world is currently dealing with a great deal of problems, she lauded Biden’s message of unity. With this statement, she most likely made a reference to environmental issues as well as Covid-19, which was successfully addressed by Ardern herself while she was in charge of the situation. Her anticipation for working with the new administration in the United States was high. As a response to the mob attack that took place on Capitol Hill in the United States, she sent out another tweet in which she advocated for democracy. In addition to supporting the voting majority that decided in favour of Biden, she was of the opinion that it was essential for individuals to have the right to exercise their election rights. In response to the events that took place during the gathering of the mob, she expressed her utter devastation. In a different tweet pertaining to the same matter, she made it abundantly clear that she agreed with the sentiments of the people in the United States, that the mob attack was wrong, and that what was taking place in Washington was also wrong. She demonstrated her capacity for empathy, political leadership, and positive feminism through the tweets that she sent out.

5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

For a very long time, discrimination against women has been a component of the social structures of the majority of civilizations. Even though women have made significant strides towards achieving autonomy in a number of countries, many of them are still finding it difficult to achieve equality. Women’s everyday issues are global problems that affect women all over the world, rather than being confined to a single geographical region. These problems are not limited to a single region. Women are not required to refer to themselves solely by their gender. A variety of factors, such as racial identity, sexual orientation, and physical ability, contribute to the oppression of women. On Twitter, feminist activists are expressing their disapproval of this type of engagement, which is referred to as “intersectional feminism” in the official literature. The purpose of this study was to investigate the ways in which female politicians, specifically Jacinda Ardern, used Twitter to promote positive feminism between the dates of October 26, 2020 and May 30, 2021. Inductive analysis was used to extract characteristics from the tweets, and the characteristics that were extracted were “congratulatory remarks,” “democracy,” and “rights of the people.” In light of the fact that her tweets did, in fact, portray a positive form of feminism, the characteristics were discovered to be in agreement with the subject of the research. She expressed her admiration for Biden’s message of unity in the face of the numerous challenges that the world faces. It was highly likely that she was referring to environmental concerns in addition to Covid-19, which was skillfully managed by Ardern during her tenure as Prime Minister. She couldn’t wait to work with the new administration of the United States of America. On another occasion, she campaigned for democracy as a response to the mob attack that took place on Capitol Hill in the United States. Due to the fact that she hails from a nation with a population of only a few million people, she exudes an incredible amount of self-assurance in her opinions while addressing the sociopolitical issues that are prevalent throughout the entire world. For the purpose of gaining a better understanding of how a feminist leader can use social media platforms like Twitter to positively influence the world, this study will be of great assistance to students, researchers, and academics.

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