TABLE 1
Indicators of gender equality in Germany and Norway
| Germany | Norway | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| General: structures | Percentage of Global Gender Gap closed (2023)a | 81.5% | 87.9% |
| Statutory parental leave/benefits received by women (2022)b | 74.8% | 56.9% | |
| General: gender norms |
| 63% | 59% |
| Gender norm: Agreement/disagreement with statement “Men should have more right to job than women when jobs are scarce.” (2016)d |
|
| |
| Politics | Global Gender Gap Index - subdimension Political Empowerment (2023)a | .634 | .765 |
| Women heads of government (until 2021)e | Angela Merkel (2005–2021) |
| |
| Women cabinet ministers (2023)f | 50% | 50% | |
| Women in parliament (2023)f | 35.1% | 46.2% | |
| Frontrunners/party leaders in the 2021 national election | 4 out of 5 (80%) | 3 out of 9 (34%) | |
| Economy | Gender pay gap (difference in gross hourly earnings between women and men) (2022)g | 17.7% | 14.4% |
| Women/men in part-time jobs (2023)h |
|
| |
| Women employed in senior and middle management (2022)i | 27% | 32% | |
TABLE 2
Overview of the sample (number of coded posts)
| Candidates | Party Ideologya | Facebook (n) | Instagram (n) | Both platforms(n) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany: female candidates (n= 3) | Alice Weidel (AfD) | Right-wing populist | 54 | 10 | 64 |
| Annalena Baerbock (Greens) | Green | 42 | 47 | 89 | |
| Janine Wissler (Die Linke) | Socialist | 51 | 48 | 99 | |
| Total | – | 147 | 105 | 252 | |
| Germany: male candidates (n= 6) | Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) | Conservative | 37 | n.a.b | 37 |
| Armin Laschet (CDU) | Conservative | 76 | 54 | 130 | |
| Christian Lindner (FDP) | Liberal | 39 | 50 | 89 | |
| Dietmar Bartsch (Die Linke) | Socialist | 67 | n.a.b | 67 | |
| Olaf Scholz (SPD) | Social democratic | 75 | 68 | 143 | |
| Tino Chrupalla (AfD) | Right-wing populist | 62 | 28 | 90 | |
| Total | – | 356 | 200 | 556 | |
| Germany: all candidates (n= 9) | – | 503 | 305 | 808 | |
| Norway: female candidates (n= 4) | Erna Solberg (H) | Conservative-liberal | 37 | 18 | 76 |
| Guri Melby (V) | Liberal | 45 | 15 | 98 | |
| Sylvi Listhaug (FrP) | Right-wing (populist) | 47 | 43 | 90 | |
| Une Bastholm (MDG) | Green | 20 | 17 | 47 | |
| Total | – | 149 | 93 | 311 | |
| Norway: male candidates (n= 5) | Audun Lysbakken (SV) | Socialist | 60 | 99 | 291 |
| Bjørnar Moxnes (R) | Socialist | 108 | 50 | 200 | |
| Jonas Gahr Støre (AP) | Social democratic | 35 | 7 | 46 | |
| Kjell Ingolf Ropstad (KrF) | Christian | 13 | 7 | 20 | |
| Trygve Slagsvold Vedum (SP) | Rural | 19 | – | 19 | |
| Total | – | 235 | 163 | 576 | |
| Norway: all candidates (n= 9) | – | 384 | 256 | 887 | |
| Germany + Norway: all female candidates (n= 7) | 296 | 198 | 494 | ||
| Germany + Norway: all male candidates (n= 11) | 591 | 363 | 954 | ||
| Germany + Norway: all candidates (n= 18) | 887 | 561 | 1,448 | ||
FIGURE 1
Referrals to professional competence (per cent)
FIGURE 2
Referral to home and family (per cent)
FIGURE 3
Referral to personal preferences (per cent)
FIGURE 4
Display of image type “private background story” (per cent)
FIGURE 5
Gender issue ownership (per cent)
Comments: The size of the squares and triangles indicates the number of posts, with the smallest representing approx. 30, mid-sized representing approx. 60, and the largest representing approx. 90. Reading example: The “male” issue economy/finance (to be found in the two lower panels) was addressed more often by men (represented by squares) than by women (represented by triangles) politicians on both Facebook (represented by black squares/triangles) and Instagram (represented by orange squares/triangles). This applies to both Germany (left panel) and Norway (right panel).
TABLE A1
Use of Facebook and Instagram in Germany and Norway by gender and age (per cent)
| Germany | Norway | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gender | Female | 46 | 32 | 81 | 58 |
| Male | 42 | 27 | 69 | 37 | |
| Age | 18–24 | 30 | 67 | 69 | 66 |
| 25–34 | 50 | 51 | 70 | 57 | |
| 35–44 | 49 | 34 | 78 | 54 | |
| 45–54 | 42 | 23 | 79 | 48 | |
| 55+ | 44 | 15 | 77 | 35 | |
| Total | 44 | 29 | 75 | 48 | |
[i] Source: Newman et al., 2021
TABLE A2
Category descriptions and reliability
| Category name | Description | Examples | BP kappa (Germany) | Holsti (Germany) | BP kappa (Norway) | Holsti (Norway) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| personal_procomp | Professional competence: Here, we code if the text in the post includes referrals to the candidate’s career as an indication of his/her performance and competence. | description of political career; official positions of politicians; political achievements; education. | .784 | .894 | .897 | .949 |
| personal_home | Home and family: Here, we code if the text in the post deals with the candidate’s personal relationships or life at home. | mentions of the parental or marital role, children, spouse, parents; relaxing or cooking dinner at home or at a holiday home; walking a dog. | NA | 1.00 | .949 | .974 |
| personal_pref | Personal preferences: The text discloses a candidate’s personal inclinations regarding cultural and other phenomena such as literature, television, sports or by portraying the politician as a ‘passionate music lover’. | referrals to recreational activities (e.g., skiing), sporting events, cultural events, the weather, nature, birthdays or holidays, food preferences (e.g., being a vegetarian). | .968 | .986 | .889 | .944 |
| image190 | Private background story: The image/video shows politicians in a private context (e.g., with their partner or children), discusses their interests and hobbies or depicts their childhood/development with so-called “throwback” images. The image/video is about the person in the private context or private things of the person. | Coffee cup on a table | .920 | .964 | .893 | .946 |
| topic310 | Economy and finance | the European crisis, austerity measures, trade agreements, protectionism, customs duties, taxes, tax system, national debt, budget, budgetary policy, agriculture and forestry, enterprise policy, consumer protection | .752 | .887 | .810 | .905 |
| topic321 | Health | health insurance, lack of personnel in the care sector, pandemic | .960 | .981 | .829 | .914 |
| topic325 | Policy for families and children | childcare, youth policy, policies such as child-care allowance, parental allowance, protection against dismissal for expectant mothers, child-care places, tax incentives for parents | .984 | .992 | .943 | .971 |
| topic320 | Labour and social issues | pensions, rents, wages, working hours, labour market, skilled workers, social policy, pension policy, welfare state | .800 | .906 | .867 | .933 |
| topic331 | Criminality/crime rate in general | other internal security issues such as crime, police operations, video surveillance, etc. are addressed. NOT: crimes of asylum seekers, refugees, or other immigrants. These should be coded under topic340 | .896 | .953 | .981 | .990 |
| topic332 | Political radicalism/religious fanaticism | policy measures against right/left-wing extremism, Islamism, National Socialism | .888 | .948 | .990 | .995 |
| topic333 | Corruption | policy measures against corruption, corruption problem in general *accusations of corruption against a public authority of the state should be classified into “type of attack” | .968 | .985 | NA | 1.00 |
| topic330 | Domestic policy | public safety and order, internal security, legal policy | .808 | .908 | .981 | .990 |
| topic361 | Environmental policy | climate change, safety of endangered species, policy to save forests, animal rights | .832 | .920 | .800 | .900 |
| topic362 | Energy policy | energy system transformation, electricity prices | .936 | .969 | .962 | 9.81 |
| topic371 | Education and research policy | curriculum, school system, job training, universities, financial support for students, early childhood education, graduate and professional education, school size, class size, school/university choice, school/university privatisation, tracking, teacher selection, teacher pay, teaching methods, curricular content, graduation requirements, school/university/research infrastructure, funding, and the values that schools and universities are expected to uphold and model | .912 | .959 | .905 | .952 |
| topic372 | Sport policy | politics related to sport and leisure, state support for young athletes, state training programs, state-sponsored building of sports facilities, corona-related measures in sports stadiums | .992 | .997 | .990 | .995 |
| topic370 | Cultural policy | regulations for cultural events in times of the Covid-pandemic; funding of theatres; public funding of movies | .952 | .979 | .981 | .990 |
| topic380 | Defence policy | national security, military, external security, policy of peace, policy of détente | .936 | .971 | .990 | .995 |
| topic410 | War and military conflicts between countries | UN peacekeeping, operations of the national army abroad | Not coded as separate topic | Not coded as separate topic | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| topic400 |
| relations between individual EU member states, relations with other states, relations with international organisations (e.g., UN, NATO), development policy, arms trades, sanctions, etc. | .928 | .936 | .962 | .981 |