• Journal of Korean Women's Studies
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.203-231
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• 2014

Political space, the area where politics takes place, is generally treated as a male-centric space. The number of female politicians is increasing, but the core of political space is still dominated by male politicians. Therefore, on the one side, female politicians use masculine rhetoric in order to show that they are equal to male politicians, and on the other side, they use feminine rhetoric like the rhetoric of the First Lady or the rhetoric of motherhood in order to emphasize the differences with male politicians and stress their novelty as female politicians. In this situation, female politicians are confronted with the difficulty that they have to keep a balance between masculine and feminine rhetoric. In this context, this study, in chapter II, analyzes the monopoly of male politicians on political space and the dominance of masculine rhetoric and emphasizes that the political space is strongly gendered. Chapter III examines the possibilities and limits of the rhetoric of the First Lady and of the rhetoric of motherhood which female politicians use in the political space to draw attention to their messages. Chapter IV suggests two strategies to change the situation of the dominance of masculine rhetoric in the political space: the strategy of mainstreaming of women and the strategy of mainstreaming of gender agendas. Lastly, this study emphasizes that we need to develop an alternative feminine rhetoric by paying attention to the diversity of women.