How Power Dresses: The Gendered Aesthetics of Uniform A Comparative Case Study of Contemporary Women Heads of State and/or Government in Australia, Indonesia, and the Philippines

Abstract

The clothed body, whether dressed thoughtfully or not, performs a social narrative of gender, wealth, status, nationality, and occupation embedded within a larger network of intersectional positionalities. Clothing conveys a set of values of not only the individual but also of the cultural politics of their milieu. For women Heads of State and/or Government, who are uniquely situated to project a diverse intersection of identities as well as access clothing choices socially unavailable to their male counterparts, a nuanced analysis of the garment choices of these professionals on the international stage yields significant findings about how women negotiate their roles as politicians, national figures, religious or areligious representatives, and as individuals. Three contemporary case studies of women Heads of State and/or Government in office between 2000 and 2013 from Australia, Indonesia, and the Philippines interrogate these strategic choices of clothing by holistically cataloging and then analyzing the style, color, and pattern of the attire of each figure. Contextualized within their respective cultures and histories, the ways in which their clothing serve to mimic masculine color coding as seen by Australia’s Prime Minister, re-entrench religion within politics as seen by Indonesia’s President, and ‘self-Orientalize’ the national, post-colonial identity as seen by the Philippine’s President, each woman’s clothing informed her leadership and vice versa. This thesis analyzes the complex negotiations between identity, power, and politics through clothing for women political leaders. How do women Heads of State and/or Government visually communicate national narratives of identity and express political authority through their aesthetic wardrobe choices? How do these clothes project inscriptions of femininity, modesty, religiosity, development, and the national self? Discovering these strategies can provide a foundation for future study of the occupational uniform of women in historically masculine roles as well as the power of the national body as represented by women to reflect but also perpetuate particular socially normative ideals of the modern empowered woman across cultures.