Throughout the world, an attempt to appropriate the language in order to "contextualize" the current economic crisis has been gaining strength, markedly in the last four years. A language that produces and silences the image of a neo-liberal state collapsing in the face of unilateral and patriarchal austere policies.
In addition to the social-economic and political changes that are happening in the daily lives of thousands of people, the media play a primary role in consolidating this language and in (re)asserting this crisis. By quoting or transforming concepts and images, it is within the journalistic texts that address the current situation of recession that this agenda assumes a particular relevance, specially in countries that have adopted austerity measures against the crisis (Portugal, Spain and Greece, i.e.).
In this context, this crisis is thus articulated with the evidence of a vicious cycle that eventually reaches distinct social classes and groups, revealing, in its turn, the power structures that still underlie gender representation in contemporary society, mainly the segregation and the marginalization of women’s position in the labour market and society.
In convergence with such social changes, we will seek to identify the extent to which women's (stereotyped) identity is being (re)constructed and propagated by the female media in this context of financial recession in Portugal. In particular, this analysis will allow us to better understand how the language of the crisis and power, appropriated by the media, is observed and interpreted as a social phenomenon that involves, in its essence, the identitarian logic of a consumer patriarchal and binary society – this analysis will, in turn, allow us to describe the possible impact of gender divisions on how women and men are seen in a Portuguese society ruled by the financial markets.
