Political Campaign and Maternal Leaders: Putting Forward Mother Qualities in Indonesian Pilkada Election 2014

Abstract
This paper aims to discuss the ways Indonesian political campaign in 2014 presents female candidates by reading and analyzing the semiotics in female representatives’ campaign poster. For the first time in Indonesian political history, Legislative Election 2014 obliged every political party has at least 30% of female candidates for each of its constituency. This affected the interaction between the voters and the female candidates, indicated by the raising number of posters and billboards on the street promoting the female candidates. These promotional media usually display the picture of the female candidates, their political parties, slogans, and visions-missions. Using Barthes’ Semiotics, this paper will analyze the elements of the posters and billboards, by focusing not only on the signs, but also on how those signs operate in social context (Myth). This paper will read on the way the female candidates put forward the maternal characteristics as the highlight of their quality. Maternal qualities, or denoting feelings associated with typical mother -including caring, nurturing, gentle, protective, and affectionate- are seen as the trait that give them the winning ticket. The identification of the ‘good’ female leaders with maternal qualities might reveal the operating gender ideology in Indonesian society.