Women in politics invariably attract heightened levels of attention due to their marked difference from the masculine political norm. With the rise of social media and online news, political women can achieve visibility, but also experience more intense scrutiny. Former first lady, Ani Yudhoyono, became an iconic figure in the lead-up to the 2014 Indonesian presidential election, through association with her husband's flailing presidency and as a high-profile political woman on social media. Using critical discourse analysis, specifically social actor analysis, this paper examines the discursive strategies deployed by the mainstream Indonesian online news media to malign Ani Yudhoyono and draw a wedge between her and the Indonesian public, in turn undermining her husband's presidency. The analysis highlights the role of online news media discourse in shaping power relations and ideological groupings, as well as the role of first lady as an enduring source of political contestation.

This book demonstrates the crucial link between gender and structures of power in democratic Indonesia, and the role of the online news media in regulating this relationship of power. Using critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a theoretical framework, and social actor analysis as the methodological approach, this book examines the discursive representation of three prominent female Indonesian political figures in the mainstream Indonesian online news media in a period of social-political transition. It presents newfound linguistic evidence in the form of discourse strategies that reflect the women's dynamic relationship with power. More broadly, the critical analysis of the news discourse becomes a way of uncovering and evaluating implicit barriers and opportunities affecting women's political participation in Indonesia and other Asian political contexts, Indonesia's process of democratisation, and the influential role of the online news media in shaping and reflecting political discourse.