Politics is one of the areas where gender inequality is reflected. Various factors determine
women's ability to exist as leaders in the political field where masculine hegemony prevails.
At this point, women’s are sometimes unable to participate democratically in the political
arena for various reasons. Responsibilities undertaken by women in the household, inequality
in education rights and masculine language may cause women to be marginalized in the
political arena and to be removed from politics. Therefore, women's political image exists as a
problematic in political image management. Because in political image management, female
leaders build their political images with masculine discourses and codes. As a result of this situation, gender roles that have taken place in society become established
by positioning themselves relative to the other. Gender inequality is encountered more
frequently in underdeveloped or developing countries. This situation also affects the dynamics
in political areas. However, even in the US politics, which is among the developed countries,
female leaders shape their political images in the context of masculine dominance. Within the
scope of purposeful sampling in the study, the only female member of the Presidential
Cabinet of the Republic of Türkiye, Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş, Minister of Family and Social
Services, and Kamala Harris, the first female Vice President of African American origin of
the United States, were selected. Image management, one of the methods used by politicians
to create public opinion, is used more frequently on social media today. The last 10 posts of
female political leaders from their personal Instagram accounts as of June 2024 are examined
with the semiological analysis schematic that Roland Barthes introduced to the literature.
Keywords: Politics, Image Management, Leader, Female Leader, Social Media.