Devaditya Agnihotri

• BA (Hons) Politics
• Gender, the military and the media in India: gendered framings of the first woman fighter pilot

Globally, women in the military are breaking through to ranks previously off limit to them. As these women navigate roles in the masculine sphere of the military, this has also sparked increasing media attention. From the first women to graduate from Marine training in the US, to the first woman to command a submarine in the UK. The media has a key role to play in interpreting these events for wider consumption. Much of this coverage has been gendered, focusing on the personal lives of these women and their deviance from expected feminine norms. Yet, while much scholarship has emerged on gender and the military, little attention has been paid to the role of the media in shaping gender narratives. This project, therefore, makes an important contribution, through analysing portrayals of the first female fighter pilots in the Afghan Air Force who qualified in May 2018.

Funding source: Newcastle University

Supervisor: Dr Katharine. A. M. Wright