Resumen de Arguing in their own way or adapting to the masculine world? An analysis of male and female argumentative styles in the Czech Chamber of Deputies

Petra Vodová, Iva Svačinová

• This article is focused on the differences in argumentation of male and femaleMPs and the impact of parliamentary experience and party ideology. Ourpragma-dialectical analysis of argumentation encompasses 150 parliamentaryspeeches in the Czech Chamber of Deputies (2017–2019). The results showthat gender does not influence the number of concrete arguments in thespeeches, but women use slightly more abstract arguments. Speeches ofsenior female MPs have a larger number of both, abstract and concretearguments. Moreover, senior male MPs use a greater number of concretearguments but a smaller number of abstract arguments. Finally, leftist femaleMPs create more abstract arguments and fewer concrete arguments thanrightist female MPs. The findings add to the discussion about politicalsocialisation and accommodation of female MPs in male-dominatedparliaments and extend the geopolitical scope of previous research.