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Exploring Gender Differences in Support for Rightist Parties: The Role of Party and Gender Ideology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2018

Rosie Campbell  and
Silvia Erzeel
Rosie Campbell
Affiliation:
Birkbeck, University of London
Silvia Erzeel
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
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Abstract

This contribution to the Special Issue on Gender and Conservatism uses expert and election surveys to explore the extent to which the feminist or traditional gender ideology of parties of the right relates to their economic and liberal/authoritarian ideology. We show that although parties of the left generally espouse more feminist ideologies than parties of the right, there are a significant number of rightist parties in Western Europe that combine laissez-faire economic values with liberal feminist ideals. That said, there is more homogeneity among parties of the populist radical right than rightist parties more generally. We find that despite some variation in their gender ideology, parties of the populist radical right overwhelmingly—with the exception of one party in the Netherlands—continue to adopt traditional or antifeminist gender ideologies. In terms of attracting women voters, we find that rightist parties who adopt a feminist gender ideology are able to attract more women voters than other parties of the right. We detect several examples of center-right parties that include feminist elements in their gender ideologies and are able to win over larger proportions of women voters than rightist parties that fail to adopt feminist positions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 14 , Special Issue 1: Gender and Conservatism , March 2018 , pp. 80 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2018 

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