Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T21:01:07.995Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Traditional Gender Attitudes, Nativism, and Support for the Radical Right

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2021

Olyvia R. Christley Open the ORCID record for Olyvia R. Christley [Opens in a new window]
Olyvia R. Christley*
Affiliation:
University of Virginia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Using data from the 2017 European Values Study, I analyze the link between harboring traditional gender attitudes and supporting radical right-wing parties. I theorize that the intrinsically gendered elements of the radical right's platforms and rhetoric, which mirror traditional masculinity and femininity in both explicit and implicit ways, make the ideology a comfortable home for individuals who hold traditional gender attitudes. My analyses reveal that gender traditionalists are more likely than egalitarians to express support for the radical right, even after controlling for a host of existing explanations. The same impact is not replicated for mainstream conservative parties. In addition, holding more gender-traditional attitudes raises the probability of supporting the radical right among both nativists and non-nativists. These findings provide important evidence that gender attitudes seemingly constitute a significant pathway to support for the radical right across Europe.

Keywords

Gender attitudesradical rightnativismmasculinityfemininityEuropenationalismxenophobiapopulism
Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , December 2022 , pp. 1141 - 1167
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Women, Gender, and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The author wishes to thank B. Kal Munis, Nicholas Winter, Denise Walsh, David Waldner, Katinka Wijsman, members of the University of Virginia Quantitative Collaborative, and the three anonymous reviewers at Politics & Gender for their helpful comments on earlier drafts.

References

REFERENCES

Akkerman, Tjitske. 2015. “Gender and the Radical Right in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis of Policy Agendas.” Patterns of Prejudice 49 (1–2): 37–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bracic, Ana, Israel-Trummel, Mackenzie, and Shortle, Allyson F.. 2019. “Is Sexism for White People? Gender Stereotypes, Race, and the 2016 Presidential Election.” Political Behavior 41 (2): 281–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brush, Lisa D. 2003. Gender and Governance. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.Google Scholar
Cassese, Erin C., and Barnes, Tiffany D.. 2019. “Reconciling Sexism and Women's Support for Republican Candidates: A Look at Gender, Class, and Whiteness in the 2012 and 2016 Presidential Races.” Political Behavior 41 (3): 677–700.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cejka, Mary Ann, and Eagly, Alice H.. 1999. “Gender-Stereotypic Images of Occupations Correspond to the Sex Segregation of Employment.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 25 (4): 413–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charafeddine, Rawan, Zambrana, Imac Maria, Triniol, Benoit, Mercier, Hugo, Clément, Fabrice, Kaufmann, Laurenc, Reboul, Anne, Pons, Francisco, and Van der Henst, Jean-Baptiste. 2020. “How Preschoolers Associate Power with Gender in Male-Female Interactions: A Cross-Cultural Investigation.” Sex Roles 83 (7–8): 453–73.Google Scholar
Deckman, Melissa, and Cassese, Erin. 2021. “Gendered Nationalism and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election: How Party, Class, and Beliefs about Masculinity Shaped Voting Behavior.” Politics & Gender 17 (2): 277–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
EVS (European Values Study). 2019. European Values Study 2017: Integrated Dataset (EVS 2017). GESIS Data Archive, Cologne. ZA7500 Data file version 2.0.0. https://doi.org/10.4232/1.13314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farris, Sara R. 2017. In the Name of Women's Rights: The Rise of Femonationalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, Jennifer. 2018. Close to Home: Local Ties and Voting Radical Right in Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gest, Justin, Reny, Tyler, and Mayer, Jeremy. 2018. “Roots of the Radical Right: Nostalgic Deprivation in the United States and Britain.” Comparative Political Studies 51 (13): 1694–1719.Google Scholar
Gilens, Martin. 2009. Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Glick, Peter. 2019. “Gender, Sexism, and the Election: Did Sexism Help Trump More than It Hurt Clinton?” Politics, Groups, and Identities 7 (3): 713–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, Jane, and Shorrocks, Rosalind. 2021. “The Gender Backlash in the Vote for Brexit.” Political Behavior. Published online April 3. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-021-09704-y.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grzebalska, Weronika, and Pető, Andrea. 2017a. “The Gendered Modus Operandi of the Illiberal Transformation in Hungary and Poland.” Women's Studies International Forum 68: 164–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hainmueller, Jens, Mummolo, Jonathan, and Xu, Yiqing. 2019. “How Much Should We Trust Estimates from Multiplicative Interaction Models? Simple Tools to Improve Empirical Practice.” Political Analysis 27 (2): 163–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Htun, Mala. 2005. “What It Means to Study Gender and the State.” Politics & Gender 1 (1): 157–66.Google Scholar
Ivarsflaten, Elisabeth. 2008. “What Unites Right-Wing Populists in Western Europe? Re-examining Grievance Mobilization Models in Seven Successful Cases.” Comparative Political Studies 41 (1): 3–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kingsley, Patrick. 2019. “Orban Encourages Mothers in Hungary to Have 4 or More Babies.” New York Times, February 11. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/11/world/europe/orban-hungary-babies-mothers-population-immigration.html (accessed September 13, 2021).Google Scholar
Lancaster, Caroline Marie. 2020. “Not So Radical After All: Ideological Diversity among Radical Right Supporters and Its Implications.” Political Studies 68 (3): 600–616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leinbach, Mary Drive, Hort, Barbara E., and Fagot, Beverly I.. 1997. “Bears are for Boys: Metaphorical Associations in Young Children's Gender Stereotypes.” Cognitive Development 12 (1): 107–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lodders, Vanna, and Weldon, Steven. 2019. “Why Do Women Vote Radical Right? Benevolent Sexism, Representation and Inclusion in Four Countries.” Representation 55 (4): 457–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McThomas, Mary, and Tesler, Michael. 2016. “The Growing Influence of Gender Attitudes on Public Support for Hillary Clinton, 2008–2012.” Politics & Gender 12 (1): 28–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mostov, Julie. 2012. “Sexing the Nation/Desexing the Body: Politics of National Identity in the Former Yugoslavia.” In Gender Ironies of Nationalism: Sexing the Nation, ed. Tamar Mayer. London: Routledge, 89–112Google Scholar
Mudde, Cas. 2007. Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mudde, Cas., ed. 2017. The Populist Radical Right: A Reader. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.Google Scholar
Mudde, Cas, and Kaltwasser, Cristóbal Rovira. 2015. “Vox Populi or Vox Masculini? Populism and Gender in Northern Europe and South America.” Patterns of Prejudice 49 (1–2): 16–36.Google Scholar
Muis, Jasper, and Immerzeel, Tim. 2016. “Radical Right Populism.” Sociopedia.isa. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056846016121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, Soraya Sarhaddi. 2017. “In German Elections, Campaign Posters Are More Important than TV Ads.” National Public Radio, September 23. https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/09/23/552583400/in-german-election-campaign-posters-are-more-important-than-tv-ads (accessed September 13, 2021).Google Scholar
Norris, Pippa, and Inglehart, Ronald. 2019. Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit, and Authoritarian Populism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ratliff, Kate A., Redford, Liz, Conway, John, and Smith, Colin Tucker. 2019. “Engendering Support: Hostile Sexism Predicts Voting for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.” Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 22 (4): 578–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reuters in Budapest. 2018. “Viktor Orbán: Our Duty is to Protect Hungary's Christian Culture.” The Guardian, May 7. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/07/viktor-orban-hungary-preserve-christian-culture (accessed September 13, 2021).Google Scholar
Schaffner, Brian F., Macwilliams, Matthew, and Nteta, Tatishe. 2018. “Understanding White Polarization in the 2016 Vote for President: The Sobering Role of Racism and Sexism.” Political Science Quarterly 133 (1): 9–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Monica C., and Bos, Angela L.. 2019. “The Application of Social Role Theory to the Study of Gender in Politics.” Political Psychology 40 (S1): 173–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shah, Attullah. 2018. “ASDOC: Stata Module to Create High-Quality Tables in MS Word from Stata Output.” Statistical Software Components S458466, Boston College Department of Economics.Google Scholar
Spierings, Niels. 2018. “Popular Opposition to Economic Gender Equality and Homosexual Lifestyles.” In Varieties of Opposition to Gender Equality in Europe, ed. Verloo, Mieke. London: Routledge, 172–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spierings, Niels. 2021. “Homonationalism and Voting for the Populist Radical Right: Addressing Unanswered Questions by Zooming in on the Dutch Case.” International Journal of Public Opinion Research 33 (1): 171–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spierings, Niels, Lubbers, Marcel, and Zaslove, Andrej. 2017. “‘Sexually Modern Nativist Voters’: Do They Exist and Do They Vote for the Populist Radical Right?” Gender and Education 29 (2): 216–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spierings, Niels, and Zaslove, Andrej. 2015a. “Conclusion: Dividing the Populist Radical Right Between ‘Liberal Nativism’ and Traditional Conceptions of Gender.” Patterns of Prejudice 49 (1–2): 163–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spierings, Niels, and Zaslove, Andrej. 2015b. “Gendering the Vote for Populist Radical-Right Parties.” Patterns of Prejudice 49 (1–2): 135–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tesler, Michael. 2012. “The Spillover of Racialization into Health Care: How President Obama Polarized Public Opinion by Racial Attitudes and Race.” American Journal of Political Science 56 (3): 690–704.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tesler, Michael. 2016. Post-Racial or Most-Racial? Race and Politics in the Obama Era. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tesler, Michael, and Sears, David O.. 2010. Obama's Race: The 2008 Election and the Dream of a Post-Racial America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valentino, Nicholas A., Wayne, Carly, and Oceno, Marzia. 2018. “Mobilizing Sexism: The Interaction of Emotion and Gender Attitudes in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.” Public Opinion Quarterly 82 (S1): 799–821.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Berkel, Laura, Molina, Ludwin E., and Mukherjee, Sahana. 2017. “Gender Asymmetry in the Construction of American National Identity.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 41 (3): 352–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winter, Nicholas J. 2000. “Gendered and Re-gendered: Public Opinion and Hillary Rodham Clinton.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 28, Chicago.Google Scholar
Winter, Nicholas J. 2008. Dangerous Frames: How Ideas about Race and Gender Shape Public Opinion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winter, Nicholas J. 2018. “The Two Faces of Sexism: Hostility, Benevolence, and American Elections.” Working Paper. https://www.nicholasjgwinter.com/assets/papers/WinterTwoFaces.pdf (accessed September 15, 2021).Google Scholar
Young, Iris Marion. 2002. “Lived Body vs. Gender: Reflections on Social structure and Subjectivity.” Ratio 15 (4): 410–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, Iris Marion. 2003. “The Logic of Masculinist Protection: Reflections on the Current Security State.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 29 (1): 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yuval-Davis, N. 1993. “Gender and Nation.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 16 (4): 621–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yuval-Davis, N. 1997. “Women, Citizenship and Difference.” Feminist Review 57 (1): 4–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yuval-Davis, Nira, and Anthias, Floya, eds. 1989. Woman-Nation-State. New York: St. Martin's Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Christley supplementary material

Christley supplementary material

Download Christley supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 5 MB