Theorising gender voting gaps

• Department of Political and Social Sciences

In the framework of the EUI Political Behaviour Colloquium, this seminar features a presentation by Antonia María Ruiz Jiménez, Visiting Fellow at the EUI Department of Political and Social Sciences.

Abstract:

Right-wing populist parties explicitly appeal to voters as 'losers of feminism', both male and female. These parties blame feminism, or 'gender ideology', for the modification of traditional gender roles that have accompanied Western societies' economic, social and cultural transformations. This paper tries to theoretically define who might feel like a 'feminism losers' and therefore feel appealed to by the anti-gender/antifeminist messages of right wing populist parties. It also tries to develop the operationalisation of the concept to translate into an international survey to be carried out in Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Hungary.

The hypothesis that those who think of themselves as 'losers of feminism’ might vote for right-wing populist parties stands in clear contrast to the hypothesis of the 'losers of globalisation' or 'losers of modernisation'. The 'feminism losers' hypothesis relies on the assumption that gender is a social cleavage (even though it has not been considered as such by mainstream political science), and is developed through the following hypotheses: 1) right-wing populist parties act as niche parties in the representation of gender needs, demands and worries; 2) voters of right-wing populist parties are rational (including women); 3) the gender utility derived from voting right-wing populist parties is different for men and women.