Women in politics

Populist radical right (PRR) parties have long been characterised as ‘men’s parties’ due to the overrepresentation of men among their voters and grassroots members. While the gender gap among voters has been extensively investigated, little is known about the extent to which women participate at the grassroots of these parties. My book examines this by asking: How does gender shape the experience of PRR party membership? To do so, it looks both at the ‘supply-side’ of PRR party membership, assessing whether women and men differ in their motivations for joining, motivations for staying, and participation in party activities; and the ‘demand-side’, exploring if PRR parties adopt distinct recruitment and retention strategies for women and men. I focus on three PRR parties which have had profound influence on the politics and societies of their countries: the Bharatiya Janata Party in India, the League in Italy, and the Sweden Democrats. The book draws on a vast collection of original qualitative and quantitative data which includes interviews with over 100 party members and officials from the three parties, in addition to membership surveys of thousands of members of the League and the Sweden Democrats. Arguing that women PRR grassroots members play a central role in the organisational development, electoral expansion and growing normalisation of the populist radical right, this volume casts light on one of the defining political phenomena of our century.

Party youth wings are a vital pipeline to power in parliamentary democracies, but have been overlooked by gender and politics scholars. We investigate the political socialization that youth wings offer their women members, focusing on gendered trends as regards two key political attitudes. We ask: Do women and men in youth wings differ in their acquisition of personal efficacy and electoral ambition? Using original survey data from over 3,100 youth wing members in Australia, Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden, we find that women are more likely than men to report increased desire to influence party policy and stand as candidates – the latter especially in center-right youth wings. Moreover, the more exposed members are to the youth wing, the larger the gender gaps in the acquisition of efficacy and ambition. Our results suggest that, insofar as women’s political socialization is concerned, youth wings can be forces of renovation within their parties.

Do young women and men vary in their reasons for joining political parties, and if so, why? To investigate this, we theorize the following: first, women will be more attracted by social incentives and men by material ones; second, before signing up, women will have more party-affiliated personal ties (i.e. family and friends) than men; and third, these ties will mediate the gender gap in incentives. Drawing on original survey data from over 3,400 party youth wing members of the main center-left and center-right parties in Australia, Austria, Germany, Italy and Spain, we find strong support for our argument. Our results show that, already in this early but crucial part of the pipeline to power, the incentives for getting involved in political parties are gendered. Notably, the young women who join are more likely to have party-affiliated personal ties than men, indicating that such resources are particularly valuable to them in overcoming the disadvantages they face when entering politics. If parties are interested in recruiting more young women, they should therefore emphasize the social rewards of membership in their recruitment campaigns.

To what extent does women’s participation in populist radical right (PRR) parties contribute to their normalisation? I argue that the election of women MPs should normalise support for PRR parties both on the short term, thanks to the media spotlight around the gender composition of a newly elected parliament; and on the long term, through the behaviour of these women in national parliaments. Using longitudinal aggregate data (2000-2022) on 63 European PRR parties, I test whether the proportion of women PRR MPs elected is correlated with increased PRR normalisation in post-poll surveys in the same election year and in the following election year. The analysis provides strong support for my argument, and especially for the short-term effects of women’s election. These findings illustrate that women MPs play a pivotal role in the normalisation of the populist radical right.