When Women are Right: THE INFLUENCE OF GENDER, WORK AND VALUES ON EUROPEAN FAR-RIGHT PARTY SUPPORT

The closing of the radical right gender gap in France?

“…A first line of argument considers the different location of men and women in the labour market (Studlar et al, 1998;Mayer, 2002;Givens, 2004;Rippeyoung, 2007). Men are over-represented in manual occupations, particularly among blue-collar workers (ouvriers) and it is precisely among the working-class that the European radical right draws the most support (Betz, 1994;Kitschelt and McGann, 1995;Kriesi et al, 2008;Oesch, 2008).…”

“…The earlier ones just acknowledge the gap, on the base of simple cross tabulations comparing the level of electoral support of these parties by gender and by country, sometimes only at one point of time, not controlling for the possible effect of other variables. When they do attempt to include systematic controls (for instance Norris, 2005;Rippeyoung, 2007;Immerzeel et al, 2015), it is usually on the base of large cross-national surveys (European Values Study, European Social Survey, World Values Survey). However, we should keep in mind that these surveys are not electoral surveys.…”

Explaining the Religion Gap in Support for Radical Right Parties in Europe

“…PRR party appeals are often characterized by racism and a traditional gender ideology that valorizes women as the literal and symbolic reproducers of the nation (Mostov 1999;Ramet 2006b;Rippeyoung 2007). The 2010 ESS measures nativism almost exclusively in terms of anti-immigrant xenophobia.…”

“…Or, there might be something specific about being a woman that lessens the PRR party appeal. A small literature has grown up to explain the gender gap in voting for the far right (see Givens 2004; Inglehart and Norris 2003; Mayer 2013; Mudde 2007; Rippeyoung 2007). We are reminded by that research that young men (the core support base of the PRR) are less likely to be religious than women (particularly older women) in their societies.…”

“…We enhanced the validity of the measure by combining the anti-immigrant question with two other measures: racism and traditional (antifeminist) gender ideology. PRR party appeals are often characterized by racism and a traditional gender ideology that valorizes women as the literal and symbolic reproducers of the nation (Mostov 1999; Ramet 2006b; Rippeyoung 2007). 4 Recoded responses to the original xenophobia question and the two additional items were summed and recoded into a scale running from 0 (least nativist) to 6 (most nativist).…”