‘Men’s Parties’, but With More Active Women: Gender and Party Activism in the Populist Radical Right

2025/06/17 by Sofia Ammassari · 1 voice · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Demographic economics #Economics #Extreme right #Gender Politics and Representation #Gender equality #Gender studies #Gender, Feminism, and Media #Law #Left and right #Political activism #Political economy #Political science #Politics #Populism #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Radical right #Sociology

paper · doi:10.1177/00104140251349654

published in Comparative Political Studies 59(5), 1083-1119 (SAGE Publishing)

openalex publication_date 2025/06/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25

Abstract

While the gender gap among populist radical right (PRR) voters and representatives has been extensively investigated, little is known about the extent to which women are active as PRR party members. To examine this, I ask: How and why does party activism in PRR parties differ between women and men? Based on the literature on gender and party politics, I expect women PRR party members to be less active than men because they have less motivations to participate, are less embedded in party networks, and are more sensitive to stigma. Drawing on original survey data from thousands of members of the League in Italy and the Sweden Democrats, I find that women PRR party members are overall more active than men because they are more embedded in party networks. This surprising result has important implications for our understanding of women’s participation in parties and the growing normalisation of PRR politics.

Citations

• Going, going, . . . gone? The decline of party membership in contemporary Europe
• Is extreme right‐wing populism contagious? Explaining the emergence of a new party family
• Knowing and Caring about Politics: Gender and Political Engagement
• The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations.

Cited by

• Populist Parties, Female Populist Leaders, and the Gendered Vote in Germany

Discussions

• @ammassarisofia.bsky.social hat die sich verändernde Rolle von Frauen in s.g. 'Männerparteien' (populist radical right / PRR parties) untersucht und zeigt, dass sie aktiver, weil besser vernetzt sind [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]

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