Exploring the Gender Gap in Vote for Anti-Immigrant Parties

Programme Group Challenges to Democratic Representation

This project explores why women are less likely than men to vote for anti-immigrant parties and why the gender gap in anti-immigrant party support varies so much between countries. The project is funded by the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Science Research and is a cooperation between the Amsterdam Institute of Social Science Research (AISSR) and the Gotenborg University.

Funded by: Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Science Research 

Period:  01/01/2014 until 31/12/2015

During the past decades anti-immigrant parties (in the literature also referred to as populist, extreme right/ right winged or radical extreme parties) have won electoral successes in several West European countries. A striking common feature of these successes is that they in large have been confined to male voters.

In most countries men have been much more likely to be attracted to anti-immigrant parties than have women. Despite how important gender is for explaining electoral support for anti-immigrant parties, there have been surprisingly few attempts to explain why women are less attracted to vote for anti-immigrant parties than are men. What is more, no studies have tried to explain the variation in the gender gap that exist between countries.

Objective 

The overall objective of this project is to explore why women are less likely than men to vote for anti-immigrant parties and why the gender gap in anti-immigrant party support varies so much between countries. More specifically, this project develops and tests the argument that women’s varying (and in general lacking) support for anti-immigrant parties can be explained by the interplay between women’s gender ideologies and the gender ideologies of anti-immigrant parties. 

29 October 2014