Gender Ideologies and Polish Political Parties

Anna Gwiazda

doi:10.1017/gov.2021.57

Abstract

AbstractThis article explores the gender dimension of ideology and representation by analysing the political parties that ran in the 2019 Polish parliamentary elections, using a novel analytical framework based on gender claims and gender-related policy pledges. This article demonstrates that a left and liberal ideology largely determines feminist and pro-LGBTQ+ promissory representation. However, the gender ideologies of right-wing political parties vary in their traditional types and can include a populist element. This article contributes to comparative gender and politics scholarship by examining gender ideologies in the Central and Eastern European context, where on the one hand, populism and anti-gender campaigns have taken hold, and, on the other, feminist and progressive movements have challenged traditionalism and illiberalism. This article also differentiates a scholarly meaning of gender ideology from its populist meaning.

Highlights

This article explores the gender dimension of ideology and representation by analysing the political parties that ran in the 2019 Polish parliamentary elections, using a novel analytical framework based on gender claims and gender-related policy pledges
Existing accounts of feminized political parties do not accommodate claims arising from neoconservatism, populism and anti-gender campaigns
This article is guided by the following research question: how are political parties gendered ideologically? Three sub-questions are proposed: how and why do parties make representative claims about women and gender? What are parties’ gender-related policy pledges? How does democratic backsliding affect

Summary

Literature review

Ideology affects the representation of women (Campbell and Erzeel 2018; Celis et al 2016; Kittilson 2013; Paxton and Kunovich 2003) and LGBTQ+ people (Brettschneider et al 2017). Previous studies have demonstrated that conservatism entails gendered claims (Celis and Childs 2014), weak equality policies (Celis and Childs 2018) and low political representation of women (Lovenduski and Norris 1993). The need for research on women and politics persists (Beckwith 2005) and the focus on LGBTQ+ people highlights sexual and gender diversity and justice (Brettschneider et al 2017). Celis and Childs (2014) argue that feminist claims transform existing gender roles to support gender equality and social justice. Gender roles are produced through a complex socially constructed relation between masculinities and femininities These claims emphasize traditional women’s roles as mothers and care-givers and aim to improve women’s lives within these traditional terms (Celis and Childs 2014). In particular abortion and policies against domestic violence

Anna Gwiazda

Methodology

Findings

Concluding discussion