The Contagion Effects of the Feminist Initiative in Sweden: Agenda‐setting, Niche Parties and Mainstream Parties

Abstract

As new parties have emerged in Europe on the left and the right, they have placed pressure on mainstream parties to adjust their issue positions and engage with new issues. This research note asks whether women's parties have the same effect. Analysing election manifestos of the mainstream parties in Sweden from 1991 to 2014, this article considers the extent to which the Swedish Feminist Initiative (F!) has influenced the attention parties pay to women's issues. The data indicate that a profound discursive change has occurred among these parties in Sweden around gender and women's roles in society, resulting in near consensus that gender inequality is a problem necessitating government action. There is gradual evolution for most of the period under study but a marked departure from past trends in 2014, coinciding with the emergence of F! as a contender for EU and parliamentary seats. Consistent with contagion theory, the concerns of women acquired urgency as F! grew more competitive. News coverage and public comment by political parties suggests that F! has had disproportionate influence, given its electoral support, on the issue agenda of the mainstream parties, pressuring them to ‘take up’ the issues of this niche party and engaging them in a competitive struggle to address women's issues in politics. The results indicate that we should look more closely at women's parties as a tactical choice of social movements to enhance women's representation and encourage public discourse about gender and power.