Women and the Radical Right: Exploring Gendered Differences in Vote Choice for Radical Right Parties in Europe

Abstract

This article explores the role that gender differences played in vote choice for radical right parties in European countries from 2002-2014. In particular, the research agenda explores whether men and women differ in regards to the attitudinal variables that drive vote choice for a radical right party. Further, the empirical analysis tests whether predictors of radical right vote choice have differing substantive effects for women and men. Using fixed effects statistical models; the major findings are that men and women do differ statistically on one attitude that correlates highly with radical right vote choice (i.e. far right ideology), but not other important attitudes (anti-immigrant sentiment). Substantively, however, given the same attitudes as men, women have a significantly lower probability of translating extreme attitudes into vote choice for radical right parties.