15th Congress of the Association Française de Science Politique
2 – 4 July 2019
Thematic Section: The mobilisation of gender issues by radical right and far right populist organisations
Focus: Mobilisation of gender and political performance in far right and radical right movements
President : Christèle Lagier
Discussants : Adeline Branthonne and Massimo Prearo
The notion of ‘populist far right organizations’ is employed here for ease of use, in an exploratory perspective and not as an analytical concept. ‘Populism’ is a controversial category, which however appears as relevant in the current global context to describe diverse political formations and movements which present significant transnational continuities. In Europe, there is heated academic debate on the usefulness of the notion of ‘populism’, which is used to define highly different phenomenon (Fassin 2017; Mouffe, 2016 ; Akkerman, Mudde, Zaslove, 2014).
Gender emerges as a significant (and largely understudied) dimension of current developments in populist radical right and far right politics in Western Europe. These male-dominated organizations, historically championing traditional models of the family, paradoxically frame their anti-immigration agenda as a struggle for gender equality, depicting Islam as incompatible with women’s rights, and Muslims migrants as backward on gender matters (Meret and Siim 2013). Through this new and paradoxical mobilization of gender issues, radical right parties and far right organizations aim at addressing a wider audience beyond its traditional (largely male) constituency and membership, and at ‘normalizing’ their public image (Kitschelt and McGann 1997). In many countries, the traditional ‘gender gap’ in the electoral support of populist radical right parties has progressively narrowed and, in some contexts, has come, at least temporarily, to a close (Barisione and Mayer 2013). New female leaders mobilize stereotypes of women as caring and non-aggressive, countering the stigmatization of these groups. There is some evidence that the number of women their members is growing (Köttig and al. 2017). While a substantial literature exists on the ‘gender gap’ in the electoral support of populist radical right parties, there is a paucity of studies on the gendered dimensions of the ideology of these organizations as well as on their membership (Avanza 2009, Scrinzi 2017).
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