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Protecting or Policing Women? Benevolent and Hostile Sexism in Populist Radical Right Discourse

Comparative Politics
Democracy
Extremism
Gender
Identity
Mari-Liis Jakobson
Tallinn University
Mari-Liis Jakobson
Tallinn University
Tonis Saarts
Tallinn University
Marina Vahter
Tallinn University
Lisa Zanotti
Central European University

Abstract

Classic studies have long documented a notable gender gap in the electorates, party memberships, candidates and ideological frameworks of populist radical right parties. However, recent scholarship suggest this gap is narrowing or even disappearing. Does this shift merely reflect a rise in femonationalism, or does it signal a broader transformation in how PRR parties substantively represent conservative women? Furthermore, what kind of women does these parties seek to represent and mobilize? This paper engages with literature on gender as a social identity and examines the discursive strategies that PRR parties employ to address, drawing on the analytical framework of ambivalent sexism (Glick and Fiske, 1996). It explores how PRR discourse balances benevolent sexism, which idealizes women as virtuous and deserving of protection within traditional gender roles, with hostile sexism, which manifests in antagonistic attitudes toward women who challenge these norms. By positioning women within a framework of nationalism, morality, and cultural preservation, PRR parties construct gendered political appeals that blend inclusion and exclusion, empowerment and subordination. Using a most different systems design, we compare three ideologically similar but contextually different PRR parties – the Sweden Democrats in Sweden, EKRE in Estonia and Vox in Spain – to analyze how they construct and mobilize women as a social group. Through the application of large language models to an extensive media content database, we examine the identity attributes these parties assign to women, tracing cross-case differences, discursive shifts over time, and variations across different media ecosystems, including hyperpartisan and mainstream news outlets. By situating women’s gender identity within the evolving ideological landscape of the PRR, this paper examines whether and how nationalist discourse engages with benevolent or hostile forms of sexism.