My ARIA research project was assisting Professor Dietlind Stolle, chair of the Political Science department at 海角社区, in writing an upcoming paper about gender identity and its impact on populist radical right-wing voting. This paper, which we aim to publish in the fall, is titled 鈥淗ow does Masculinity Threat Change Politics: The Role of Gender Identity for the Vote of Radical Right Parties in Europe.鈥�
Gender identity, which is socially constructed, plays a crucial role in shaping our political views and actions. However, traditional political studies often focus on biological sex (male or female) and overlook the deeper ways in which masculinity and femininity affect how people vote. Our paper addresses this gap by examining how strong gender identities鈥攑articularly hypermasculinity鈥攊nfluence voting behavior for populist radical right (PRR) parties across Europe.
PRR parties are generally supported more by men, but there has been little research into how specific gender traits, like being highly masculine or feminine, influence this support. The theory of 鈥渕asculinity threat鈥� suggests that cultural changes, such as increasing gender equality, multiculturalism, and LGBTQ+ tolerance, are threatening the social dominance of men in Europe. Men who strongly identify with hypermasculine traits鈥攍ike dominance and self-reliance鈥攎ay react to their declining social superiority by asserting their masculinity more aggressively. This can result in support for PRR parties, which emphasize traditional gender roles and social hierarchies.
Based on existing literature, we hypothesized that hypermasculine men are more likely to vote for PRR parties in Europe than other men, and hyperfeminine women are more likely to vote for these parties than other women. We expected this relationship holds even when controlling for other important factors like anti-immigration attitudes, nationalism, and euroscepticism. We also expected this relationship to be stronger in countries with higher levels of masculinity threat.
Using survey data from over 20,000 European citizens in 2022, we limited our analysis to 15 European democracies. I used R, a statistical software, to analyze the data, employing regression models to see if hypermasculinity and hyperfemininity predicted support for PRR parties.
Our findings confirmed that hypermasculine men and hyperfeminine women are more likely to vote for PRR parties than those without strong gender identities. Hypermasculinity was a stronger predictor of PRR voting than sex itself in several countries, including the UK, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Denmark, Germany, and Hungary. Hyperfemininity had a weaker influence, being significant only in Poland and the UK. The relationship between hypermasculinity and PRR voting was stronger in countries where traditional masculinity is more threatened, as indicated by higher levels of gender equality and LGBTQI+ acceptance.
I applied to be an ARIA student because I am interested in attending graduate school after completing my undergraduate degree. I thought that an ARIA project would give me insight into what research in a graduate degree might look like, and I also thought it would connect me with faculty and students who could give me advice for my academic future. I am very thankful that I was granted the opportunity to be an ARIA student because I met all these objectives and more. Professor Stolle provided me with extensive mentorship, and I was able to sit in on weekly presentations by graduate students in her lab about their ongoing research projects. I feel like I gained valuable knowledge on how to conduct graduate-level political science research. My statistical work in R was especially educative. I had worked in R before, but I had never previously applied my computational data analysis skills to political science research. This was challenging in some regards because I had to teach myself many new computational techniques. In the end, one of the most valuable lessons I took away from my experience was knowing when to reach out and ask for help from senior students or my supervisor.
The highlight of my project was presenting my project in front of the lab at the end of my internship. I was nervous about presenting in front of numerous graduate students who I looked up to and asking them for critical feedback, but they were extremely kind, supportive, and encouraging of my work. I think ARIA provided me with so many skills that will be helpful in a future career in quantitative social science research. It also gave me confidence in my own abilities to pursue a career or future education in this field.
I am so grateful I had this opportunity, and I would like to thank the Max Bell Foundation and Mr. Northcott for generously funding my internship. Your support has been invaluable to me.
