Final Report Summary - GAPRR (Gendering activism in populist radical right parties. A comparative study of women’s and men’s participation in the Northern League (Italy) and the National Front (France))
The project provides a comparative analysis of the gendered dimension of activism in two radical right populist (RRP) parties: the Northern League (NL) in Italy and the National Front (NF) in France. Through an ethnographic investigation of RRP activism and politics, the project tackles the issues of how, on the one hand, gender relations shape the two parties’ strategies as well as the trajectories, narratives and practices of their activists; and, on the other, how gender relations are transformed within these mobilisations. More specifically, through the lens of gender the research examines the strategies through which RRP parties are attempting to forge a ‘modern’ and ‘respectable’ public image, and how these strategies impact on and are negotiated by the party members: RRP parties seek to normalise their public image and legitimate their anti-immigration claims by using arguments traditionally employed by the left wing and by feminists. They have mobilised the issues of women’s rights and gender equality in public debates on multiculturalism, associating immigration with sexual violence and gender conservatism – a discourse which this study has named ‘racialisation of sexism’.
This research is ground-breaking in several ways. First, studies investigating the role played by women and gender in RRP movements are still limited. Second, the few existing qualitative studies of gender and RRP activism fail to compare systematically the practices of women and men. As opposed to these existing studies, the research examined both women’s and men’s experiences. Third, existing studies of gender and social movements mostly focus on female activists, neglecting men as gendered social actors. Finally, those recent studies which have tackled the ‘racialisation of sexism’ in RRP parties are mainly concerned with their ideology and political programmes, providing little insight into how female and male activists negotiate these changes.
The research findings concern two main aspects. First, gender shapes the parties’ discourse and the structural and cultural contexts where RRP activism develops. More specifically, national specificities concerning religion and secularism shape the gendered forms and meanings of RRP activism in France and Italy. The NF and NL provide examples of the different strategies through which RRP parties appropriate the issue of gender equality to locate it within their anti-immigration agenda; and how RRP gendered discourses and positions change over time to accommodate with evolving models of gender and women’s expectations in society. Second, gender, at the interplay with differences linked to age, class and ethnicity, shapes the activists’ practices, narratives and trajectories. On the one hand, activism remains constructed as a masculine domain and the political work is organised on the basis of resilient gender inequalities. On the other, through their political engagement, men and women contribute to forge and incorporate new ideas of fathering and mothering into the RRP discourse and political practice; they sustain but also destabilise dominant models of masculinity and femininity and the gendered division of work, in the party as well as in the family. Key original findings of the study concern the strategies through which men reaffirm hegemonic masculinities and gender hierarchies through activism; how men too are attracted to RRP parties by their promotion of traditional family values; and how some men identify with anti-immigration mobilisations through ‘modern’ models of masculinity and fatherhood. Female members, while identifying with the national male-dominated collectivity, can experience activism, albeit in marginal roles, as emancipatory and can overtly challenge the discourse and policy of their parties.
This research is ground-breaking in several ways. First, studies investigating the role played by women and gender in RRP movements are still limited. Second, the few existing qualitative studies of gender and RRP activism fail to compare systematically the practices of women and men. As opposed to these existing studies, the research examined both women’s and men’s experiences. Third, existing studies of gender and social movements mostly focus on female activists, neglecting men as gendered social actors. Finally, those recent studies which have tackled the ‘racialisation of sexism’ in RRP parties are mainly concerned with their ideology and political programmes, providing little insight into how female and male activists negotiate these changes.
The research findings concern two main aspects. First, gender shapes the parties’ discourse and the structural and cultural contexts where RRP activism develops. More specifically, national specificities concerning religion and secularism shape the gendered forms and meanings of RRP activism in France and Italy. The NF and NL provide examples of the different strategies through which RRP parties appropriate the issue of gender equality to locate it within their anti-immigration agenda; and how RRP gendered discourses and positions change over time to accommodate with evolving models of gender and women’s expectations in society. Second, gender, at the interplay with differences linked to age, class and ethnicity, shapes the activists’ practices, narratives and trajectories. On the one hand, activism remains constructed as a masculine domain and the political work is organised on the basis of resilient gender inequalities. On the other, through their political engagement, men and women contribute to forge and incorporate new ideas of fathering and mothering into the RRP discourse and political practice; they sustain but also destabilise dominant models of masculinity and femininity and the gendered division of work, in the party as well as in the family. Key original findings of the study concern the strategies through which men reaffirm hegemonic masculinities and gender hierarchies through activism; how men too are attracted to RRP parties by their promotion of traditional family values; and how some men identify with anti-immigration mobilisations through ‘modern’ models of masculinity and fatherhood. Female members, while identifying with the national male-dominated collectivity, can experience activism, albeit in marginal roles, as emancipatory and can overtly challenge the discourse and policy of their parties.