NASP International and Interdisciplinary Seminars

Orit Kedar (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
The Changing Gender Gap in Voting

5 May 2017, 14.30
Room A
NASP Graduate School in Social and Political Sciences
Via Pace, 10 - Milan

Abstract
While in most western democracies women support left-leaning and progressive parties at higher rates than men do, up until the 1970s the picture was reversed. We jointly analyze two phenomena usually studied separately: the changing gender gap on the left, and the rise of the radical right. Utilizing Eurobarometer and ESS data from a forty-year period, we show that the radical right enjoys support of men more than that of women, and that countries in which the radical right gained parliamentary power experienced a more dramatic shift in the gender gap on the left. We hypothesize the gender gap in support for the radical right stems from economic vulnerability of native manual male workers. Utilizing individual level data from a cross section of countries we find that indeed the degree to which one's job relies on manual vs. communication skills has an effect on support for radical right. Finally, we show that overtime men working in manual jobs have become a smaller constituency among supporters of the left but a larger one among supporters of the radical right.