When a woman asks to be voted to a sexist constituency: was Giorgia Meloni’s gender an advantage, a disadvantage or an irrelevant factor in the 2022 Italian general election?
Pubblicato 2024-01-01
Parole chiave
- Gender,
- Gender beliefs,
- General election,
- Vote choice
Come citare
Copyright (c) 2023 Nicoletta Cavazza, Michele Roccato
TQuesto lavoro è fornito con la licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione 4.0 Internazionale.
Abstract
In this study, we investigated whether Giorgia Meloni’s gender was an advantage, a disadvantage or an irrelevant factor in the 2022 Italian general election. Using datasets from two election surveys conducted with two quota samples of the adult Italian population, Ns = 1,572 (ITANES dataset) and 1,150 (COCO dataset), we predicted the vote in the election as a function of participants’ gender, beliefs about gender and their interaction, controlling for the key sociodemographic and political variables. Two multinomial logistic regression revealed that gender and beliefs about gender were neither additively nor multiplicatively associated with the vote. We therefore conclude that Meloni’s gender did not affect the outcome of the 2022 Italian general election.
Riferimenti bibliografici
- Abrams, D., & Emler, N. P. (1992). Self-denial as a paradox of political and regional social identity: Findings from a study of 16- and 18-year-olds. European Journal of Social Psychology, 22(3), 279-295. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2420220306
- Almond, G. A., & Verba, S. (1989). The civic culture: Political attitudes and democracy in five nations. Sage.
- Bauer, P. C., Barberá, P., Ackermann, K., & Venetz, A. (2017). Is the left-right scale a valid measure of ideology? Political Behavior, 39(3), 553-583. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-016-9368-2
- Beckwith, K. (2000). Beyond compare? Women’s movements in comparative perspective. European Journal of Political Research, 37(4), 431-468. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.00521
- Ben‐Shitrit, L., Elad‐Strenger, J., & Hirsch-Hoefler, S. (2022). “Pinkwashing” the radical‐right: Gender and the mainstreaming of radical‐right policies and actions. European Journal of Political Research, 61(1), 86-110. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12442
- Berthezène, C., & Gottlieb, J. V. (2019). Considering conservative women in the gendering of modern British politics. Women’s History Review, 28(2), 189-193. https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2018.1482651
- Brooks, D. J. (2013). He runs, she runs: Why gender stereotypes do not harm women candidates. Princeton University Press.
- Cassese, E. C., & Barnes, T. D. (2019). Reconciling sexism and women’s support for Republican candidates: A look at gender, class, and whiteness in the 2012 and 2016 presidential races. Political Behavior, 41(4), 677-700. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-018-9468-2
- Cassese, E. C., & Holman, M. R. (2017). Religion, gendered authority, and identity in American politics. Politics and Religion, 10(1), 31-56. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755048316000407
- Cavazza, N., Colloca, P., & Roccato, M. (2022). Left and right in the age of populism: Has the populist zeitgeist permeated citizens’ representation of ideological labels? Contemporary Italian Politics, 14(1), 68-86. https://doi.org/10.1080/23248823.2021.1967595
- Cavazza, N., & Pacilli, M.G. (2021). Is politics still a masculine thing? Stereotypical male description activates the prototype of the politically committed individual worthy of a vote. Sexuality & Culture, 25(3), 1076-1095. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-020-09810-9
- Christopher, A. N., & Mull, M. S. (2006). Conservative ideology and ambivalent sexism. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 30(2), 223-230. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2006.00284.x
- Corbetta, P., & Cavazza, N. (2008). From the parish to the polling booth: Evolution and interpretation of the political gender gap in Italy, 1968–2006. Electoral Studies, 27(2), 272-284. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2007.12.008
- Courtemanche, M., & Connor Green, J. (2020). A fall from grace: Women, scandals, and perceptions of politicians. Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 41(2), 219–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/1554477X.2020.1723055
- de Geus, R., Ralph-Morrow, E., & Shorrocks, R. (2022). Understanding ambivalent sexism and its relationship with electoral choice in Britain. British Journal of Political Science, 52(4), 1564-1583. https://doi.org/10.1017.S0007123421000612
- Deckman, M., & Cassese, E. C. (2021). Gendered nationalism and the 2016 US presidential election: How party, class, and beliefs about masculinity shaped voting behaviour. Politics & Gender, 17(2), 277-300. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X19000485
- Geva, D. (2020). Daughter, mother, captain: Marine Le Pen, gender, and populism in the French National Front. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 27(1), 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxy039
- Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (1996). The ambivalent sexism inventory: Differentiating hostile and benevolent sexism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(3), 491–512. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.70.3.491
- Lipset, S. M. (1960). Political man: The social bases of politics. Anchor Books.
- Mayer, N. (2022). The impact of gender on votes for the populist radical rights: Marine Le Pen vs. Eric Zemmour. Modern & Contemporary France, 30(4), 445-460. https://doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2022.2134328
- Meret, S., Siim, B., & Pingaud, E. (2016). Men’s parties with women leaders: A comparative study of the right-wing populist leaders Pia Kjærsgaard, Marine Le Pen and Siv Jensen. In G. Lazaridis & G. Campani (Eds.), Understanding the populist shift: Othering in a Europe in crisis (pp. 122-149). Routledge.
- Mushaben, J. M. (2022). Against all odds: Angela Merkel, Ursula von der Leyen, Anngret Kramp-Karrenbauer and the German paradox of female CDU leadership. German Politics, 31(1), 20-39. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644008.2021.2000599
- Pacilli, M. G., Roccato, M., Pagliaro, S., & Russo, S. (2016). From political opponents to enemies? The role of perceived morality distance in the animalistic dehumanization of the political outgroup. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 19(3), 360-373. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430215590490
- Schneider, M. C., Bos, A. L., & DiFilippo, M. (2022). Gender role violations and voter prejudice: The agentic penalty faced by women politicians. Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 43(2), 117–133. https://doi.org/10.1080/1554477X.2021.1981095
- Schwarz, S., & Coppock, A. (2022). What have we learned about gender from candidate choice experiments? A meta-analysis of sixty-seven factorial survey experiments. The Journal of Politics, 84(2), 655-668. https://doi.org/10.1086/716290
- Snipes, A., & Mudde, C. (2020). ‘France’s (kinder, gentler) extremist’: Marine Le Pen, intersectionality, and media framing of female populist radical right leaders. Politics & Gender, 16(2), 438-470. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X9000370
- Tajfel, H. (1978). Differentiation between social groups: Studies in the social psychology of intergroup relations. Academic Press.
- Tajfel, H. (1981). Human groups and social categories. Cambridge University Press.
- Valentino, N. A., Wayne, C., & Oceno, M. (2018). Mobilizing sexism: The interaction of emotion and gender attitudes in the 2016 US presidential election. Public Opinion Quarterly, 82(S1), 799-821. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfy003
- Zehnter, M. K., Manzi, F., Shrout, P. E., & Heilman, M. E. (2021). Belief in sexism shift: Defining a new form of contemporary sexism and introducing the belief in sexism shift scale (BSS scale). PLoS ONE, 16(3), article e0248374. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248374