In a new paper in Southern European Society and Politics, authors Ana Catalano Weeks, Paloma Caravantes, Ana Espirito-Santo, Emanuela Lombardo, Maria Stratigaki, and Sami Gul look at when political parties pay attention to gender-related political interests, and how they determine their positions. The authors argue that “progress in gender equality commitments is an essential component of democratization, and backsliding in these indicates democratic decay.”
In order to do this, they took party manifestos from Greece, Spain, and Portugal, all of which, on top of enduring economic crises, “offer similar histories of democratization, culture, and geography” over recent decades and coded data. They were looking at “the role of party ideology” and “critical junctures in the political context.”
The transition to democracy was an important turning point for gender equality in these countries. Europeanization was important, too, though in different ways: it was an important force in the direction of democratization and equality, but “also opened the way for backsliding in gender equality policies due to the severe neoliberal austerity measures that were implemented in the Eurozone in response to the 2008 economic crisis.”
“Democratic Adversarial Responses”
They focused on party attention to and positions on “gender equality, violence against women, work-family issues, reproductive issues, and sexuality.”
The paper additionally tracked attention to gender-related interests and positions in these countries over time and also consider how party families evolved, paying particular attention to responses to economic recession and the rise of far-right parties. They also used structural topic models in their assessment.
The transition to democracy was an important turning point for gender equality in these countries.
The authors found left-wing (social democratic, communist, and left libertarian) parties gave more attention to gender-related issues than others. They also found that “far-right parties also give significant attention to some interests and stand out for traditional positions.”
However, they noted that “far-right electoral success” did not determine “party attention and positions on gender-related issues,” although an exception is Spain, where they found “democratic adversarial responses” to the far right, increasing attention to issues of reproductive rights.
This, they say, is because the Spanish left manages to present itself as the main force against the far-right. Economic recession also further decreased attention given to gender-related issues.
For future research, the authors suggest looking at whether manifestos actually translate into policy. They also write that future research could broaden the scope by looking at other countries, like by comparing democratization and backsliding and the impact of economic hardship in Southern and Eastern Europe. They also think an extension of their work could be to look at “the conditions under which gender backlash spurs parties, and women within parties especially, to engage more politically and claim back rights.”
Top photo: A protest marks International Women’s Day on March 8, 2024, in Lisboa, Portugal (Ana Mendes/Wikimedia Commons)
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