Gender in Contemporary Europe: Rethinking Equality and the Backlash

European Social Survey Round 11: Question Module Design Teams (QDT) - Stage 2 ApplicationDecades of policy efforts and campaigns by governments, international organizations and social movements have brought significant progress towards gender equality. Many would argue, however, that gender equality still remains largely out of reach. Furthermore, there are visible backlashes against gender equality partly driven by the rhetoric of the radical right against “gender ideology”. Additionally there is evidence there has been retrenchment on key indicators measuring the status of women in society. In response to these seemingly countervailing trends, we propose a module that will allow researchers to examine contemporary attitudes about gender and gender equality, sexism, gender-based discrimination and policy responses to gender equality. We propose measuring five dimensions: identity, sexism, experiences, salience and policy instruments. While these five dimensions draw on a wealth of existing measures about gender attitudes, the proposed module would, we argue, redress some blind spots in current cross-national survey items such as experiences of gender-based discrimination, perceptions of masculinity and femininity; and attitudes about the role of gender equality in society

Masculinity, sexism and populist radical right support

This is the final version. Available on open access from Frontiers Media via the DOI in this recordData availability statement: The data presented in the study are publicly available. This data can be found here: GenPsyche-Study1 [DATASET]; DIGITAL.CSIC; https://doi.org/10.20350/digitalCSIC/15251Introduction: The gender gap in populist radical right voting—with women being less likely to support populist radical right parties than men—is well-established. Much less is known about the interplay between gender, masculinity and populist radical right voting. This study investigates the extent to which masculinity affects women and men's likelihood of supporting populist radical right parties. Focusing on sexism as a link between masculinity and populist radical right support, we put forward two mechanisms that operate at once: a mediating effect of sexism (sexism explains the association between masculinity and populist radical right voting) and a moderating effect of sexism (the impact of masculinity is stronger among citizens scoring high on sexism compared with citizens with low levels of sexist attitudes). Methods: We draw on an original dataset collected in Spain at the end of 2020 to investigate support for the Spanish populist radical right party VOX. Results: We find support for hypothesized mechanisms, mediation and moderation, chiefly among men. First, sexism explains about half of the link between masculinity and populist radical right support for this group, confirming the hypothesized mediation effect. Second, masculinity has a significantly stronger impact on the likelihood of supporting VOX among men scoring high on sexism, which in turn substantiates the presence of a moderation effect. Discussion: Existing research so far has examined the empirical connections between how individuals perceive their levels of masculinity, sexism, and PRR voting separately. Our study offers a first step in unpacking the relationship between masculinity and PRR support by focusing specifically on how sexism relates to both these variables.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Agencia Estatal de Investigació

Substitution and spill‐overs between early exit pathways in times of extending working lives in Europe

This article investigates to what extent instrument substitution between early exit pathways took place in Europe between 1995 and 2015. Using Eurostat aggregate data on labour market inactivity and employment rates among the population aged 55–64 in 19 European countries, we analyse substitution effects between pathways and overall spill‐over effects into non‐employment. In spite of a strong decline in early exit and rises in older workers’ employment rates, findings suggest that instrument substitution was common especially between early retirement and disability. Reductions in early exit coincided with considerable spill‐overs into non‐employment, yet these spill‐overs were limited when pathways contracted simultaneously

This time it’s different? Effects of the Eurovision Debate on young citizens’ and its consequence for EU democracy – evidence from a quasi-experiment in 24 countries

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.For the very first time in EU history, the 2014 EP elections provided citizens with the opportunity to influence the nomination of the Commission President by casting a vote for the main Europarties’ ‘lead candidates’. By subjecting the position of the Commission President to an open political contest, many experts have formulated the expectation that heightened political competition would strengthen the weak electoral connection between EU citizens and EU legislators, which some consider a root cause for the EU’s lack of public support. In particular, this contest was on display in the so-called ‘Eurovision Debate’, a televised debate between the main contenders for the Commission President broadcasted live across Europe. Drawing on a quasi-experimental study conducted in 24 EU countries, we find that debate exposure led to increased cognitive and political involvement and EU support among young citizens. Unfortunately, the debate has only reached a very small audience

Effekte spezifischen politischen Wissens auf einstellungskongruente Wahlentscheidungen

Der Beitrag untersucht die Effekte spezifischen politischen Wissens auf die Wahrscheinlichkeit einstellungskongruenter Wahlentscheidungen. Dafür werden drei Bereiche politischen Faktenwissens unterschieden: Wissen über das politische System, politische Akteure und ideologische Parteipositionen. Unter Rückgriff auf Daten der Österreichischen Nationalen Wahlstudie AUTNES wird gezeigt, dass das Wissen über die Parteipositionen einen direkten Effekt auf einstellungskongruente Wahlentscheidungen hat, während das Wissen über das politische System dabei hilft, sich Heuristiken zu bedienen. Das Wissen über die politischen Akteure erweist sich hingegen als wenig relevant für einstellungskongruente Wahlentscheidungen