Differences in Rhetoric of Male and Female Leaders in the Context of Populist Right Parties

During the past years, the previously male-dominated arena of populist right parties has been rapidly gaining female participation and popular appeal. Parties such as the Front National have appointed female leaders and simultaneously increased votes. The underlying question asks whether there might be a connection between the emergence of female populist leaders of radical right parties and the growing public appeal of these parties. Many scholars agree that rhetoric plays a significant role in the performance of a populist leader. This paper therefore aims to uncover whether the rhetoric of female populist right party leaders differs along certain lines from their male counterparts. It produces its own theoretical framework built on theories within the fields of Gender Discourse and Populist (Right) Rhetoric. The cases analyzed are: the Front National (FN) in France, the Dansk Folkeparti (DF) in Denmark and Fremskrittspartiet (FrP) in Norway. From a number of party speeches the rhetoric of each a female and male party leader was examined in a qualitative text analysis with the help of a catalogue of sociolinguistic criteria on the one hand and a qualitative content analysis on the other. In a second step, the results within each party were then discussed in a cross-country comparison in order to reveal the general trend for all countries analyzed, showing that the female leaders of the populist right parties analyzed employed less radical antagonist statements than their male counterparts. The findings could suggest that populist right parties may increasingly appoint female leaders in order to gain popular votes. The analysis addresses a gap in current literature, building a gateway for a new research area within Populist Right Research and Gender Studies, particularly directing the focus towards discourse.