Gender Equality, Sexual Diversity and Vote Choice: One and the Same Gender Issue?

Gender-neutral language, women's quota, gender mainstreaming, debates on abortion, same-sex marriage, LGBTIQ* rights – in recent years, new tensions have flared up in European democracies regarding the recognition of non-heteronormative forms of identity and life (sexual diversity) as well as the demand for (further) gender equality measures for women (gender equality) (e.g., Dietze & Roth, 2020). This development is characterised by increasing polarisation, which is mainly driven by right-wing populist and extremist parties. In doing so, they reject any social drafts that go beyond a heteronormative understanding and support equality measures between women and men only to a certain extent. As traditional and conservative values increasingly collide with left, progressive and egalitarian positions, gender equality and sexual diversity have become a new arena for political contestation (e.g. Hark & Villa 2017). The politicisation of these topics leads to the assumption that gender-related issues can be relevant for voting behaviour. Yet they remain rather neglected in electoral research. Theoretically, gender-related issues are part of a cultural dimension that encompasses all non-economic issues such as immigration, European integration and environmental protection (e.g. Inglehart 1977). In a simplified scheme, all these cultural issues form a single construct that one can either support or oppose. Consequently, gender-related issues are not specified in terms of content and are instead simply equated with post-materialist values. But does this prove true in empirical terms? So far, little is known about the composition of gender-related issues. Are we dealing with one single gender issue that comprises questions on gender equality and sexual diversity? Or do we need to conceptually separate them? Are there differences in the socio-demographic composition in terms of support for the two? And, what role do gender-related issues play in voting behaviour? In order to empirically address these questions, I use survey data from a quota based online survey of the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES), which was collected in September 2021. In a first step, I conduct an exploratory factor analysis to examine how the issues of gender equality and sexual diversity relate to each other and to other common positional issues. Second, I scrutinize the variance in voters' attitudes towards gender equality and sexual diversity and examine whether there are differences in socio-structural determinants that promote or inhibit support for either issue. Third and finally, by conducting a multinomial logistic regression I analyse which role gender-related issues plays in voting decision.