Taking a clear stance? Explaining ambiguity in political parties’ positions on gender issues

Research on gender and party politics has studied the extent to which political parties emphasize gender issues in their campaigns, which parties do so and under what conditions (Annesley et al. 2015). Additionally, there is a discussion on how these issues are addressed, delving into whether parties adopt progressive or conservative stances (Celis & Childs 2012). This study builds upon this work by introducing a novel lens for understanding party positions on gender issues – party ambiguity. Party ambiguity refers to the lack of precision and consistency in the issue positions of political parties (Lefevere 2023). For democratic accountability, clear and unambiguous positioning is important, as it informs voters about parties’ intentions and commitments regarding gender issues (Eichorst & Lin 2018) Yet, parties may have strategic reasons to opt for ambiguity, leaving room for interpretation and dismissal (Frenkel 2014). This paper theorizes the extent to which parties adopt ambiguous positions on gender issues and what explains variations. Employing a quantitative content analysis of parties’ campaign statements on a variety of gender issues during the 2019 Belgian Federal elections, we explore three sets of explanations for party ambiguity: issue type, ideology, and women’s party presence. Regarding issue type, we distinguish between class-based and status-based gender issues. The former involves the gendered division of labor, while the latter addresses women’s subordinate position (Annesley, Engeli & Gains, 2015). Leveraging the electoral advantage of clear communication on ‘principled’ issues, we hypothesize that parties will articulate clearer positions on status-based gender issues, compared to other issues. Regarding ideology, we expect left parties to adopt clearer positions on gender issues than right parties, although ideological differences may be larger for status-based gender issues. Thirdly, we assess the impact of women’s descriptive representation in the party, anticipating that a higher presence of women will enhance the positional clarity on gender issues. By examining variations in party ambiguity, the paper contributes to understanding the conditions under which parties adopt or refrain from presenting clear positions on gender issues, and how this dynamic impacts democratic accountability.