Politicisation of the Gender Issue Across Time and Space

Previous research on political dimensionality has viewed the gender issue as a component of the established left-right dimension rather than a cross-cutting issue with other political dimensions. Recent political developments have re-politicized various elements of the gender issue bringing it back to political attention. Restrictions on abortion as well as debates on family policy and women representation lead by the extreme right have brought the gender issue on the spotlight. On the one hand, this paper aims to examine how the gender issue is connected to the left-right dimension over time. On the other hand, it aims to explore how party system context and country context (i.e. economic and social circumstances) correlate with this change. The study specifically focuses on attitudes toward women’s participation in the labour force and gender roles in the family using the EVS and ISSP. With data spanning almost four decades, we conduct cross-country regression analysis. We include country level indicators reflecting gender equality and economic conditions on the country, as well as party system indicators reflecting the existence of parties with strong gender positions. To better assess the impact of an extreme right-wing party in the system we also conduct difference-in-difference analysis. Our findings indicate over time and context related variation of the impact of gender attitudes on left-right self-placement and indicate a special role of right-wing parties in agenda setting for gender issues.