Gender and Attitudes on Democratic Backsliding: Voice, Avoidance, and Partisan Cross-Pressures

Democratic backsliding threatens women’s rights and protections and often mobilizes feminist activists in opposition. However, we know little about gender’s influence on broader public opinion regarding backsliding policies. Existing research suggests conflicting intuitions: women typically support more liberal-democratic values than men but are also more politically reserved and averse to confrontations on contentious issues. Integrating both perspectives, I argue that women are less supportive of anti-democratic policies but their expressed objection varies by partisan cross-pressures. Analyzing surveys from backsliding episodes in Poland, Israel, and the US, I show that women who voted for the government are less approving of its anti-democratic policies than male co-partisans, but avoid the issue rather than voice discontent against party lines. Conversely, opposition-voting women, whose gender and partisan interests align, voice objections strongly as co-partisan men. The findings outline gender’s conditional influence on popular opposition to democratic backsliding and underscores avoidance as a coping tactic.