This article investigates how sexist attitudes are activated and translated into support for radical right parties (RRPs) in Europe, using data from the 2017 wave of the European Values Study (EVS). I introduce the concept of relative sexism to theorize how the political effects of sexism vary depending on individuals’ social positioning and normative environments. First, I confirm that sexist attitudes significantly increase RRP support, consistent with prior research. More importantly, I show that these attitudes are more politically consequential among younger individuals, suggesting that norm-deviant views can be politically mobilizing within more progressive generational contexts. However, contrary to expectations, the effect of relative deviance among women is not supported: while I hypothesized that sexist women would be more likely to support RRPs, the relationship between sexism and RRP support is consistently weaker — and sometimes even negative — among women. A triple interaction model further reveals that the effect of sexism is strongest among young individuals, diminishes with age, and virtually disappears among older women. These findings highlight that the politicization of sexism is not universal but shaped by its relative norm deviance within age and gender groups, pointing to important limitations in gendered backlash theory.
