The Dutch parliamentary elections of October 2023, following the resignation of Prime Minister Mark Rutte producing a leadership vacuum for the centre-right VVD, marked a significant rightward shift in the country’s political landscape with Geert Wilders' populist radical right Party for Freedom (PVV) winning the most seats, reflecting broader trends toward populist and anti-immigrant rhetoric. Unlike other PRR parties, The PVV does not necessarily promote traditional roles for women and is progressive in its views on rights for same-sex couples (Speirings 2020). Nevertheless, media framing, such as the portrayal of Dilan Yeşilgöz -- the VVD leader attempting to fill the vacuum left by Rutte -- as a “pit-bull in heels,” reveals the persistence of gendered norms and personalism in Dutch politics. In this paper we examine how sexist and contradictory expectations of femininity and strength shape women candidates’ day to day campaigning in terms of activities, interactions
The analysis, based on in-depth interviews with five candidates, campaign ethnographies with seven candidates across the major left and centre-right parties covering 51 fieldwork days and media analysis, shows that when politics focuses heavily on individual personalities, the pressure on women to be feminine but also to be tough enough for politics grows. As our fieldwork shows, in this context, sexism becomes both very visible and yet difficult for women to talk about openly. We also show that it may not alter the types of activities they engage in; however, it is costly in terms of additional emotion work.
