Explaining Support for Trump in Latin America: The Role of Anti-Feminist Attitudes

In recent years, anti-feminist discourses have gained visibility and support worldwide. However, to date, there is limited empirical evidence on how many people hold anti-feminist attitudes and which characteristics distinguish them. To address this research gap, we analyze novel public opinion data from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and El Salvador. Our results show that approximately one third of the population in these countries expresses anti-feminist attitudes. Notably, being male, high levels of religiosity, moral conservatism, and authoritarian predispositions are consistently associated with higher levels of anti-feminism across all five countries. Moreover, we use anti-feminist attitudes to predict individuals’ willingness to vote for Donald Trump and find a positive association. In fact, anti-feminist attitudes explain support for Trump much better than anti-immigration attitudes. This finding suggests that opposition to feminism constitutes a common element in the electoral base of the Latin American far right”