Disentangling different types of sexist attitudes and vote choice in Germany

With a woman as head of German government for 16 years, many hoped (or feared) for significant progress in the areas of gender equality. Rather than progress, however, contributors have noticed a rising backlash against norms of gender equality worldwide, but also in Germany. These developments have...

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Main Authors: Jessica Fortin-Rittberger, Christina Eder
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2025-12-01
Series:Political Research Exchange
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/2474736X.2025.2508382
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author Jessica Fortin-Rittberger
Christina Eder
author_facet Jessica Fortin-Rittberger
Christina Eder
author_sort Jessica Fortin-Rittberger
collection DOAJ
description With a woman as head of German government for 16 years, many hoped (or feared) for significant progress in the areas of gender equality. Rather than progress, however, contributors have noticed a rising backlash against norms of gender equality worldwide, but also in Germany. These developments have sparked a renewed interest in sexism as an explanation for (political) attitudes and behaviours. The context of the 2021 Bundestag election offers a unique opportunity to investigate the salience of these attitudes on both candidate evaluations and vote choice. We examine the interrelation of sexism, vote choice, and candidate sympathy, employing data that was collected directly before and following the German general elections, tapping into different manifestations of sexism, benevolent, modern and hostile. We find a powerful effect of sexism in more areas than previously theorized — namely negative attitudes towards women candidates and preference for populist radical right parties, but also in vote choice for conservative and liberal parties.
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spelling doaj-art-b512f014ec2547d7aa9d8b10e6a46b2d2025-08-20T03:13:42ZengTaylor & Francis GroupPolitical Research Exchange2474-736X2025-12-017110.1080/2474736X.2025.2508382Disentangling different types of sexist attitudes and vote choice in GermanyJessica Fortin-Rittberger0Christina Eder1Department of Political Science, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, AustriaGESIS-Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Mannheim, GermanyWith a woman as head of German government for 16 years, many hoped (or feared) for significant progress in the areas of gender equality. Rather than progress, however, contributors have noticed a rising backlash against norms of gender equality worldwide, but also in Germany. These developments have sparked a renewed interest in sexism as an explanation for (political) attitudes and behaviours. The context of the 2021 Bundestag election offers a unique opportunity to investigate the salience of these attitudes on both candidate evaluations and vote choice. We examine the interrelation of sexism, vote choice, and candidate sympathy, employing data that was collected directly before and following the German general elections, tapping into different manifestations of sexism, benevolent, modern and hostile. We find a powerful effect of sexism in more areas than previously theorized — namely negative attitudes towards women candidates and preference for populist radical right parties, but also in vote choice for conservative and liberal parties.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/2474736X.2025.2508382Sexismvote choiceBundestag electionsgenderrepresentation
spellingShingle Jessica Fortin-Rittberger
Christina Eder
Disentangling different types of sexist attitudes and vote choice in Germany
Political Research Exchange
Sexism
vote choice
Bundestag elections
gender
representation
title Disentangling different types of sexist attitudes and vote choice in Germany
title_full Disentangling different types of sexist attitudes and vote choice in Germany
title_fullStr Disentangling different types of sexist attitudes and vote choice in Germany
title_full_unstemmed Disentangling different types of sexist attitudes and vote choice in Germany
title_short Disentangling different types of sexist attitudes and vote choice in Germany
title_sort disentangling different types of sexist attitudes and vote choice in germany
topic Sexism
vote choice
Bundestag elections
gender
representation
url https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/2474736X.2025.2508382
work_keys_str_mv AT jessicafortinrittberger disentanglingdifferenttypesofsexistattitudesandvotechoiceingermany
AT christinaeder disentanglingdifferenttypesofsexistattitudesandvotechoiceingermany