Grassroots Women in the Populist Radical Right

Populist radical right (PRR) parties have long been characterised as 'men's parties' due to the overrepresentation of men within their ranks. Yet, not only are PRR parties attracting more women voters than ever, but they are also electing more women MPs than ever. To explain these trends, Grassroots Women in the Populist Radical Right shifts attention to an overlooked step of the political recruitment ladder, the party grassroots, and investigates women's involvement as PRR party members. The book looks both at the 'supply-side' of membership, assessing whether women and men differ in their motivations for joining, motivations for staying, and activism; and the 'demand-side', exploring if PRR parties adopt distinct recruitment and retention strategies for women and men. It focuses on three PRR parties which have profoundly influenced the politics and societies of their countries: the Bharatiya Janata Party in India, the League in Italy, and the Sweden Democrats. Drawing on a vast collection of original qualitative and quantitative data—including interviews with over 100 party members and officials from the three parties, alongside membership surveys of thousands of League and Sweden Democrats members—the book reveals that PRR parties should not still be considered 'men's parties'. Arguing that women PRR grassroots members play a central role in the organisational development, electoral expansion, and growing normalisation of the populist radical right, Ammassari sheds light on one of the defining political phenomena of our century.

Sofia Ammassari is a Research Fellow at the School of Government and International Relations in Griffith University. Her main research interests are the populist radical right, women's and youth political participation, and political parties. She has published on these topics in journals such as Comparative Political Studies, European Journal of Political Research and Political Studies.