The Gender Gap in Radical Right Voting: Explaining differences in the Netherlands

Abstract

Men and women differ in their level of radical right votes in most European countries. This research, a cross sectional survey study amoung 1125 Dutch respondents, examines both structural and attitudinal explanations for a difference between male and female voting patterns in the Netherlands. The differences in structural backgrounds, being self-employed, and the importance one attaches to its religion all appear to be factors that close the gender gap in radical right voting. Attitudinal explanations seemed to explain a large part of the variance in voting behavior for both sexes. Comparative analyses showed that the effect of both structural and attitudinal explanations had a higher explanatory power for males than they have for females.