Grassroots Women in the Populist Radical Right

Abstract This book investigates women’s involvement as members of populist radical right (PRR) parties. The latter have long been characterised as ‘men’s parties’ due to the over-representation 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. 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 had profound influence on 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 can hardly 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.