Feminism on the Far-Right? How Female PVV Voters make sense of Gender Equality

The PVV’s (Party for Freedom) verzetsspray action is a perfect example of right-wing populist parties (RPPs) taking a progressive stance on gender to further their anti-immigration agenda. This paper looks at the mostly overlooked group of women who vote for the PVV and asks how they think about gender and gender equality. First looking at the literature on the rhetoric from RPPs in The Netherlands, the PVV and the LPF, three discourses are discerned: the culturalisation of gender and gender equality, the normalisation and naturalisation of gender and gender equality in the Netherlands, and individualisation of gender and gender equality. To understand how women who vote for RPPs understand gender, 10 interviews with women who support either the PVV or Leefbaar Rotterdam were conducted. The results show that the participants also participate in the culturalization of gender and gender equality, normalisation and naturalisation of gender and gender equality, and individualisation of gender and gender equality discourses. From the analysis a fourth discourse emerges, focused around responsibility, or responsibilisation of gender and gender equality.