Objectives

WP1 reviews relevant the literature on feminist theories and masculinity studies to build a typology. This is the key starting point of the project, since its results are used in WP2, WP3, and WP4 to measure the level of “feminist permeation” within the demand- and supply-sides of gender-related policies. It will also be considered, indirectly, in the design of survey modules in WP6, and throughout the project as a reference for analyses.

Description

This WP will locate the relevant literature within international journals (mostly in English) and national journals in each country in our sample (with the collaboration of different partners). By developing a significant way of classifying their contents, a typology will be developed and discussed among partners. This will later be considered for further analyses and the development of tools in subsequent work packages

Tasks

Task1.1 Locate and review the literature.

1.A Locate the literature in English (international) and national languages;

1.B Review the literature and propose a typology.

Task1.2 Build typology.

1.C Discuss and build a common typology;

1.D. Build a graphical presentation.

Objectives

WP2 will measure the demand-side of gender-related policies. This is a fundamental step towards the later location of areas of “weak” substantive gender representation in WP4. It is key to measuring the demand-side using qualitative techniques that allow for as much freedom as possible for citizens to express their needs and demands, their fears, their anguish, their values, and their expectations, among other things. This is because the tools that are commonly used for exploring public opinion, surveys, might ignore some important aspects and/or be biased towards a particular feminist view (this hypothesis of the limitations of surveys will be tested in WP3, and will be considered when developing a new survey module in WP6).

Description

This WP will design, implement and analyse three focus groups in each country in our sample. For our focus groups to be successful, we need to design groups that are internally homogeneous, but heterogeneous among themselves. Participant within each focus group must be confident in talking to equals, and able to speak freely. Therefore, three different participant profiles will be designed in each country, following variables that are relevant in relation to right-wing populist parties’ voting behaviour (including social class, professional situation, gender, and age).

Tasks

Task2.1.1. Focus groups preparation.

2.A Design common guide for carrying out the group sessions;

2.B Translate guides into each national language;

2.C Design the theoretical composition of groups;

2.D Draft participants into groups, and take care of errant logistics.

Task2.1.2 Run focus groups and produce data.

2.E Carry out each group session;

2.F Produce technical summary of each group;

2.G Transcribe each group into the national language;

2.H Anonymize national transcriptions,

Task2.1.3 Analyse focus groups data.

2.J Design preliminary protocol for first round of coding attending to typology developed by WP1;

2.K Code transcriptions;

2.L Review coding protocol;

2.M Second round of coding;

2.N Produce a summary of findings per country and a global summary.

Objectives

WP3 will test if the existing questions on gender in surveys are neglecting some needs and demands (particularly those of citizens “at the margins”), and if they are biased toward any particular stream of feminism. This is relevant in our project, and in general, because surveys are one of the main tools that political parties use to obtain information about citizens’ needs and demands; however, citizens can only answer what they are asked (and are often limited to the range of response categories that is available). Surveys can also create opinions when they are reported in mass and/or social media. In summary, this WP will establish whether surveys fairly represent the wider spectrum of citizens’ need and demands (through a comparison with findings in WP2), and if they are biased towards a particular stream of feminism (by comparing them with our typology in WP1). Our findings will be relevant to the development of a new survey module in WP6.

Description

WP3 will test if the existing questions on gender in surveys are neglecting some needs and demands (particularly those of citizens “at the margins”), and if they are biased toward any particular stream of feminism. This is relevant in our project, and in general, because surveys are one of the main tools that political parties use to obtain information about citizens’ needs and demands; however, citizens can only answer what they are asked (and are often limited to the range of response categories that is available). Surveys can also create opinions when they are reported in mass and/or social media. In summary, this WP will establish whether surveys fairly represent the wider spectrum of citizens’ need and demands (through a comparison with findings in WP2), and if they are biased towards a particular stream of feminism (by comparing them with our typology in WP1). Our findings will be relevant to the development of a new survey module in WP6.

Tasks

Task3.1 Locate surveys and list questions.

3.A Locate international and national surveys containing questions related to sex or gender;

3.B Make a list of questions.

Task3.2. Identify neglected topics and bias in questionnaires.

3.C Classify international and national questions on typology developed in 1.C;

3.D Produce a summary of feminist permeation within international and national survey questions;

3.E Compare international and national questions contents to the summary of findings in 2.P;

3.F Produce a summary of findings.

Task3.3 Descriptive and comparative analysis of survey questions.

3.G Analyse public opinion reflected in international and national surveys (descriptive analysis);

3.H Compare public opinion in international and national surveys to summary of findings in 21P;

3.I Compare public opinion as measured by surveys across countries;

3.J Produce a summary of findings.

Objectives

WP3 aims to produce primary data on the supply-side of gender-based policies by political parties, as well as develop a tool for doing so by applying a new gender sub-schema within the Manifestos Project (MARPOR) general coding scheme. This is key in this project because there is no systematic tool that produces data on gender-related policies that can be widely compared across countries. These data, compared to those previously produced on the demand-side, will enable us to locate areas of “weak” substantive gender representation (in WP4), which should facilitate the behaviour of right-wing populist parties as niche parties on these issues.

Party manifestos are the best tool for producing this comparative data. This is firstly because electoral manifestos matter in politics: citizens can overcome their cognitive and informational limitations using heuristics and information shortcuts, and they can, therefore, make reasoned political decisions, even in contexts of low information. Additionally, electoral programs are the only written documents systematically produced by parties that officially reflect their ideology and policy proposals. Finally, for non-governing parties there are no data on what their real gender-based policies would have been; however, electoral programs are correlated with the implementation of policies by political parties once they get into office. Other possible sources, such as discourses and declarations, are not systemic enough for our international comparison.

Description

This WP will develop, test, refine and produce a final gender sub-scheme (within the MARPOR general coding scheme). This tool is a key exploitable result of our project that will be openly distributed, allowing for further monitoring of parties’ gender-based policies in the future. An inter-coder reliability of 85% will need to be reached before we consider our tool ready. By applying the scheme to relevant parties (parties that won at least one seat in the respective national or European parliament) by trained coders in the national language of each of our sample of countries, we generate a database that will be used in WP4 to detect areas of “weak” substantive gender representation. For the collection and coding of parties’ manifestos, we take advantage of the corpus compiled by MARPOR (https://manifestoprojectwzb.eu/) and the Euromanifesto project (https://search.gesis.org/research_data/ZA5163).

Tasks

Task4.1 Develop new gender sub-scheme and coding handbook.

4.A Develop a first version of the sub-coding scheme departing from the typology developed in 1.C;

4.B Cross-check newly generated gender categories with experts;

4.C Programming the MARPOR coding app.

Task4.2 Select and train coders, refine sub-scheme.

4.D Select coders for different national languages;

4.E Train coders;

4.F Test sub-coding scheme in a subsample of manifestos;

4.G Test for intra- e inter- coders’ reliability;

4.H Refine sub-coding scheme and code-book instructions.

Task4.3 Collect, and code parties manifestos.

4.I Code parties in their national languages by trained coders.

Task4.4 Generate dataset and analyse it.

4.J Create aggregated database from sub-coding scheme application;

4.K Analyse database; 4.L Produce summary of findings

Objectives

This WP locates areas of “weak” substantive gender representation by comparing previously produced data on the demand-side (WP2) and supply-side (WP4). The final aim is to test if those areas neglected by mainstream parties (those with a “weak” substantive representation by these parties) are picked up by right-wing populist parties (particularly rightwing parties). This will confirm that they are acting as niches parties regarding gender-based policies and point towards a way to avoid this (improve the gender-based representation by mainstream parties). In subsequent WPs, this information will be relevant in the design of our survey module (WP6), as well as in the selection of topics to be covered in citizens’ science workshops (WP9).

Description

In this WP, the data produced in WP2 and WP4 will be integrated within a single compiled dataset. These will be analysed to discover which topics are generally disregarded by mainstream parties and test their coincidence with the topics covered by extreme populist parties (particularly right-wing parties). Collaborating partners will carry out analyses at the national level, and the leader will take care of international analyses and conclusions.

Tasks

Task5.1 Compile dataset.

5.A Transform focus groups data to quantitative database;

5.B Integrate quantitative data from supply and demand side into a single database.

Task5.2 Analyse dataset.

5.C Analise appended database;

5.D Produce graphical presentations from appended database; 5.E Produce summary of findings from appended database.

Objectives

This WP will depart from the previous findings in Phase I to develop a new survey module that allows for a better measure of the demand-side of gender policies, including questions on previously disregarded topics (as measured in WP2.1) and new framings that are inclusive of disregarded feminist theories (as measured in WP2). It will include sufficient independent variables to measure the impact of substantive gender representation of voting behaviour, including questions on the substantive perception of citizens regarding how represented they feel by different parties. Independent variables will include sufficient information to measure the hypothesis of “globalizations losers” vs. the hypothesis of “feminist losers” on the right-wing populist vote, as well as other relevant theories on voting behaviour.

Description

This WP starts by confirming the extent to which current surveys are incomplete and/or biased in gender terms. From this, we will draft a questionnaire, also considering theories on voting behaviour and gender studies, as well as previous research on the gender gap, to capture all relevant variables and control the effect of the substantive representation of gender “ceteris paribus”. The survey module will then be qualitatively tested and pilot-tested before a final version is offered.

Tasks

Task6.1 Co-design draft version of questionnaire.

6.A Test that current survey questionaries are incomplete and/or biased;

6.B Develop questions on neglected aspects of gender-based needs and demands.

Task6.2 Pilot-test and final design of questionnaire.

6.C Translate questions into each national language;

6.D Carry on a pilot test of questionnaire on subsample of countries;

6.E Review and finalize the survey module.

Objectives

This WP administers the survey module developed in WP6 to representative samples of the population in our set of countries, to produce quantitative data on the demand-side of gender-based policies, as well as the independent variables that allow for an analysis of the substantive representation of gender on voting behaviour in WP8. To properly test our hypothesis in WP8, this work package appends the survey dataset with contextual information at the country- and party level. An important factor is that the substantive representation of gender is measured in terms of subjective perceptions by citizens (survey data) and as objective measures of parties’ supply (appending data from WP4).

Description

This WP starts by considering technical decisions on the samples for each country. Those decisions are included in solicitation documents for a trustworthy company to administer the survey in each country (our plan A is to use ESS regular calls, such as rotating modules or CRONOS2, to introduce our research questions and items within key comparative surveys in Europe; our plan B is to administer the survey independently in each country in our sample if opportunities for specific modules are not feasible). After the survey is administered, databases from each country are aggregated and the variables harmonized (as currency, for example, that will be converted to euros). At the same time, partners will decide which variables at the country- and party-level need to be appended. They will be responsible for locating these and sending them to the leader, who will integrate all this information into the appended database.

Tasks

Task7.1 Preparation works.

7.A Technical decisions on samples (quotas, stratification, overrepresentation, etc.);

7.B Set the conditions for the services’ contract: survey administration, and dataset aggregation and harmonization;

7.C Sign contract for survey administration, and dataset aggregation and harmonization.

Task7.2 Survey administration, data harmonization and clean-up .

7.D Administer survey, aggregate, and harmonize dataset;

7.E Descriptive analysis of dataset and clean-up.

Task7.3 Append survey data with country- and party-level information, and harmonization.

7.F Decide on the contextual-level data (parties and countries) that will be appended to the dataset;

7.G Locate and process country-level contextual data (harmonization);

7.H Select and process party-level contextual data (harmonization);

7.I Append raw dataset.

Objectives

In this WP, we analyse the data produced in WP7 to produce new knowledge regarding voting behaviour. We particularly focus on the impact of substantive gender-based representation (measured in a subjective way, as the perception of citizens, and an objective way, as the supply of gender-based policies by parties) on voting behaviour. These findings aim to explain the gender gap in right-wing populist voting and understand the mechanism that attracts voters to these parties. Our findings here are important because right-wing populist parties deal with gender topics, twisting them in ways that are harmful to gender equality, a core value of the EU. From the new knowledge produced in this WP, we will co-develop new ways in which the substantive representation of gender can be improved with citizens in WP9.

Description

This WP starts with a descriptive analysis of the appended dataset produced in WP7 to ensure that there is consistency in the data. With the contribution of collaborating partners, decisions will be made on the operationalization of dependent and independent variables for the analyses. While each collaborating partner will carry out multivariable analyses at the national level with different techniques, the leader will take care of international analyses. This will entail the combination of two different techniques, namely, multilevel analyses and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (although others will also be considered). In combination, they can offer us a good approximation of the mechanism for right-wing electoral success in relation to substantive gender-based representation. However, to triangulate our findings and ensure that our conclusions are robust, before going back to co-designing policy recommendation with citizens, in WP9, we will check findings from similar projects.

Tasks

Task8.1 Descriptive analyses, recodifications, and operationalization of variables.

8.A Descriptive analysis of appended dataset;

8.B Assure consistency in the data;

8.C Decide on the operationalization of dependent and independent variables.

Task8.2 Run multivariate analyses.

8.D Multivariate multilevel analysis of appended dataset;

8.E Check findings with similar research projects;

8.F Produce summary of findings.

Objectives

In this WP, we organize workshops with the civil society and stakeholder to co-develop policy recommendations to improve substantive gender-based representation. To do this, we will discuss and interpret our findings in previous WP with citizens, particularly WP8; we will consider how previously neglected gender-based needs and demands can be represented within the EU system of values and in a democratic way that does not hinder gender equality and explore new forms of gender imaginaries that are able to overcome both fears of the advancement of gender equality and “gender fatigue”. From these workshops, we will collate policy recommendations that are discussed with citizens and stakeholders. Before presenting these to users, our policy recommendations will be discussed in a workshop with researchers and social media practitioners (in WP10) aiming to learn the best communication strategies from them. After this, our policy recommendations will be presented to users in the form of a handbook, as well as in tailored policy briefings (WP11). The importance of this WP is that if our hypotheses are corroborated, mainstream parties can improve their substantive gender-based representation of “feminist losers”, untwisting the antifeminist characteristics of rightwing populism.

Description

This WP focuses on citizen science as a means of connecting with and platforming the opinions and perspectives of citizens in political policy. To achieve this goal, it is essential to create workshops where citizens feel at ease, secure, and, most importantly, motivated to participate. To address these factors, particularly for groups who might have limited available time, partners need to explore options such as childcare, transportation or compensation for the participants’ time. In addition, translating our findings into inviting, easily accessible questions, which are free of bias, will take some time and effort. Professional facilitators will run the workshops to avoid the intimidating effect that academics might have. However, partners with in-depth knowledge of the different WPs in the project will assist in the general coordination of events, particularly by ensuring that partners work with their country’s citizens to engage in their language of choice. Unless the findings suggest otherwise, we will follow the same profile structure as in the focus group, carrying out three different profile workshops per country. From the transcription of workshops, all collaborating partners will collate policy recommendations. These will be brought into new workshops to be discussed by citizens, with participation from stakeholders from the quadruple helix. Finally, policy recommendations will be handed out to researchers and social media practitioners to recommend the best communication strategies for WP10.

Tasks

Task9.1. Workshops preparation.

9.A Design structure for workshops (composition of participants, techniques, evaluation instrument);

9.B Contact communities (engage potential participants, find out how to motivate participation);

9.C Logistics arrangement: facilitators, venues, childcare, transportation, incentives;

9.D Consult with stakeholders;

9.E Translate to a language accessible to laypersons and pre-test our questions.

Task9.2. Run workshops.

9.E Run workshops.

Task9.3 Collate policy recommendations.

9.F Transcription and cleaning of audio-recordings;

9.G Anonymization of transcriptions;

9.H Write report (including relevant information in WP1, WP2.1, WP3, WP4, WP5 and WP8).

Task9.4 Engage participants, politicians, and stakeholders.

9.J Create accessible videos;

9.K Design structure for workshops (participants, techniques, sections, evaluation instrument);

9.L Contact communities (quadruple helix stakeholders including the citizens and politicians);

9.M Logistical arrangements: venues, childcare, transportation, incentives;

9.N Run workshops;

9.O Produce summary of findings.

Objectives

The objective of this WP is to identify the political communication strategies that will help mainstream parties to better spread the message of new, substantive gender-based representation. To do this, we will review the relevant literature on social media and identify tools and strategies. The application of these to our specific policy recommendations will be discussed by researchers and social media practitioners in a workshop and added to our handbook. This last substantive WP is important due to the large amount of evidence showing that part of the success of extreme populist messages is related to their use of mass media. The objective of this work package is to find out what lessons can be learned from this, and how to apply them by mainstream parties in our policy recommendations.

Description

This WP starts by locating the relevant literature published in international journals, mostly in English, as well as those publications in the national language of countries in our sample. Partners will review and identify communications tools and strategies in the literature in their national language, while the leader will take care of the international literature. After the review and drafting of findings in WP9, a workshop with social media researchers and practitioners will discuss how best to apply these tools and strategies to our policy recommendations.

Tasks

Task10.1 Locate and review literature.

10.A Locate the relevant literature in English (international) and national languages;

10.B Review the literature: identify communication tools and strategies with the largest impact.

Task10.2 Applied communication strategies for policy recommendations

10.C Carry out workshops with social media researchers and practitioners;

10.C1 Contact participants;

10.C2 Administer organization: venue, transportation, accommodation, etc.;

10.C3 Present drafted policy recommendations to specialist;

10.C4 Work on specific strategic recommendations for each policy;

10.D Produce summary of findings.