Antifeminism and backlash politics

What drives antifeminist attitudes, and how do they shape political behavior? This article argues that in contexts of major feminist advances, antifeminist attitudes can emerge and broadly influence political behavior. With both a strong feminist mobilization and the rise of far-right forces, Chile represents a most-likely case for testing theories of cultural backlash. We develop a novel measure of antifeminism at the mass level and analyze face-to-face survey data nationally representative of Chile. Challenging some prominent accounts of backlash, we find little evidence that age or education drives antifeminism. Instead, social conservatism and authoritarianism play a stronger role. Antifeminism also consistently predicts support for the far right and rejection of culturally progressive leaders, suggesting that a gendered backlash could be an axis of political (re)alignment. Our findings underscore the relevance of antifeminism in shaping democratic conflict and call for expanded comparative research

Authoritarianism · Backlash · Conservatism · Democracy · Politics · Relevance (law · Survey data collection · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Populism, Right-Wing Movements