Research
The Mobilizing Power of Ambiguity: How Antifeminism and Perceptions of Gender Opinion Climates Shape Right-Wing Populist Support | Prior research links opposition to gender equality with support for right-wing populist (RWP) parties, typically attributing this association to conservative-traditionalist values or anti-gender backlash. Yet little is known about how perceptions of the broader opinion climate shape this relationship. Moving beyond direct attitudinal effects and drawing on Spiral of Silence theory, this study examines whether perceiving the public opinion climate on gender equality as feminist or antifeminist conditions the impact of antifeminist attitudes on voting for the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). Using representative German survey data from 2025, logistic regression and moderation analyses reveal an unexpected pattern: the relationship between antifeminist attitudes and AfD voting is strongest when the opinion climate is perceived as balanced, and weaker when it is perceived as either strongly feminist or strongly antifeminist. This inverted U-shaped moderation challenges the assumption that perceived majority views always embolden, and minority views always inhibit political expression. Additional analyses show that much of the moderation effect operates through populist attitudes, situating “gender protest” within a broader authoritarian-populist worldview. The study advances both Spiral of Silence and anti-gender backlash research by suggesting that perceived opinion dominance can demobilize when it erodes the protest appeal central to outsider-party support, and by highlighting the mobilizing potential of perceived ambiguity in public opinion.
My dissertation explores the politicization of anti-gender sentiment within right-wing populist contexts and examines the conditions under which anti-gender attitudes influence populist beliefs and electoral support for right-wing populist parties. These projects are currently in progress:
From Gender Attitudes to the Ballot: Understanding Men's Higher Support for the AfD [in co-authorship with Alexia Katsanidou] | The planned paper will explore whether changes in gender attitudes contribute to the persistent gender voting gap in support for the right-wing populist AfD. Using newly collected panel data from the GESIS Panel (2021, 2024), we investigate whether sexist and anti-feminist attitudes have increased more strongly among men than among women, indicating a gender-conservative shift. Building on this, the project examines whether this gendered attitudinal shift helps explain men’s higher likelihood of voting for the AfD.
Politicization of the gender issue across European countries. | Previous research on political dimensionality has viewed the gender issue as a component of the established left-right dimension rather than a cross-cutting issue with other political dimensions. The planned study aims to examine how the gender issue is connected to citizens left-right political orientation over time. I specifically focus on gender role attitudes in the family using EVS and ISSP data. With data spanning more than two decades, cross-country regression analysis is used. To better assess the impact of right-wing populist parties in political systems I conduct difference-in-difference analysis.
Work
Since 2023, I have been working at GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences in Cologne, Germany, where I contribute to the research project Push*Back*Lash. This Horizon Europe-funded project addresses anti-gender backlash and the pushback against democratic values, providing insights into the actors, attitudes, and agendas opposing gender equality, alongside strategies to counteract these challenges.
As part of Push*Back*Lash, I compare citizen perspectives on gender equality over time and across countries and examine how individual gender attitudes evolve throughout the life course, using cross-sectional data and panel surveys. I also contribute to analyzing the dynamics of attention toward gender equality issues across space, time, and institutional settings. This includes investigating how these issues appear on institutional agendas, the actors and strategies involved, the intersections with other issues, and how they move across different venues, regions, and temporal contexts.
I recently completed a country case study on gender+ equality politics in Germany (2010–2025) which traces five central gender conflicts – abortion, LGBTQ+ parenthood, gender identity recognition, gender and race studies, and headscarf bans. It illustrates how legal progress in Germany has often depended less on parliamentary will than on court rulings and civil society mobilisation. The analysis highlights Germany’s specific pattern of judicialised equality politics, the persistence of conservative veto players, and the growing impact of anti-gender mobilisation.
As part of the PushBackLash project, I have also been involved in knowledge transfer activities, ensuring that our research findings reach beyond academia. In particular, I contributed to the development of educational materials, infographics, and cartoons that translate complex insights on gender+ politics into accessible formats for non-academic audiences. This work aims to strengthen public debate, support practitioners, and make scholarly knowledge available to a broader range of actors engaged in questions of democracy and equality.