A step to the left? Gender ideologies and political party identification in Germany

Abstract

After decades in which gender relations, as anchored in work-family policies and egalitarian gender ideologies, moved towards greater equality, the status quo is currently being challenged. Gender-ambivalent ideologies have spread in both the political and private realms. It is unclear how the rise in gender-ambivalence documented in current research relates to party identification. On the one hand, gender ambivalence may represent a variation of post-materialist liberal values corresponding with support for centre-left parties in Germany. On the other, ambivalence may reflect a modified form of traditionalism and thus, a step to the left among voters leaning towards right-wing and conservative parties. This paper uses the Leitbild Survey 2012 to provide empirical evidence to fill this research gap. In line with cross-national research, latent class analyses reveal four main gender ideologies among young Germans: unidimensional ‘egalitarian’ and ‘moderate traditional’, as well as ambivalent, multidimensional ‘secondary earner’, and ‘intensive parenting’. Multinomial regression models show that egalitarian class members identify with centre-left parties while members of the ambivalent, multidimensional secondary earner, and intensive parenting classes as well as those of the moderate traditional class identify more strongly with centre-right parties. In light of the broader literature on gender ideology change, which documents a steep decline in traditionalism, our cross-sectional findings may be interpreted as capturing a step to the left among voters leaning towards right-wing and conservative parties in Germany, who now accept new mothers combining care-giving and part-time-work.