Gender equality framings destigmatise radical right parties, but only among men
Under review (Revise & Resubmit, Aug. 2026), 2026
Recent findings show that the stigma against radical right parties constitutes an obstacle to their electoral success, but that this stigma can decrease. Yet radical right actors are not merely passive targets of this stigma: they also deploy strategies to counter it. One such strategy is the use of femonationalist framings: the justification of anti-immigration policies by the need to protect women. This article investigates the extent to which such framings succeed in destigmatising radical right parties by reducing their association with prejudice. To analyse the effect of this strategy, I conducted an online survey experiment in France in 2024–2025 with approximately 7,000 respondents, focusing on Rassemblement National (RN). The results show that femonationalism, when it is used by the RN as gender equality framing, destigmatises the party among men and increases their perception that the RN supports women’s rights. These effects, however, are not statistically significant among women, whose security and rights are used in such femonationalist framings. Overall, these findings show that strategies employed by radical right parties to get normalized are effective, but their effect is concentrated in one part of the population.