The research by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ayşe Serdar and coauthors delve into the role that gender plays in populist politics and proposes a typology of gendered populism. They argue that the way populist parties construct “the people” against “the elites” and “non-people” is a gendered process, where gender acts as a defining element for determining who is included or excluded from “the people”. The study highlights the intersection between the gendered construction of “the people” and political parties’ configurations of religion and secularism.

In the paper “A typology of right-wing populism in Europe: Intersections of gender, religion and secularity” published in Women’s Studies Journal in April of 2023, popularism was argued to provide a greater understanding of gendered populism. The study findings underscore the critical importance of understanding the role of gender in populist politics and the need for greater awareness and sensitivity towards gender and its intersections with other socio-political factors in policymaking and governance.

Based on the intersection of parties’ constructions of “the people” with religion and secularity, the analysis focused on the right-wing populist parties in France, Sweden and Turkey. This study shows that gender plays a distinct role in the discursive issue to mobilize and consolidate “the people.”