Ideology and Party Positions on Gender Issues in Spain: Evidence from a Novel Data Set

Abstract

[EN]This article introduces new quantitative fine-tuned indicators to objectively measure parties’ preferences on gender issues. We assess the validity and reliability of these new empirical indicators by analyzing the relationship between ideology and gender position in decentralized Spain. With data collected by the Regional Manifestos Project, that for the first time has incorporated a fully-fledged gender domain in its coding scheme to content-analyze regional manifestos, we analyze parties' gender positions in four fundamental dimensions: welfare and labor market; violence; representation; and values and identity. Results suggest that there is a persistent left-right divide on the last three dimensions: Spanish left-wing parties score significantly higher than right-wing and regionalist parties. However, ideology does not drive parties’ gender positions on welfare and labor market. Support for gender equality policies in this dimension is widespread to such an extent that this can be considered a ‘valence issue’: all parties, irrespective of their ideology, endorse the same —positive— position