Anna Guildea is a PhD student at the department of Political Science and Sociology at the Scuola Normale Superiore based in Florence, Italy. Her PhD project examines the relationship between deindustrialisation and masculinity – specifically in relation to far-right voting in Western European countries. From 2021-2023 she was a Yenching Scholar at Peking University where she studied the political economy of labour demand in China’s increasingly-automating manufacturing and industrial sectors. She also has an MSc in International Political Economy from University College Dublin, where she wrote her thesis on the ‘anomalous’ absence of a far-right electoral presence in Ireland, comparing Ireland’s unique economic history to experiences of deindustrialisation among it’s continental counterparts. Her professional experiences include working as a Policy Researcher at the European Centre for International Political Economy, and at the Irish delegation to the OECD.

PROJECT STATEMENT

Masculinity, Occupation, and Support for the Radical Right  

My research examines how occupational transformation shapes political behaviour through its relationship to gender, with a particular focus on support for radical right parties. Existing scholarship has established strong links between deindustrialisation, labour market restructuring, and the electoral success of the radical right, while a parallel literature has highlighted the importance of masculinity in explaining both the appeal of radical-right politics and the enduring gender gap in radical-right voting. 

My work brings these perspectives together by examining occupations not simply as economic categories, but as social environments in which gender identities are produced and negotiated. Occupations differ in their histories, cultures, and gendered norms, meaning that economic restructuring alters not only patterns of employment but also the social meanings attached to work, status, and identity. These changes are experienced unevenly across occupational groups, with important consequences for political attitudes and electoral behaviour. 

Using comparative survey data from across Europe, I investigate how occupational position, masculine self-understandings, and broader processes of deindustrialisation interact to shape support for the populist radical right. More broadly, my research seeks to show that the political consequences of occupational change cannot be fully understood without recognising that work, gender identity, and political behaviour are deeply intertwined. 

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