Peer-reviewed papers by Francesca FEO
Politics and Governance, 2023
Under the motto "God, homeland, and family"-but also by stressing one further important marker of... more Under the motto "God, homeland, and family"-but also by stressing one further important marker of social identity, i.e., gender-Italian radical right party leader Giorgia Meloni multiplied her party seats in parliament from 2013 onwards. After the 2022 elections, she became the first woman prime minister in Italy. Starting from an overview of the figure of Giorgia Meloni as a radical right woman leader, we explore her and her party's position on women-related issues and their relevance while exploring, in opposition, two different contexts: representative institutions and social media. To do that, we draw on parliamentary data-bills and parliamentary questions introduced in parliament by Fratelli d'Italia-and on Meloni's public discourse-examined in an analysis of all the tweets posted by her official Twitter account, between 2013 and 2021. As expected, a low saliency of women's issues appears in all the types of data examined, although some of them are more exposed to the shift in attention caused by the rise of related trend topics. Both Meloni and her party are strong supporters of the "natural family" and make use of women's issues in claiming femonationalist arguments, especially on social media. However, Meloni and her party cannot be considered as fully "neo-traditional," as are other similar parties in Europe, but rather as a combination of "neo-traditional" and "modern-traditional.
European Journal of Politics and Gender, 2022
Gendered patterns in candidates’ campaign fundraising: The case of Italy
International Political Science Review, 2021
The lack of financial resources is an often-cited hurdle for women pursuing political careers. Ho... more The lack of financial resources is an often-cited hurdle for women pursuing political careers. However, empirical analysis of the dynamics of the private funding of women candidates and its potential implications for their political careers is still scant, particularly for countries outside the anglophone regions. This paper contributes to the scholarly debate by focusing on the gendered patterns in campaign fundraising in Italy, where radical changes to the party funding regime and multiple reforms to the electoral laws may have changed the structure of opportunity for fundraising by women candidates. We analyse patterns of private funding for men and women candidates in four national elections between 1996 and 2018. Our analysis, triangulated with semi-structured interviews with women candidates, shows that differences exist in fundraising patterns between male and female candidates in Italy. It reveals differences in the quality of candidates’ fundraising networks and confirms that political affiliation (to right-wing parties) and incumbency have an effect on the amount of donations received, thus granting women candidates greater access to private donations.
International Political Science Review, 2021
The lack of financial resources is an often-cited hurdle for women pursuing political careers. Ho... more The lack of financial resources is an often-cited hurdle for women pursuing political careers. However, empirical analysis of the dynamics of the private funding of women candidates and its potential implications for their political careers is still scant, particularly for countries outside the anglophone regions. This paper contributes to the scholarly debate by focusing on the gendered patterns in campaign fundraising in Italy, where radical changes to the party funding regime and multiple reforms to the electoral laws may have changed the structure of opportunity for fundraising by women candidates. We analyse patterns of private funding for men and women candidates in four national elections between 1996 and 2018. Our analysis, triangulated with semi-structured interviews with women candidates, shows that differences exist in fundraising patterns between male and female candidates in Italy. It reveals differences in the quality of candidates' fundraising networks and confirms that political affiliation (to right-wing parties) and incumbency have an effect on the amount of donations received, thus granting women candidates greater access to private donations.
Contemporary Italian Politics, 2020
Italy stands out as one of the few countries in Europe to have introduced policies linking public... more Italy stands out as one of the few countries in Europe to have introduced policies linking public funding for political parties to measures to enhance women's political representation. However, such policies have proved to be flawed, failing to meet the objectives that they aimed to address. Starting from these observations, this paper opens the 'black box' of the policy cycle and analyses the stage of policy formulation that led to gendered party finance, to understand why such ill-defined measures were introduced in the first place. In order to do so we retrace, first, the 'support structure' for the adoption of gender representation policies, and identify the relevant elite arena in which the policy was initiated. Then, by analysing parliamentary votes and speeches, we analyse the alliances and the conflict that originated around the policy. We find that, if structural conditions prevented the adoption of a more intrusive policy, its poor design seems to have been the result of the weakness of the support structure for the introduction of feminist policies and of the lack of cross-party alliances among women MPs that might otherwise have promoted the legitimacy of affirmative action.
Partecipazione e Conflitto, 2020
In recent years, feminist scholars have turned their attention to the seeming
resurgence of femin... more In recent years, feminist scholars have turned their attention to the seeming
resurgence of feminism in mainstream culture. This resurgence coincides with a rise in feminist activism, as testified by the many campaigns that have mobilized millions of people around the issues of violence against women, sexual harassment, reproductive injustice, and abortion rights. This article draws on the literature on the cultural consequences of social
movements to explore if and how the new wave of grassroot feminist activism influenced feminist themes in top-charting mainstream popular music. We conducted a thematic analysis of the lyrics of all female-performed songs in the Swedish Top-60 and Danish Top-40 between 2017 and 2018. Our results show that neoliberal feminist themes count for the majority of the feminist themes detected. However, performers also employed themes scribable to radical and liberal feminist traditions. We conclude with some reflections on the commercialization of feminist messages, pointing to openings for further research.
Politics & Gender, 2019
Given the growing importance of state subsidies as a source of party income, several countries ha... more Given the growing importance of state subsidies as a source of party income, several countries have introduced policies that link the provision of party funding to the promotion of gender equality in political representation. Variations in the assignment of public funding-that is, financial incentives and cuts-are increasingly employed to promote equal gender participation in intraparty politics and in public office. However, we know little about why and how these equality promotion policies have been adopted in different countries, how they work in practice, and, most importantly, what effects they have on women's representation. To contribute to this debate, after embedding gender-targeted public funding regulations in the broader set of political representation policies and presenting a comparative overview of existing rules in the European Union, the article concentrates on the Italian case. We examine the evolution of Italian regulation of gender electoral financing and the extent to which the Italian parties have complied with the rules over time. The results show that this set of policy instruments, when poorly designed, is nothing more than symbolic policy. The lack of appropriate mechanisms for sanctions and rewards, which can induce parties to change their behavior, has hampered the effectiveness of these policy measures.
Papers by Francesca FEO
FEMINISM GOES MAINSTREAM? Feminist Themes in Mainstream Popular Music in Sweden and Denmark
Partecipazione e Conflitto, 2020
In recent years, feminist scholars have turned their attention to the seeming resurgence of femin... more In recent years, feminist scholars have turned their attention to the seeming resurgence of feminism in mainstream culture. This resurgence coincides with a rise in feminist activism, as testified by the many campaigns that have mobilized millions of people around the issues of violence against women, sexual harassment, reproductive injustice, and abortion rights. This article draws on the literature on the cultural consequences of social movements to explore if and how the new wave of grassroot feminist activism influenced feminist themes in top-charting mainstream popular music. We conducted a thematic analysis of the lyrics of all female-performed songs in the Swedish Top-60 and Danish Top-40 between 2017 and 2018. Our results show that neoliberal feminist themes count for the majority of the feminist themes detected. However, performers also employed themes scribable to radical and liberal feminist traditions. We conclude with some reflections on the commercialization of feminis...
Politics and Governance
Under the motto “God, homeland, and family”—but also by stressing one further important marker of... more Under the motto “God, homeland, and family”—but also by stressing one further important marker of social identity, i.e., gender—Italian radical right party leader Giorgia Meloni multiplied her party seats in parliament from 2013 onwards. After the 2022 elections, she became the first woman prime minister in Italy. Starting from an overview of the figure of Giorgia Meloni as a radical right woman leader, we explore her and her party’s position on women-related issues and their relevance while exploring, in opposition, two different contexts: representative institutions and social media. To do that, we draw on parliamentary data—bills and parliamentary questions introduced in parliament by Fratelli d’Italia—and on Meloni’s public discourse—examined in an analysis of all the tweets posted by her official Twitter account, between 2013 and 2021. As expected, a low saliency of women’s issues appears in all the types of data examined, although some of them are more exposed to the shift in ...
STG Policy analysis, 2022
Equality and representation are founding principles for contemporary democracies. Yet, notwithsta... more Equality and representation are founding principles for contemporary democracies. Yet, notwithstanding the increasing adoption, in recent years, of different measures targeted at reducing the representation gap, exclusionary dynamics in politics persist, with crucial consequences for the quality of political decision-making. This brief fulfils two main objectives: first, building from original research, it makes a case for the advantages of fostering an inclusive model of leadership in politics, and it proposes a way to achieve this result by targeting the behaviour and organisational culture of political “gate-keepers” – political parties and experienced male politicians; second, it presents the training curriculum of the Inclusive Leadership Initiative (ILI), whose aim is to provide useful and innovative contents and skills to male politicians to overcome the exclusive dynamics of traditional conceptions of authoritativeness, power and leadership across the political sphere. The different modules of the ILI curriculum presented here are based on the results of original research and a pilot study both held in 2021.
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung - Forum Politik und Gesellschaft, 2021, 2021
All over the world, right-wing populist parties continue to grow stronger, as has been the case f... more All over the world, right-wing populist parties continue to grow stronger, as has been the case for a number of years-a development that is male-dominated in most countries, with right-wing populists principally elected by men. However, a new generation of women is also active in right-wing populist parties and movementsforming the female face of right-wing populism, so to speak. At the same time, these parties are rapidly closing the gap when it comes to support from female voters-a new phenomenon, for it was long believed that women tend to be rather immune to right-wing political propositions. Which gender and family policies underpin this and which societal trends play a part? Is it possible that women are coming out triumphant here? That is a question that we already raised, admittedly playing devil's advocate, in the first volume of the publication, published in 2018 by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Triumph of the women? The Female Face of the Far Right in Europe. We are now continuing this first volume with a series of detailed studies published at irregular intervals. This is partly in response to the enormous interest that this collection of research has aroused to date in the general public and in professional circles. As a foundation with roots in social democracy, from the outset one of our crucial concerns has been to monitor anti-democratic tendencies and developments, while also providing information about these, with a view to strengthening an open and democratic society thanks to these insights. The Triumph of the women? study series adopts a specific perspective in this undertaking: The country-specific studies examine right-wing populist (and occasionally right-wing extremist) parties and their programmes concerning family and gender policy. The analysis highlights the question of which political propositions appeal to women voters, making parties in the right-wing spectrum seem electable in their eyes. How do antifeminist positions gain ground? In addition, individual gender policy topics are examined, the percentage of votes attained by these parties is analysed and the role of female leaders and counter-movements is addressed. While the first volume of studies focused on countries within Europe, the new study adopts a broader view and analyses individual countries and topics worldwide. Where do right-wing populist parties manage to shift the focus of discourse or even shape debates on family and gender policy, in addition to defining the terms of engagement when dealing with issues relating to flight and migration? And do their propositions concerning social policy respond to the needs of broad swathes of the electorate for greater social welfare? Whatever the answers to these questions, it is important to us that progressive stakeholders agree on these challenges and work together to combat the growing fragmentation and divisions within our societies.
DWF, 126 (2), 2020
Scomode. Come quando la sedia è dura, o peggio non c'è e tocca stare in piedi. Come quando in una... more Scomode. Come quando la sedia è dura, o peggio non c'è e tocca stare in piedi. Come quando in una stanza, in un treno, in un gruppo si prova un vago senso di inadeguatezza. Ancora, scomode come quelle voci che danno fastidio, come quando si prende parola, anziché stare in silenzio, agendo per spostare l'ordine delle cose. Partiamo da una sensazione, trasformata in una condizione politica-la scomodità-per comporre la cornice dentro cui i contributi di questo numero si muovono. L'intenzione è guardare oltre i perimetri di vite lavorative e relazionali dove abbiamo spesso fatto fatica ad immaginare un altrove. Ai linguaggi codificati dell'accademia, alle sue gerarchie, alla rigida divisione di ruoli, posizioni, carriere, abbiamo cercato di opporre l'orizzontalità delle pratiche, la collettività, lo stile narrativo, la parzialità, il posizionamento, il partire da sé. La storia di questo numero comincia un pomeriggio dello scorso inverno, in uno dei piccoli uffici della Scuola Normale Superiore, a Firenze, sede della nostra facoltà. Sul tavolo c'era la disponibilità di alcune risorse economiche e intorno al tavolo noi-dottorande, ricercatrici-con un vago desiderio, all'epoca ancora inespresso, di ritrovarci e fare, insieme.
Book Chapters by Francesca FEO
La scienza politica italiana. 50 anni dopo, 2024
The chapter looks into gender gaps in the career progression of Italian researchers in Political ... more The chapter looks into gender gaps in the career progression of Italian researchers in Political science. It shows that this field of research is more male-dominated than other sub-disciplines in the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH). Moreover, it shows that the gender gaps is extremely high among full professors (only 33% of which are women). Based on the analysis of semi-structured interviews, the chapter further explore those factors that are perceived as obstacles from female professors and concludes with some recommendations and best-practices for gendering italian Political science.
Valbruzzi M. e R. Vignati (a cura di), Il vicolo cieco. Le elezioni politiche del 2018; Bologna, Il Mulino, 2018
«Prendi i soldi e...». Un’analisi sull’efficacia degli incentivi economici per la promozione della rappresentanza di genere
Carbone, D., Farina, F. (2019) La partecipazione politica femminile tra rappresentanza formale e sostanziale. FrancoAngeli, 2019
Call for papers by Francesca FEO
Panel proposal -SISP annual conference 2022 Section 11 "Gender and Politics".
Panel title "Gender... more Panel proposal -SISP annual conference 2022 Section 11 "Gender and Politics".
Panel title "Gender and leadership. Researching the contexts and impacts of inclusive leadership"
Panel proposed for the 6th conference ECPR standing group on parliaments, 1-2 July 2021
In the present context of social insecurity and political realignment, populist parties and movem... more In the present context of social insecurity and political realignment, populist parties and movements are everywhere on the rise, both on the left and on the right. In the abundant literature now available in the field of populism studies, there is increasing attention to the complex relationship between populism, gender and feminist politics. This 2-days international conference wants to provide a space to deepen the discussion around the diverse ways in which gender is constructed, mobilized and contested in the populist political moment. Benefitting from a widespread sense of crisis, the populist surge also confronts neoliberal hegemony. While left-wing populism rails against economic neoliberalism, the populist right is mounting an attack on neoliberal culture, in which anti-feminism takes centre stage. As Nancy Fraser describes, 'authoritarian populism' takes aim at a regime of 'progressive neoliberalism', a form of elitist liberalism that managed to co-opt and disarm the emancipatory agenda put forward by the New Social Movements since the 1970s. This diagnosis has been contested, but it raises interesting questions about the position of feminism in the populist dichotomy between the establishment and the people. In recent years, the populist radical right has appropriated the conservative agenda on gender issues, sponsoring patriarchal social relations and heteronormativity through masculinist tropes, maternalist policies as well as by joining, supporting or creating anti-gender mobilizations. Often, gender and religion have been used as criteria to identify the people of the 'heartland' and the outsider groups, in what Sara Farris calls 'femonationalism'. Also, anti-gender issues create a common ground for the creation of transnational (populist) radical right identities and movements, overcoming the constraints to internationalization processes posed by the nationalist core value of radical right ideology.
Book Reviews by Francesca FEO
European Political Science, 2021
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Peer-reviewed papers by Francesca FEO
resurgence of feminism in mainstream culture. This resurgence coincides with a rise in feminist activism, as testified by the many campaigns that have mobilized millions of people around the issues of violence against women, sexual harassment, reproductive injustice, and abortion rights. This article draws on the literature on the cultural consequences of social
movements to explore if and how the new wave of grassroot feminist activism influenced feminist themes in top-charting mainstream popular music. We conducted a thematic analysis of the lyrics of all female-performed songs in the Swedish Top-60 and Danish Top-40 between 2017 and 2018. Our results show that neoliberal feminist themes count for the majority of the feminist themes detected. However, performers also employed themes scribable to radical and liberal feminist traditions. We conclude with some reflections on the commercialization of feminist messages, pointing to openings for further research.
Papers by Francesca FEO
Book Chapters by Francesca FEO
Call for papers by Francesca FEO
Panel title "Gender and leadership. Researching the contexts and impacts of inclusive leadership"
Book Reviews by Francesca FEO