Charismatic female leadership and gender: Pia Kjærsgaard and the Danish People’s Party

Research on the leadership and electorates of populist right-wing parties emphasizes that most of these parties are charismatic and male-dominated, both as regards their leadership and voters. However, while studies about the gender gap focus mainly on demand-side factors, such as electoral support, socio-economic characteristics and the voters' attitudes towards issues such as immigration, those that analyse the role and position of gender issues are still rare. Similarly, or even more, overlooked is an analysis of the rhetoric, style, charisma and discourse of populist female leaders, such as those representative of two well-established Scandinavian populist parties: the Dansk Folkeparti and Norway's Fremskrittspartiet.