Political polarization is often understood as a byproduct of the dynamics of the political conflict that increases mistrust and animosity towards those perceived as the opponents (Iyengar et al., 2019; Iyengar & Westwood, 2015). Following events around the world, the scholarly literature has devoted considerable attention in the last years to understanding how to measure it (Druckman & Levendusky, 2019; Reiljan, 2020) and its consequences for the political system (Gidron et al., 2020; Iyengar et al., 2019; Orriols & León, 2021). Less attention has been awarded to whether gendered patterns emerge, thus, the research question driving this article is to what extent is there a gender gap in political polarization?

To the best of our knowledge, limited attention has been paid to this issue (aside from research published by Norrander & Wilcox, 2008 and Ondercin and Lizotte, 2021) mostly in the US context. Paradoxically, their findings are contradictory with existing theorizations of the gender gap literature in political engagement. The latter argue that one of the main drivers of women’s lesser engagement with politics is related to the masculinization of the political realm (Coffé & Bolzendahl, 2010; Hooghe & Stolle, 2004). The underlying argument is that women are socialized to stimulate their caring and cooperative traits, while men are socialized to thrive in competitive environments. Thus, women would be expected to be less polarized than men. In contrast, Ondercin and Lizotte (2021) find that women tend to be more polarized than men.

This proposal uses data from the POLMEMO survey to explore gendered patterns of political polarization in Spain regarding its recent past to better understand its drivers and the extent to which existing results can be extended to other contexts outside the US.