Female Leaders and the Populist Radical Right in the Nordic Countries

This article examines female leadership in populist radical right (PRR) parties in the Nordic countries, challenging the traditional view of these parties as “Männerparteien.” Building upon research on the centrality of gender to the radical right, we analyse biographical material covering the private and professional lives of two generations of female PRR leaders in Denmark (Pia Kjærsgaard), Finland (Riikka Purra), and Norway (Siv Jensen and Sylvi Listhaug). Our findings show that these leaders strategically balance hegemonic masculinity and femininity, drawing on masculine codes to frame themselves as top-down disciplining managers and tough party leaders while simultaneously invoking their private lives to highlight care, empathy, and softer values. The analysis also reveals generational differences tracking broader ideological transformations within the parties, with implications for leadership style and performance. Younger PRR female leaders place greater emphasis on radical and ethnonationalist agendas and appear less concerned about balancing masculine authority with feminine expectations.