Depoliticizing Gender Inequality: Right-Wing Cultural Repertoires of Gender Equality

European right-wing actors increasingly profess commitment to gender equality while opposing measures designed to combat gendered inequalities. While research has examined how elite actors and party rhetoric instrumentalize the language of gender equality to mobilize support, how right-wing voters understand and use the language of gender equality remains unclear. Drawing on survey data and a series of focus groups, this article analyzes how right-wing voters in the gender-equal context of Denmark depoliticize gendered inequalities. I show that right-wing voters and members of Gen Z understand gender equality differently than other groups in Denmark, and I identify two distinct cultural repertoires of gender equality that right-wing voters enact. Although older right-wing populist voters employ a repertoire that essentializes differences between men and women while young right-wing voters adopt a neoliberal repertoire centered around career, each repertoire depoliticizes existing inequalities while idealizing gender equality. These findings emphasize that commitment to gender equality does not mean commitment to combating gender inequality and show how devotion to the ideal of gender equality can still lead to the naturalization of inequality.