{"id":9018,"date":"2018-02-06T10:37:02","date_gmt":"2018-02-06T08:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/?p=9018"},"modified":"2018-02-06T10:51:23","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T08:51:23","slug":"why-are-women-joining-far-right-movements-and-why-are-we-so-surprised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/2018\/02\/why-are-women-joining-far-right-movements-and-why-are-we-so-surprised\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are women joining far-right movements, and why are we so surprised?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open democracy<\/a>\u00a0– Women\u2019s \u2018shocking\u2019 participation in far-right politics has received much media attention. But is this a new trend, or have we been here before?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dozens of feature articles have recently marvelled at the increasingly female face of the far right in Europe and North America. The\u00a0New York Times<\/a>reported, for instance, on the increased visibility of women in the upper-echelons of far-right parties, from France to Norway. A\u00a0Vogue<\/a>\u00a0feature described this as \u201cthe friendly face of right-wing politics,\u201d and \u201can attempt to soften and feminise\u201d the European far right\u2019s extreme views.<\/p>\n

In North America, numerous reports have asked what draws women to radical conservative and \u2018alt-right\u2019 movements. In Canada, the\u00a0Montreal Gazette<\/a>\u00a0said far-right women are \u201ccoming out of the shadows\u201d in Quebec to participate in anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim campaigns in growing numbers.\u00a0Marie Claire<\/a>\u00a0said such apparent trends were nothing less than \u201cshocking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The core question posed by such pieces is: Why are women joining far-right movements? But we must also ask: Why are we so surprised? After all, these issues are not new. \u201cWhat attracts women to far-right movements that appear to denigrate their rights? This question has vexed feminist scholars for decades,\u201d is how\u00a0one historian<\/a>\u00a0put it.<\/p>\n

The far right is often seen or assumed to be toxically masculine and a no-go zone for women. But the uncomfortable truth is that women also have a long history in far-right movements. Women played\u00a0key roles in white supremacist movements<\/a>\u00a0in the United States, for example, including as\u00a0propagandists and figureheads<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no reason to expect women to be less bigoted than men,\u201d\u00a0historian Linda Gordon<\/a>\u00a0concluded. Her research into the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) estimated that at least 1.5 million American women were members in the 1920s, including one third of all white Protestant women living in Indiana.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen organised Klan rights of passage, baptisms, graduations, marriages and funerals,\u201d Gordon said\u00a0in a recent interview<\/a>. Some women, who \u201cmay not have been vigilantes themselves, nevertheless, supported vigilantism.\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

In the 1990s, US academic Glen Jeansonne wrote about\u00a0far-right women in America during the second world war<\/a>, and the so-called \u201cmothers\u2019 movement\u201d which opposed US intervention but was not pacifist; its ideology was instead a mix of militant Christianity, anti-communism and anti-Semitism, he said.<\/p>\n

Twentieth century\u00a0fascist movements in Europe<\/a>\u00a0were known for stressing women\u2019s responsibilities at home. In Italy,\u00a0conservative ideals of good Fascist mothers and wives<\/a>\u00a0were prominent in propaganda campaigns. Thousands of non-conforming women were locked\u00a0in asylums<\/a>\u00a0for \u2018moral deviancy\u2019. In Germany, it was Kinder, K\u00fcche, and Kirche (children, kitchen, and church).<\/p>\n

Our history books are products of our societies too.\u00a0Historians have also been influenced<\/a>\u00a0by \u201cprevailing prejudices about the \u2018apolitical\u2019 nature of women,\u201d and women\u2019s supposed \u201cpredilection for the domestic sphere,\u201d noted one academic. Has women\u2019s participation been overlooked because researchers assumed they were just subjects, or \u2018victims,\u2019 of far-right regimes?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe common assumption [is] that fascism is a misogynist movement which has tended to exclude women,\u201d according to researcher\u00a0Martin Durham<\/a>\u00a0who contrasted this with cases of women\u2019s active participation in fascist politics in France, Germany, Italy and the UK.<\/p>\n

In Spain, the fascist Secci\u00f3n Femenina (SF) was \u201cone of the most highly organised, mass women’s organisation in Spanish history,\u201d and a \u201cformidable political force,\u201d said\u00a0one account<\/a>. Among other things it organised social assistance programmes and mass vaccination campaigns.<\/p>\n

The SF\u2019s promoted an \u2018ideal woman\u2019 who was self-sacrificing and obedient to men, but it was also seen by some women as empowering as it recognised and respected their otherwise neglected labour caring for children and other relatives. In the 1960s, the SF also successfully lobbied for new legislation on women\u2019s labour rights.<\/p>\n

In the UK, many historical reports also \u201coverlooked the contribution of the women’s movement to Britain’s fascist experience<\/a>,\u201d and thus failed to examine how far some women went to support Oswald Mosley’s \u2018blackshirts,\u2019 notes academic Julie Gottlieb.<\/p>\n

Mosley\u2019s movement even appealed to\u00a0some former suffragettes<\/a>. Though it has \u201ctraditionally been seen as predominantly an aggressively male movement,\u201d there was \u201cextensive participation of women,\u201d said author Martin Pugh.<\/p>\n

Some women received training in jiujitsu to throw female Communists out of meetings. Others went door-to-door to campaign for support and canvas for votes, presenting \u201ca more reassuring image of fascism than that created by street violence and mass demonstrations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFascism\u2019s relationship with women has been neither consistent nor predictable,\u201d is\u00a0Durham\u2019s conclusion<\/a>. While men may have been more visible in such movments, large numbers of women also participated as voters, members, fundraisers, marchers, party officials, and more.<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s participation in a range of political movements has been ignored or written out of history. \u201cWe\u2019ve had many social justice movements… led by men. A lot of women have participated in those movements, however their work has never been recognised,\u201d said\u00a0Carmen Perez<\/a>, one of the co-chairs of the Women\u2019s March movement in the US.<\/p>\n

Can this help explain why we\u2019re surprised at women\u2019s participation in far-right politics? Could it be because we so rarely hear about women in radical politics, writ large? Meanwhile, what really motivates women to join such movements, and what do they gain out of their participation?<\/p>\n

We are asking such questions on\u00a050.50<\/a>, the openDemocracy section covering gender and sexuality, in a special series on women and the far right. This series is part of an\u00a0openDemocracy partnership with the World Forum for Democracy<\/a>, which in 2017 focused on populism.<\/p>\n

Series pieces include an in-depth feature on\u00a0how the Italian media have helped the far-right group CasaPound to \u2018glamourise\u2019 fascism<\/a>. 50.50 writer Claudia Torrisi looks at how the fascist movement is working to clean up its image and \u201cbuild new political credibility\u201d in the mainstream, ahead of this year\u2019s national elections. The Italian media has been complicit in this process, she says.<\/p>\n

Torrisi shows how media coverage focused on the movement\u2019s female members has fawned over their beauty, and their dedication to the children and husbands, while glossing over the violence and danger of this increasingly visible fascist group. Though one prominent woman militant says the movement is actually \u201cdeconstructing the theory of the misogyny of fascists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isabel Marler and Macarena Aguilar meanwhile explored women\u2019s participation in the\u00a0growing Buddhist nationalist movement<\/a>\u00a0in Myanmar (also known as Burma), where 2017 military \u201cclearance operations\u201d killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya people. These actions have been denounced by the United Nations as ethnic cleansing.<\/p>\n

Movements are complex and comprised of many people who may have diverse motives. Women in Myanmar who have been marginalised at home and in powerful institutions may find empowerment and opportunities within the Buddhist nationalist movement that they don\u2019t elsewhere. Female members have specifically\u00a0referenced feminism\u00a0<\/a>as a reason for their participation.<\/p>\n

Anthropologist Melyn McKay said women in this movement have received \u201ca powerful platform\u2026 to elevate the concerns of women and bring visibility to the struggles they face in daily life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Globally, women\u2019s rights advocates\u00a0are warning<\/a>\u00a0that fundamentalists of diverse stripes are co-opting progressive language of rights and justice to pursue their own dangerous and divisive agendas. This includes movements which have used women\u2019s rights used \u201cto justify their hate-filled ideologies,\u201d said Shareen Gokal at the\u00a0Association for Women\u2019s Rights in Development\u00a0<\/a>(AWID).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea that Muslim communities are singularly oppressive towards women is consistently mobilised to widen support,\u201d said Gokal, adding that these movements may be patriarchal, perpetuating \u201coppressive gender norms,\u201d while simultaneously offering women \u201copportunities to experience some form of empowerment through political action, participation and even leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the US, Marilyn Mayo,\u00a0senior research fellow with the Anti-Defamation League<\/a>, told us that young women are also joining \u2018alt-right\u2019 movements but that these \u201cdon\u2019t necessarily want women to be the leaders\u2026 they think women can play supportive roles in terms of producing white children, so when [young women] get active and start having a voice, they can face criticism from some of the men.\u201d<\/p>\n

In India\u2019s Hindutva movement, women are \u201creally active publicly and that changes social discourses,\u201d says researcher Akanksha Mehta. But many men want to restrict women’s roles in the movement to online work, emotional labour, outreach, charity work and administrative tasks, she said. \u201cThey are not fine with women being active on the streets in certain ways, or being part of the violence or leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

A Golden Dawn rally. Credit: Golden Dawn Girls.<\/span><\/span><\/span>Coming up soon on 50.50, journalist Niki Seth-Smith looks at the new documentary Golden Dawn Girls, which she says gives new voice to Greek women in the country\u2019s far-right elite. \u201cWomen have been written out of history for their shocking contributions, as well as for their positive roles,\u201d she says, while this film throws the spotlight on three women relatives of prominent Golden Dawn members.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen’s roles in far-right and neo-Nazi groups have in the past been underestimated,\u201d she writes. Reports may focus on movement leadership and parliamentary politics, for instance, or front-line acts of violence, while underplaying the importance of emotional and reproductive labour. When one of the Golden Dawn Girls tells her grandchildren \u201cto go play with guns,\u201d Seth-Smith notes that this is also performing a key role for the party.<\/p>\n

From the UK, we\u2019ll also hear from several young, female faces of the alt-right and what\u2019s motivated them to join these movements. One told us: \u201cIn order to be successful and get bigger, more women need to join. That is why the left was so powerful for so long.\u201d Another stressed: \u201cThe biggest misconception about women like me on the right is that we have \u2018internalised misogyny.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jayda<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

J<\/span><\/span><\/span>ayda Fransen (right), deputy leader of of far right group Britain First, 2017. Picture: Claire Doherty\/SIPA USA\/PA Images. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/span><\/span>Globally, the rise of ultra-conservative, extremist, and far-right politics poses serious risks to women\u2019s rights. This was the conclusion of a 2017 report from\u00a0UN special rapporteur Karima Bennoune<\/a>, which warned of growing \u201cpopulist ultra-nationalism\u201d that disregards key principles of equality, and the universality of human rights.<\/p>\n

In Poland \u2013 where\u00a060,000 nationalists marched<\/a>\u00a0on Warsaw on the country\u2019s independence day in 2017, chanting slogans like \u201cPure Poland, white Poland!\u201d and \u201cRefugees get out!\u201d in one of the largest far-right demonstrations in Europe in recent years \u2013 the government has also restricted reproductive rights,\u00a0pushing abortion services underground<\/a><\/p>\n

In several countries, far-right parties have manipulated women\u2019s rights demands into tools in Islamophobic campaigns. France\u2019s Le Pen\u00a0used the 2015 New Years\u2019 Eve sexual attacks in Cologne, Germany,<\/a>\u00a0to call for a referendum on immigration to France, saying: \u201cI am scared that the migrant crisis signals the beginning of the end of women\u2019s rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2017, Germany\u2019s far-right AfD party launched an outrageous\u00a0ad campaign<\/a>ahead of the country\u2019s federal elections, including a\u00a0posters<\/a>\u00a0that read: \u201cBurkas? We prefer bikinis,\u201d displaying two women in skimpy bathing suits. Other ads had an image of a pregnant woman\u2019s body,\u00a0with the words:<\/a>\u00a0\u201cNew Germans? We\u2019ll make them ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FEMEN<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

FEMEN protest during a demonstration of far-right nationalist groups in Paris, 2013. Photo: Messyasz Nicolas\/ABACA\/PA Images. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/span><\/span>Divisive populists are a main obstacle to women\u2019s rights, said FEMEN activist Inna Shevchenko, trying to \u201ccreate clashes between groups\u201d by reducing people single identities and \u201cplaying on fear and insecurity.\u201d We spoke to her at the 2017 World Forum for Democracy in Strasbourg, France, where there was an oversubscribed sessions on the \u2018female face of the far right<\/a>.\u2019<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll publish a video interview with Shevchenko, followed by pieces exploring how \u2018Army of God\u2019 anti-abortion extremists in the US have been emboldened under Donald Trump\u2019s presidency, and how Mexico City \u2013 which decriminalised abortion a decade ago \u2013 remains an island in a sea of anti-abortion states, while the right to choose is under threat here too.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll also examine how television and cinema have become \u2018battlegrounds\u2019 for a Christian right \u2018spiritual war\u2019 over gender roles and what \u2018the family\u2019 should look like, as part of our ongoing series\u00a0tracking the backlash\u00a0<\/a>against sexual and reproductive rights. And we\u2019ll ask: What is pushing, or pulling, young women in particular to far-right and ultra-conservative movements?<\/p>\n

Angry young women on the right are increasingly visible online, notably on YouTube, loudly rejecting progressive values. Twenty-two year old Laura Southern is among them; her videos on YouTube, presenting bigoted views on every conceivable topic, have been viewed millions of times.<\/p>\n

Southern also describes hating feminism, and her desire for a return to \u201ctraditional\u201d values, yet she has been criticised as well from within her movement for\u00a0not being married nor a mother herself.<\/a><\/p>\n

Recently, we met a number of young alt-right women in the UK, north London party to celebrate the one year anniversary of Trump\u2019s inauguration as US president. They had different stories and political journeys. Some had higher education. Some were immigrants.<\/p>\n

Notably, several said their journeys had begun on the political left, changing course after feeling ignored or bullied. They rejected feminism flat-out, calling it hypocritical, unnecessary and even dangerous for casting women as victims, and men as predators.<\/p>\n

The atmosphere at the party was rebellious; many talked about the \u2018right to offend\u2019 and lashed out at so-called \u2018political correctness.\u2019 It was still a noticeably male-dominated event, however. Members of the white supremacist and anti-Muslim group Generation Identity were also present.<\/p>\n

Women are more active and visible in political life all over the world; perhaps it is not surprising at all that they are also represented in these movements too. The idea that women are naturally \u2018peaceful,\u2019 or less likely to espouse hateful or divisive views, is also an unhelpful stereotype.<\/p>\n

There is a huge amount of anger (and skilled, political acrobacy) on the far right \u2013 which translates into a huge amount of energy. We have been here before, and to dismiss these women, leave such trends unexamined, or reduce all women\u2019s experiences to oversimplified, single story-lines, could be mistakes of historic proportions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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