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Right-Wing Populism and Gender: A Preliminary Cartography of an Emergent Field of Research

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Abstract

While research in right-wing populism has recently been blossoming, a systematic study of the intersection of right-wing populism and gender is still missing, even though gender issues are ubiquitous in discourses of the radical right ranging from »ethnosexism« against immigrants, to »anti-genderism.« This volume shows that the intersectionality of gender, race and class is constitutional for radical right discourse. From different European perspectives, the contributions investigate the ways in which gender is used as a meta-language, strategic tool and »affective bridge« for ordering and hierarchizing political objectives in the discourse of the diverse actors of the »right-wing complex.«
Right-Wing Populism and Gender: A Preliminary
Cartography of an Emergent Field of Research
Gabriele Dietze and Julia Roth
            
           
             
              
            
         
          
          
          
          
              
            
           
           
      
              
           
            
         
          
         
          
             
           
          
        
            
            
          
  
8 Gabriele Dietze and Julia Roth
           
           
          
                
         
           
           
             
           
            
   
          
           
            
            
          
             
              
          
          
          
          
           
           
            
            
           
             
               
       
           
             
          
          
           
            
           
          
          
            
Right-Wing Populism and Gender 9
            
     
            
             
             
           
          
         
            
             
             
            
             
            
             
           
       
Fields of Inquiry – Emergent Research
            
             
            
           
            
      
      
          
            
           
          
         
           
              
1 Internationally, special issues appeared in Signs (Spring 2019, vol. 44 no. 3, on ‘Gender and
the Rise of the Global Right’) and Women’s Studies International Forum (May-June 2018, vol.
68, on ‘Feminisms in Times of Anti-Genderism, Racism and Austerity’), and Feministische
Studien (Nov. 2018, vol. 36, no. 2, on the normalization of neo-reactionary policies).
10 Gabriele Dietze and Julia Roth
           
            
           
           
         
           
          
        
             
      
            
           
        
          
          
            
         
     
            
            
            
        
           
          
         
             
          
         
          
        
         
           
             
2 See for example from the Netherlands: de Lange; Mügge, 2015, 61-80; Scandinavia: Akker-
man; Hagelund, 2007, 197-214; Meret; Siim, 2013, 78-96; Norocel, 2010, 170-183; Italy: Farris,
2017, and for France: Mayer, 2015, 391-414; Morgan, 2017, 887-906; Scrinzi, 2017, 87-101.
3 The study is also published in German: Gutsche, 2018b, Both, the English and the German
version can be found online as pdf les: library.fes.de/pdf-les/dialog/14636.pdf; https://li-
brary.fes.de/pdf-les/dialog/14630.pdf. For an overview of German-language research on
right-wing populism and gender, see Lang, 2018b, 147-161; Lang, 2018a; Fritzsche, 2018, 335-
346 and FE.IN, 2019.
Right-Wing Populism and Gender 11
         
           
          
            
               
           
            
    
            
             
            
          
            
         
             
            
           
          
           
               
             
             
  
         
          
            
         
           
           
          
     
           
           
           
            
          
            
            
           
           
              
12 Gabriele Dietze and Julia Roth
        
             
          
            
         
          
          
         
         
             
          
         
             
              
           
             
            
            
          
           
          
             
         
    
Racialized Sexual Politics – Old and New Modernities
            
          
            
             
            
          
        
         
         
         
           
            
            
Right-Wing Populism and Gender 13
            
           
        
        
           
          
            
            
          
           
            
         
          
             
         
             
          
            
          
      
          
           
            
             
          
           
         
        
            
             
         
          
            
            
            
          
        
         
            
            
          
14 Gabriele Dietze and Julia Roth
            
          
          
        
             
           
           
              
          
         
        
Gender as Meta-Language for Political Maneuvering
           
           
         
                
           
           
         
          
              
             
            
           
            
           
         
            
           
          
            
          
            
             
             
             
            
         
Right-Wing Populism and Gender 15
             
          
            
             
           
             
             
           
          
           
            
         
             
            
            

            
             
            
             
           
          
          
         
              
            
             
            
             
             
           
           
    

           
           
         
   
             
16 Gabriele Dietze and Julia Roth
         
               
        
          
            
           
            
           
      
            
            
             
         
           
           
            
           
            
               
            
           
              
            
          
             
            
         
             
             
       
Bibliography
         
          
        
           
 
       
       
Right-Wing Populism and Gender 17
        
          
     
       
       
     
       
        
 
      
       
        

      
       
         
          
           
   
         
    
  
         
   
             
    
          
           
         
   
 
        
          
  
          
         

         
  
 
18 Gabriele Dietze and Julia Roth
            
       
            
             
           
          
    
         
         
  
        
      
    
       
            
          
          
          
       
          
           
     
          
          
 
            
   
      
        
       

        
         
      
           
            
 
      
           

Right-Wing Populism and Gender 19
            
        
          
         

       
      
 
         
       
    
          
   
 
           
        
            
  
         
           
        
          
    
        
      
         
       
 
         
        
         
      
  
      
       
      
        
        
          
         

20 Gabriele Dietze and Julia Roth
             
     
       
           
        
          
          
          
       
         
        
         
           

        
         
           
     
          
            
    
         
    
       
        
         
     
       
       
 
           
   
     
   
         
    
       
           
      
          
         
Right-Wing Populism and Gender 21
          
         
          
    
        
          
     
          
       
      
      
      
         
        
       
         
           
 
           
         
   
          
          

           
           
      
        
 
 
           
    
           
    
          
  
        
       

... These debates essentially address gender as a social versus biological construct, assess social practices shaped by gender roles and hierarchies, and contribute to or critique the formation of struggles for the idea of equality. Gender also serves as a metalanguage for negotiating different axes and practices of social and political power, for shaping struggles around cultural and moral hegemony, and for sustaining visions that make sense of supposed contemporary experiences of crisis (Dietze & Roth, 2020). Issues of gender equality have thus become a central theme for many populist radical right parties. ...
... In terms of polarization dynamics, gender issues are used as symbols in the cultural battle between the radical right and the progressive left, as part of the right's effort to draw a clear dividing line between "true patriots" or "ordinary people" and a liberal elite, perceived as out of touch and decadent. To this extent, the critique of "gender ideology" emerges as a defining characteristic of populist radical right parties (Dietze & Roth, 2020;Mudde & Kaltwasser, 2015), and as a tool to create a conservative political identity (Iyengar et al., 2012). ...
Preprint
Full-text available
Is the existence of populist sentiments linked to greater affective polarization? Is there a relationship between these two factors (populist sentiments and affective polarization) and the endorsement of far-right ideologies? Are there differences in the types of media prioritized by individuals with varying levels of affective polarization? This exploratory study, conducted in the context of the early legislative elections in Portugal in April 2024, analyzes data from a sample of 130 first-time young voters. It suggests an association between the defense of far-right arguments, the possession of populist sentiments, and levels of affective polarization. The study also found variations in affective polarization among young people who prioritized different types of social media to inform themselves on political issues.
... Exclusions along migration, gender, and sexuality lines are deeply embedded in a global context of austerity and liberal capitalism. This context has proven fertile ground for populist mobilisations, drawing on convenient 'scapegoats' or 'enemy figures'-whether Muslim migrants or LGBTQ+ minorities-to create new societal polarisations (Kováts, 2017;Grzebalska & Pető, 2018;Dietze & Roth, 2020a). Once hailed as triumphant, the (liberal) democratic model is now cracking all over the world. ...
... Many of these, such as the League (Lega) in Italy, were already vocal in targeting gender and sexual minorities. With religious-conservative movements popularising anti-gender claims, right-wing populists could more easily use these alongside a strong anti-migrant agenda as a strategy to enter mainstream politics and expand their appeal to voters (Dietze & Roth, 2020a;Hellström et al., 2020). Across these agendas, so-called 'gender ideology' has proven a powerful 'symbolic glue' (Kováts & Põim, 2015) connecting right-wing populist and religious-conservative actors. ...
Chapter
Full-text available
This edited volume ‘Excluding Diversity Through Intersectional Borderings: Politics, Policies and Daily Lives’ critically examines the interplay between anti-migrant and anti-gender discourses and policies in Europe and North America, elucidating their convergence and divergence in targeting migrants and their families. The analysis foregrounds the normative constructions of family, gender, and sexuality that underpin these exclusionary political narratives and policies. Central to the analysis is Cassidy et al.’s (2018) concept of intersectional borderings, which articulates the reproduction of complex experiences at the intersections of gender, race/ethnicity, and sexuality. The book contributes to the burgeoning scholarship on the governance and exclusion of migrant families by scrutinising how bordering processes are constructed through exclusions based on race, gender, and sexuality. It demonstrates the perpetuation of these processes by radical-right and conservative political movements, as well as their institutionalisation in migration, welfare, and family policies. Furthermore, it investigates the dual nature of these exclusionary discourses and policies, considering both the resistance and reinforcement by the ‘audiences’ of such discourses and those affected by them in their daily lives. This chapter outlines the key concepts and themes of the volume, underscores its contribution to the analysis of exclusion processes, and provides an overview of the nine chapters of the book.
... Exclusions along migration, gender, and sexuality lines are deeply embedded in a global context of austerity and liberal capitalism. This context has proven fertile ground for populist mobilisations, drawing on convenient 'scapegoats' or 'enemy figures'-whether Muslim migrants or LGBTQ+ minorities-to create new societal polarisations (Kováts, 2017;Grzebalska & Pető, 2018;Dietze & Roth, 2020a). Once hailed as triumphant, the (liberal) democratic model is now cracking all over the world. ...
... Many of these, such as the League (Lega) in Italy, were already vocal in targeting gender and sexual minorities. With religious-conservative movements popularising anti-gender claims, right-wing populists could more easily use these alongside a strong anti-migrant agenda as a strategy to enter mainstream politics and expand their appeal to voters (Dietze & Roth, 2020a;Hellström et al., 2020). Across these agendas, so-called 'gender ideology' has proven a powerful 'symbolic glue' (Kováts & Põim, 2015) connecting right-wing populist and religious-conservative actors. ...
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This open access book critically examines how discourses and policies target and exclude migrants and their families in Europe and North America along racial, gender and sexuality lines, and how these exclusions are experienced and resisted. Building on the influential notion of intersectional borderings, it delves deep into how these discourses converge and diverge, highlighting the underlying normative constructs of family, gender, and sexuality. First, it examines how radical-right and conservative political movements perpetuate exclusionary practices and how they become institutionalized in migration, welfare, and family policies. Second, it examines the dynamic responses they provoke—both resistance and reinforcement—among those affected in their everyday lives. Bringing together studies from political and social sciences, it offers a vital contribution to the expanding field of migrant family governance and exclusion and is essential for understanding the complex processes of exclusion and the movements that challenge and sustain them. It expands academic discussions on populism and the politics of exclusion by linking them to the politicization of intimacy and family life. With diverse case studies from Europe, North, and Central America, it appeals to students, academics, and policymakers, informing future mobilizations against discriminatory and exclusionary tendencies in politics and society.
... These parties can also demonstrate how the "political elite" goes "too far" to protect minority rights, such as LGBTQ + people (Spierings, 2020). Furthermore, far-right populism is based on the construction of an internal enemy (in which LGBTQ + activists are inserted) and an external enemy (in which the "gender ideology" is inserted), in order to polarize the opinions of society (Dietze & Roth, 2020). ...
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Introduction Homosexuality was decriminalized in Portugal in 1982, and several legislative changes have emerged since the beginning of the twenty-first century. However, 2010 marked the beginning of the approval of fundamental laws for the life of LGBTQ + people, such as same-sex marriage, access to parenthood and the right to self-determination of gender identity. Despite these advances, discrimination is still present in Portuguese society. Methods The aim of this investigation is to study the processes and experiences of discrimination of LGBTQ + people in their daily lives, analyzing the perception of the discrepancy between legislation and the experiences of participants. Its aim is also to analyze the strategies suggested by the participants to reduce this discrepancy. To this end, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 LGBTQ + participants, of various sexual orientations (six gay men, three lesbian women, six bisexual persons, five pansexual individuals, and one who identified as “other”) and gender identities (six transgender participants, including two trans men, two non-binary persons, one trans woman, and one genderqueer participant). Results Content analysis of these interviews resulted in 828 units of analysis coded in 30 categories. The participants reported that they have gone through multiple experiences of discrimination in different contexts and that they recognize forces of resistance to legal innovation. Conclusion There is a gap between legal advances and the experiences of LGBTQ+ people in Portugal, who still report discrimination experiences in many domains of daily life. Policy Implications Implications for research and public policies are presented, particularly considering the need to inform and provide training to both strategic audiences and stakeholders and to inform the larger population to promote social change.
... On the other side, there is a continuing evolution of what constitutes the mainstream. For instance, the political opportunists of the moderate mainstream can circulate a discourse in the public sphere similar to the past repulsive radical right, in terms of content, style, and/or agenda, thereby revealing the strength of the radical right to define what constitutes the dominant approach to social reality (Dietze and Roth 2020;Fraser 2017;Jessel 2019;Mondon 2013). For example, one could think of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory promoted by the radical right and now discussed and remobilized by the mainstream center-right and established mass media (Ekman 2022;Linders 2024). ...
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The radical right has become a central political force in most Western democracies. This process has been the result of the normalization and mainstreaming of its political leaders, discourses, and visions of society, notably involving the scapegoating of immigration and the use of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory. However, the normalization and mainstreaming of radical right actors competing for the leadership of their overall political family remain an under-researched topic. The scope of the current article is to explore this phenomenon by considering the case of France, which after the United States, is the largest Western state that could potentially be ruled by a radical right president with extensive executive powers. The analysis shows that actors competing for the leadership of the radical right in a given country can generate diverging strategies of normalization and mainstreaming to secure their political distinction. Immigration and the Great Replacement constitute, respectively, a topic and a conspiracy theory that are emphasized and/or downplayed by opportunistic stakeholders weaving a web of interactions to define their comparative legitimacy and supremacy in the public sphere.
... empowered and some even consider themselves as feminists (Dietze & Roth, 2020). Feminist perspectives have provided valuable insights into the motivation of the far-right women in Japan, the subjects of the current study. ...
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While far-right movements are commonly associated with masculinity and women are in the minority, it is notable that they often play significant roles within these movements. To deepen our understanding of the motivations behind women's participation, this study challenges Blee's argument that women's motivations for participating are shaped by their interactions with other members. By using the psychosocial method devised by Hollway and Jefferson and developed by Gadd, the present study argues that women's pre-participation experiences can play a vital part in drawing them to the movements. Through analyzing the life stories of six far-right women in Japan and conducting an in-depth case study of three of them, the study aims to uncover a wide range of experiences that may initially appear unrelated to far-right ideology but ultimately led these subjects to become involved in far-right movements. It highlights the importance of paying attention to their complex subjectivities, which are formed by the interplay between their unique trajectories and societal transitions concerning gender norms, particularly within the era of neoliberal "emancipation." The study finds that the duality of far-right movements, which combine conservatism with
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In recent years, feminist scholarship has contributed a gender perspectives to examine extremist narratives, motivations and recruitment, as well as gender-responsive strategies to counter extremism. A systematic framework for analysing how gender operates at multiple levels to promote or counter extremisms, however, does not exist. To address this need, we offer a typology with three dimensions drawn from feminist theory: gendered identity, referring to the concept of a person’s gender; gendered ideology, referring to the role gender plays in the mobilising myths of states and non-state organisations; and gendered power dynamics, referring to the hierarchical order of femininities and masculinities structuring the environments in which extremism takes root. The article applies the gender typology to far-right, Buddhist and Islamist extremisms, illustrating the analytical power of gender to explain and interpret diverse extremisms while highlighting patterns and relationships across them in broader global politics. We argue that it is vital to study the intersecting dynamics of gender in order to both understand and challenge extremisms that are increasingly prevalent globally.
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The present chapter attempts to relate the theoretical considerations made to current policy practice and the implications this may have for recognised or unrecognised groups in minority situations. More precisely, we engage with the cultural and political demands raised by minority groups which may coincide and lead to amalgamation of ‘intercultural demands’ as these concern the public sphere and institutions; others address this under the label ‘legal accommodation of difference’ or ‘group-differentiated citizenship’. These broadly reflect what has become known as politics of recognition and their different strands in contemporary politics as it is demanded by, inter-alia, minority or subaltern groups, feminist thought or the politics of multiculturalism and plurinationalism at large. The chapter approaches the problem emerging with the ignorance of difference that builds on the premise of a culturally homogenous State: the normative (the ‘ought to’ question relating to equality paradigms or differentiated treatment) and the empirical (‘on the ground realities’ of inequalities) enter a contested field of negotiation here with often contrasting portrayals of societal (in)equality. More thought is devoted to those factors impeding recognition politics from developing true effectiveness, political couleur requiring our special attention in that regard. In that sense, the equality principles, non-discrimination paradigms or human rights non-specificism will be examined in view of the changing panorama of governance processes, political alliances and the dangers for minority situations as they are posed by the political right-wing and the growing instrumentalization of equality paradigms.
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This paper focuses on the anti-gender movement in Central and Eastern Europe, as a part of the global phenomenon. Based on both the subject literature and the author’s own research, it points out its anti-democratic character and its role in de-democratizing change in the region. Although the main features and strategies of the movement are common on the global or European levels, its developments in the CEE region are unique: the state policies incorporate the political agenda of the anti-gender movement or even the actors of the anti-gender movement effectively affect the state policies. As the main actors apply the strategy of staying behind the curtain and steering from the backseat, the main research problem lies in revealing their role, which is why the most successful analyses result from combining local research with the international exchange of findings and comparative analysis. The anti-gender movement in the CEE region has succeeded in two main fields: anti- abortion and anti-LGBT+ policies, and these two fields are taken into account in the paper, while the others are only mentioned. State homophobia is associated with Putin’s Russia, especially after February 24, 2022, it is also typical for several countries of the CE region, including European Union member states. Strict anti-abortion law has been developed in Poland, which is why author’s research focuses on this aspect. The case study analysis of Ordo Iuris, the Polish flagship of the local anti-gender movement, offers a significant example of a local level of the anti gender network.
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Zusammenfassung Kalkulierte Ambivalenz ist ein rhetorisches Prinzip, das in Parteiprogrammen, in der politischen Werbung, in konsensorientierten Kommunikationstypen wie Gedenkreden, in diplomatischen Text- und Diskursarten sowie halbherzigen Entschuldigungen gerne verwendet wird. Es dient dazu, die Vereinbarkeit von gegensätzlichen politischen sowie ideologischen Interessen und Positionen zu suggerieren, mehrere Gruppen von Wähler*innen gleichzeitig zu adressieren, Tabus zu brechen, ohne die Verantwortung übernehmen zu müssen, und die Festlegung auf eine eindeutige Position zu vermeiden. Sie kann das Ergebnis der Mitwirkung unterschiedlicher Personen an der Textarbeit sein. Der Beitrag geht darauf ein, wie das Prinzip im rechten oppositionellen ebenso wie im Regierungspopulismus der FPÖ bei der Darstellung von Geschlechterverhältnissen angewandt wird, um die traditionelle Männerpartei als frauenfreundlichere Partei erscheinen zu lassen.
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This article explores the gendered dimensions of the populist radical right discourse and policy by considering the Front national in France. The article shows how the Front national has progressively moved from a 'traditional' to a 'modern traditional' approach to issues of gender, women's work, and the family. The core of the Front national policy and ideology has remained stable over time, with regard to the interconnected issues of gender and of immigration. However, there is a significant move from the celebration of women as 'mothers of the nation', prevalent in the party until the 1990s, to an emphasis on 'working mothers' in Marine Le Pen's discourse. The article also analyses the ambivalence of Marine Le Pen's party discourse on gender, as well as the discrepancies between the party discourse and its political programme. This paper is funded on data collected through an ERC Starting Grant, ‘A comparative study of women’s and men’s participation in the Northern League (Italy) and the National Front (France)’, University of Glasgow, 2012-2014. It was prepared/finalised while the author was holding a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship of the European Commission, ‘Migrant Christianity. Migration, Religion and Work in Comparative Perspective: Evangelical 'ethnic churches' in Southern Europe’, European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, 2015-2018.
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Immigrant integration has been on the political agenda in France since at least the late 1980s, yet starting in the early 2000s this issue became bound up with concerns about the oppression of minority women. This article examines the evolution of the issue over two decades, pinpointing when and why debates over integration took on a gendered cast. The article’s explanation centres on two factors – the growing threat of the Front National coupled with the legitimation of gender-based claims in French politics. These claims were embraced by conservative politicians seeking to adopt a harder line toward immigration and led to the refashioning of core Republican concepts such as égalité and laïcité as being about gender equality. The use of similar themes by the Front National as it has sought to move in from the political fringe reveals how gendered claims can be deployed in an effort to keep anti-immigrant policies within the boundaries of liberal values.
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This essay traces the Vatican’s decades-long, worldwide, multifront war on what it has come to call “gender ideology” from its very recent incarnation in Donald Trump’s United States back through its origins in the past century, highlighting the central role that concerns about transgender rights have always played for the two popes who have most directly shaped the contours of this war, Benedict XVI and Francis. Among the claims of the essay is that the conceptual apparatus behind the Vatican’s anathematization of the complex of feminist, reproductive, and LGBT rights issues it has for a quarter century lumped together as “gender ideology” was already fully developed a decade before the 1995 Beijing Conference, in the report that Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the future Benedict XVI, issued about the state of his Church in 1984. Another is that the papacy of Francis, far from calling a truce, has given new energy to this war. The essay explores ways in which events in their respective homelands of Germany and Argentina shaped each of the two popes’ strategies for this war and how events in the United States delayed the opening of a US home front in the war on “gender ideology” until the very recent past.
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Populism may seem like it has come out of nowhere, but it has been on the rise for a while. I argue that economic history and economic theory both provide ample grounds for anticipating that advanced stages of economic globalization would produce a political backlash. While the backlash may have been predictable, the specific form it took was less so. I distinguish between left-wing and right-wing variants of populism, which differ with respect to the societal cleavages that populist politicians highlight. The first has been predominant in Latin America, and the second in Europe. I argue that these different reactions are related to the relative salience of different types of globalization shocks.
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This paper argues that the national populisms of Northern and Western Europe form a distinctive cluster within the wider north Atlantic and pan-European populist conjuncture. They are distinctive in construing the opposition between self and other not in narrowly national but in broader civilizational terms. This partial shift from nationalism to “civilizationism” has been driven by the notion of a civilizational threat from Islam. This has given rise to an identitarian “Christianism”, a secularist posture, a philosemitic stance, and an ostensibly liberal defence of gender equality, gay rights, and freedom of speech. The paper highlights the distinctiveness of this configuration by briefly comparing the national populisms of Northern and Western Europe to the Trump campaign and to the national populisms of East Central Europe. It concludes by specifying two ways in which the joining of identitarian Christianism with secularist and liberal rhetoric challenges prevailing understandings of European national populism.