Why women lead right-wing populist and extremist parties

#137

My Dear Friend of Democracy,

Do you sometimes wonder, like I do, why there are so many female far-right leaders?

For example, Femke Wiersma, from the populist Farmer Citizen Movement (BBB) in the Netherlands, who became the new agriculture minister yesterday when the right-wing government took office. Or Italian prime minister Georgia Meloni. Or Marine Le Pen from the far-right National Rally in France. Or Alice Weidel, co-chairwoman of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

So why are there many right-wing, white women as party leaders, although men often dominate such parties numerically, and the majority of voters have so far been men?

It's because women have a strategic advantage.

They can switch more credibly between feminist and anti-feminist positions as they see fit.

In comparison, men can no longer do that because it is misogynistic.

For example, women can point to homophobia and misogyny when it comes to immigrants, while at the same time, many right-wing women describe themselves as explicitly anti-feminist. It is harder for men to allow themselves to have this attitude.

This dual strategy, as hypocritical as it is, seems to pay off.

At the recent French election, 33 per cent of women voted for Le Pen's far-right party, outpacing 30 per cent of men. At the previous election, the ratio had been reversed: 25 per cent of men and 21 per cent of women had voted for National Rally.

✊ It seems that not only can women lead right-wing parties more successfully, but that women are also increasingly voting for these parties. It could be a false victory for these female voters. A backward-looking social policy can hardly benefit women. That is also how women's rights activists see it. They are fighting against a shift in France. The Women's Foundation, one of the largest French NGOs defending women's rights, called on voters to "stop the far right" and "vote massively for a future of emancipation."

See you in Europe,

Johannes