Right-Wing Populism and Gender

Feminism contested and co-opted: Women, agency and politics of gender in the Greek and Greek-Cypriot far right

“…For example, in line with (neo)liberal feminism, women’s participation in the political sphere based on their abilities and men and women’s sameness are emphasised (Rottenberg, 2014). This substantiates the argument made by others that neoliberal feminism and femonationalism often work in tandem in the far right’s attempts to undermine feminism and present its own policies as the only way for the unproblematic organisation of the ethnonational community’s sociopolitical relations by denying structural, institutional and intersectional inequalities, and by distinguishing equal rights from equal status (Dietze, 2022; Elomäki and Kantola, 2018; Gunnarsson Payne and Tornhill, 2021; Petzen, 2012; Sprengholz, 2021).…”

“…In Cyprus, the legacies of colonialism and ethnonational conflict stalled the development of a feminist movement, while political parties’ prioritisation of the national problem over gender, sexuality and intersectional justice issues has prohibited feminism’s association with either the political left or right (Kamenou, 2019, 2020) This, combined with ELAM’s attempts to mainstream itself, may partly explain ELAM participants’ position on feminism and ELAM supporting the election of the first female and youngest-ever Speaker of the Republic of Cyprus House of Representatives – Annita Demetriou, a politician of the governing conservative neoliberal party who supports women’s and lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex rights – in 2021. 11 This was an instance of the far right employing gender (support for a woman) as a tool to forge political alliances or draw borders (Dietze, 2022: 283).…”

“…This is particularly the case in times of economic crises and democratic decline that facilitate gender conservatism’s rise and attempts to present it as the solution to concomitant material problems and cultural anxieties. These attempts are often successful as, contrary to anti-racist and intersectional approaches to gender and gender equality, the far right has the ability to promote contradictory positions and get away with them (Cullen, 2020; Dietze, 2022; Gunnarsson Payne and Tornhill, 2021; Sauer et al, 2017).…”

“…Many feminist scholars concur that neoliberalism and populism have given rise to anti-intersectional and exclusionary versions of feminism; namely, neoliberal feminism (Rottenberg, 2014) and femonationalism (Farris, 2017) that are often mutually reinforcing, converge or work in tandem in attempts to undermine feminism, through the use of references to gender and gender equality. This raises concerns about feminism’s individualisation and nationalisation, and about gender and gender issues’ depoliticisation and repoliticisation through their decoupling from feminism as a theoretical and political project concerned with intersectional, structural and institutional inequalities (Dietze, 2022; Elomäki and Kantola, 2018; Gunnarsson Payne and Tornhill, 2021; Petzen, 2012; Sprengholz, 2021). As Gunnarsson Payne and Tornhill (2021: 4) explain, contemporary feminism is faced with a ‘double-bind’, since ‘neoliberal policy, market solutions and socioeconomic inequalities have paved the way for the authoritarian turn on which anti-gender politics itself thrives’.…”

“…Not all rightist parties adopt the same positions on gender and gender equality, as national political context particularities influence their choices (Akkerman, 2015; Askola, 2019; Sauer et al, 2017). However, what they have in common is the ability to maintain ‘a double and contradictory position’ (Donà, 2020) on gender equality through what Sauer et al (2017) call an ‘exclusive intersectionality’ and what Dietze (2022) calls ‘strategic progressivism’; namely, they simultaneously support gender equality for (national) women in the context of opposing Muslim immigration and propel conservative family policies, and limit (national) women’s rights in the context of acting as the saviours of the national community’s ‘authentic’ way of life (Donà, 2020). This extends to the transnational level, since rightist parties have managed to form alliances to influence policymaking at the European level (Ahrens et al, 2018; Cullen, 2020; Paternotte and Kuhar, 2018; Verloo and Paternotte, 2018).…”