Far-right movements, from ‘traditional’ conservatism to the so-called ‘alt-right’, have many similar characteristics, the most apparent being their adherence to misogyny and patriarchalism. Far-right groups and organisations promote strictly-defined gender binaries, with men occupying the public sphere as leaders, breadwinners and providers, and women kept strictly to the private sphere as helpmeets, keeping house and raising children. 

The rise of the ‘tradwife’ movement, made famous by multiple Instagram and TikTok influencers who post videos of an idealised, 1950s-esque homemaking aesthetic, makes this division of roles seem attractive and appealing. For women living in late-stage capitalism, who are most likely working long hours at a job and then completing the bulk of the ‘second shift’ of housework and childcare themselves, the idea of dropping one of these two full-time roles and devoting themselves to creating a beautiful, comfortable home may seem appealing. However, as the Global Network on Extremism and Technology explored in an article on this phenomenon, the ‘tradwife’ movement is a prominent pathway into far-right ideology and its accompanying misogyny, racism, queerphobia and other bigotries. ‘Tradwife’ content is overwhelmingly white, cishet, and middle-class, and presents gendered division of labour as not only desirable, but natural.

“Protection?”

‘Far-right groups weaponise a narrative of ‘protecting women’ – or at least, the women who fit their tradwife ideal of cishet, middle-class white women – to legitimise their stance against marginalised people. ‘Protecting [white] women and girls’ has been the rallying cry behind racist violence, from the murder of Emmett Till in the US in 1955 to the UK’s anti-migrant riots in summer 2024. 

Anti-trans ideology has also used a facade of ‘protecting [cis] women and girls’ to lend the movement an air of legitimacy and disguise exclusionary tactics as ‘safety measures’, despite there being no evidence that trans-inclusive policies negatively impact the safety of cis women and girls. 

Many women who self-identify as feminist, and who are unlikely to be seduced by the regressive tradwife aesthetic, have been drawn into far-right spheres by the false framing of trans rights as being in conflict with cis women’s rights. In 2019, several prominent ‘gender critical’ feminists collaborated on a panel with the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation, a group that also opposes reproductive rights, same-sex marriage, and the teaching of critical race theory.

The relationship between far-right groups and anti-trans feminist groups has developed as the 2020s have continued, with white supremacist groups turning out to support ‘gender critical’ speakers, and ‘a mixture of Christian fundamentalists, gender critical activists, [and] Scottish Family Party members’ joining forces to protest Scotland’s introduction of a law against hate crime. ‘

Gender critical feminists’ have long championed causes that seek to exclude trans women and girls from women’s sports, despite there being no evidence that trans women athletes have an advantage over cis women; nevertheless, there has been an increasing number of ‘trans sports bans’,most recently culminating in the Republican-led US House passing a federal ban. 

The far-right’s argument that they are ‘protecting women and girls’ is not only false, but hypocritical. Far-right organisations ignore or excuse misogynistic violence carried out by their own members; Hope Not Hate has unmasked numerous child abusers in the EDL and similar groups. Conservative evangelical churches also count many abusers amongst their ranks. 

Far-right organisations repeatedly fail to call out the white, cishet men who carry out the majority of abuse; instead, they focus on instances of abuse carried out by a member of a marginalised group, and extrapolate that individual’s actions out across an entire demographic. This strategy has been seen most recently in the UK with Reform and Elon Musk’s calls for a national inquiry into historical abuse by grooming gangs, their rhetoric focusing exclusively on British Pakistani perpetrators – despite data showing that the vast majority of perpetrators were white British men. The aim of the far-right is not to protect women, even the narrow subset that they define as “true women”, but to demonise migrants, people of colour, and trans people (and, by extension, all LGBTQ+ people).

No agency

Far-right ideology ultimately denies agency even to women and girls who fit its narrow criteria. The ‘tradwife’ trend has its roots in far-right ideals, where women’s sole purpose is to run a home and raise children. ‘Tradwives’ may run the household, but their husbands are the undisputed heads of the family, enjoying their wife’s daily domestic service. ‘

Gender critical’ anti-trans activism has led to attacks not only on trans women, but on cis women who have “masculine” physical traits. Butch lesbian women have been confronted or assaulted in women’s toilets after being assumed to be trans, and the 2024 Olympics saw boxer Imane Khelif join the many Black and brown cis women athletes who have had their gender questioned because they are muscular and excel at their sports. 

On a systemic level, allowing far-right ideology to gain ground under its banner of ‘protecting women’ results in systems which harm cis women and girls. These systems prevent them from existing safely in society for fear of being ‘transvestigated’, or having their movements restricted in order to ‘protect’ them from so-called dangerous ‘others’. 

Republican framing

The Republican party, pre- and post-election, framed migrants as dangerous rapists and trans women as nefarious cheaters intent on destroying women’s sports; having won the election, the party is now ramping up attempts to ban abortion nationwide, defund Planned Parenthood, and strike down anti-discrimination legislation. 

The party that pontificated about protecting white women and girls from hypothetical migrant rapists are now forcing those same women and girls to carry their real-life rapists’ foetuses to term. Far from protecting women’s sports, Trump has spoken about banning women’s boxing altogether. The recent US bill banning trans inclusion in girls’ sports at a federal level has been condemned by trans-inclusive feminists and progressives for including the potential for allowing genital inspections of children who have been accused of being trans. And, of course, many prominent Republican figures – including Trump himself – have been credibly accused of raping or abusing women and girls.

Violence against women and girls is overwhelmingly committed by cishet male partners, or by acquaintances; sexual violence is almost always an intraracial crime, with both the survivor and the perpetrator being from the same race or ethnic background. Arguments targeting marginalised groups always serve bigoted, far-right narratives, giving legitimacy and power to organisations that push these agendas. 

Banding together

Meanwhile, there are endless examples of marginalised groups banding together to protect everyone’s rights. Unsurprisingly, trans rights advocates and reproductive rights advocates have a long history of working together – both movements fight for bodily autonomy and against an authoritarian political system denying access to essential medical support and procedures.

Organisations such as Migrant Rights Network focus on LGBTQ+ inclusion, and period poverty charities such as Bloody Good Period have always operated under a framework of including and centring the experiences of migrant women and girls, as well as being fully trans-inclusive. The same is true of feminist, anti-fascist, socialist and progressive organising groups; from the IWW to Feminist Fightback, Women’s Strike Assembly to Sisters Uncut, the grassroots organisations fighting against the ultra-patriarchalism of the far-right movement are overwhelmingly inclusive of all marginalised people, because it is increasingly clear that an inclusive movement is the only way we will be able to stand up to the global rise of the far-right.

Amplifiy maginal voices

As feminists who oppose the far-right, we must stop treating far-right ideologies as legitimate by assuming good faith in those who make restrictive, exclusionary arguments under the guise of ‘protecting women and girls’, no matter where on the political spectrum they hail from. We need to debunk the arguments that have unfortunately been allowed to proliferate across society, but we also need to signal-boost marginalised people and socialist and progressive talking points, to take up the space in the discourse that the far right has been allowed to monopolise up to this point. Migrants, trans people, and other marginalised people have been systematically excluded from the mainstream narrative, so these voices should be centred and amplified by any movement that is serious about standing up to far-right misogyny, exclusionism and essentialism. Finally, rather than accepting the narrative that ‘women and girls need to be protected’ (and therefore isolated and limited), our focus should be on building a world where all genders are safe, because in a safe world, protection isn’t necessary.

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