Right-Wing Women

Women play a crucial role in the current rise of the right, whether it's Giorgia Meloni in Italy, Marine Le Pen in France, or Alice Weidel in Germany, to name just a few of the most prominent women in right-wing politics. On social media, tradwives promote a lifestyle that harks back to the 1950s, and Christian influencers tell their followers why marriage is better than having a career. Their message in a nutshell: submission is empowerment.

Author Susanne Kaiser explains why some women choose to join a political movement that is driven by toxic masculinity – and how they themselves promote these reactionary values. Kaiser reveals what motivates these women to become agents of their own disenfranchisement, how they reinterpret subjugation as freedom, politicising gender relations from the right with an »anti-feminist feminism«.

»Political Masculinity is an intelligent and urgently needed book on the global rise of misogyny, anti-feminism and toxic masculinity. Kaiser powerfully shows how male supremacists, right-wing populists and religious fundamentalists are tied together. From Trump to the incel movement, her book offers a thrilling and accessible deep dive into the masculinity struggles we read about in the headlines on a quasi-daily basis.« Julia Ebner on Political Masculinity

»Kaiser examines how misogynist networks rely on verbal and real violence in a meritorious essay.« Jörg Thomann, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Political Masculinity