In the Name of Women’s Rights: The Rise of Femonationalism

Description

Sara R. Farris examines the demands for women's rights from an unlikely collection of right-wing nationalist political parties, neoliberals, and some feminist theorists and policy makers. Focusing on contemporary France, Italy, and the Netherlands, Farris labels this exploitation and co-optation of feminist themes by anti-Islam and xenophobic campaigns as “femonationalism.” She shows that by characterizing Muslim males as dangerous to western societies and as oppressors of women, and by emphasizing the need to rescue Muslim and migrant women, these groups use gender equality to justify their racist rhetoric and policies. This practice also serves an economic function. Farris analyzes how neoliberal civic integration policies and feminist groups funnel Muslim and non-western migrant women into the segregating domestic and caregiving industries, all the while claiming to promote their emancipation. In the Name of Women's Rights documents the links between racism, feminism, and the ways in which non-western women are instrumentalized for a variety of political and economic purposes. Abbreviations ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction: In the Name of Women's Rights 1 1. Figures of Femonationalism 22 2. Femonationalism Is No Populism 57 3. Integration Policies and the Institutionalization of Femonationalism 78 4. Femonationalism, Neoliberalism, and Social Reproduction 115 5. The Political Economy of Femonationalism 146 Notes 183 Bibliography 229 Index