Gender as Battlefield: Far-Right Movements, Femonationalism and Replacement Ideology

In this episode, we take on big questions about gender and far-right politics with Sarah Bracke and Charléne Calderaro, two scholars who arrived at the topic of gender and the far right through distinct yet overlapping research paths: one through replacement ideology and the systematic problematization of Islam and Muslims in contemporary Europe, the other through the study of racialized street harassment in France and the UK. With host Norah Schulten, they unpack the central role of gender in far-right movements and explore how feminist ideas are co-opted and reframed to reinforce normative gender roles, entrench binaries, racialize sexism and sustain racial hierarchies. Dr. Charlène Calderaro is a Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer at the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Lausanne. Her PhD focused on the criminalisation of street harassment in France and the UK, and the way in which far-right activists appropriated this cause, which was initially championed by feminists. Prof. Sarah Bracke is Professor of Sociology of Gender and Sexuality at the University of Amsterdam. She is the Principal Investigator of the research project EnGendering Europe's 'Muslim Question' funded by the NWO Talent scheme Vici grant (2018-2024) and a partner in the collaborate Erasmus+ funded project ReVisualize: Muslim Women's Empowerment. Dr. Norah Schulten is the host of this episode and is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam's AISSR. She is part of The Politics of Diversity Group that studies real-world questions on political representation and power, struggles for equality, backlash, oppression and policies. Works discussed this episode and further reading: • Bracke, S., & Hernández Aguilar, L.M. (Eds.). (2023). The Politics of Replacement: Demographic Fears, Conspiracy Theories, and Race Wars Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003305927 • Bracke, S. (2024). “A Victory for White Life”: Reproduction, Replacement, and a Handmaid’s Tale. In S. Bracke, & L. M. Hernández Aguilar (Eds.), The Politics of Replacement: Demographic Fears, Conspiracy Theories, and Race Wars Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003305927-22 • Weinbaum, A. E. (2004). Wayward Reproductions: Genealogies of Race and Nation in Transatlantic Modern Thought. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822385820 • Calderaro, C. (2025). Beyond Instrumentalization: Far-Right Women’s Appropriation of Feminism in France. Politics & Gender, 1–29. Doi:10.1017/S1743923X2500003 • Calderaro, C. (2023). The racialisation of sexism: how race frames shape anti-street harassment policies in Britain and France. Policy & Politics, 51(3), 413-438. https://doi.org/10.1332/030557321X16832763188290 • Scrinzi, F. (2023). The Racialization of Sexism: Men, Women and Gender in the Populist Radical Right Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315112831 - Blee, K. M. (1996). BECOMING A RACIST: Women in Contemporary Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazi Groups. Gender & Society, 10(6), 680-702. https://doi.org/10.1177/089124396010006002 • Blee, K. (2020). Where Do We Go from Here? Positioning Gender in Studies of the Far Right. Politics, Religion & Ideology, 21(4), 416–431. https://doi.org/10.1080/21567689.2020.1851870 Podcast editors: Sanne Pieters, Luuc Brans, Kobe De Keere & Geert Veuskens This podcast is co-financed from the BINQ project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Grant No. 101052649. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. This podcast is also kindly supported by the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) at the University of Amsterdam.