Faculty Research Fellows Talk with Cécile Alduy

Cécile Alduy: "The Gender Card in Far Right Political Discourse. Éric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen in France, a Case Study”

Far right ideological platforms in Western democracies usually go hand in hand with a traditional, conservative, or reactionary conception of gender roles, “pro-life” stances, and disregard for women’s rights issues. This has been corelated in political science studies with a recurring “gender gap” in electoral outcomes, by which women systematically undervote for these parties. What happens when the leader and presidential candidate of a far-right party is a “pro-choice” woman who professes to be a “feminist”? What kind of “feminism” can emerge from an ideological framework that conditions social, political, and civil rights to specific ethnic and religious identities and views the nation as a collective lineage based on birth?  Marine Le Pen in France and her masculinist opponent, Eric Zemmour, serve as case study to analyze the electoral, political and ideological ramifications of playing the “gender card” for far right parties.

Cécile Alduy is Professor of French Literature and Culture.