Empowerment Against Equality: How Right-Wing Women Leaders Reframe Feminism

Women's representation in politics has been the subject of much attention for decades, both in feminist political studies and in the work of international organisations. Today, however, the growing protagonism of women in European politics and, in particular, the rise of women leading parties and movements that are ideologically conservative or reactionary (anti-feminist, anti-abortion, anti-gender), point to the need to rethink the relationship between political representation, gender differences and feminism(s). The question of 'substantive' representation of the collective interests of women and feminised subjects assumes a theoretical and political weight equal to, if not greater than, that of 'descriptive' representation. Female right-wing leaders such as Marine Le Pen, Giorgia Meloni and Alice Weidel are prompting new reflections on the relationship between feminisms and political power, not only because they emerge within traditionally male-dominated parties that capture the resentment of 'angry white men', but also because they seem able to play with their sexual identity, combining emancipation and tradition, adherence to the patriarchal order and neoliberal valorisation of female strength. This implies processes of selective appropriation, misrepresentation and instrumentalisation of feminist languages and themes that need to be analysed and deconstructed. To this end, the paper aims to use the methods of political theory to demonstrate the essential incompatibility between feminism and nativist, authoritarian and conservative political projects. This means rejecting the reduction of feminism to a simple set of maxims for individual affirmation, and instead defending its character as a collective movement and intersectional struggle for justice.