“You think women are smart? Where’s the female Elon Musk?”
It’s easy to think that extreme conservatism is only an issue in the realms of ragebaiting TikToks. It’s hard to fathom that people continue to subscribe to ideologies linked to decades of oppression. It’s even harder to fathom that women could be at the frontlines of these political campaigns, which are laced with anti-women rhetoric. This is our reality; the far right is on the rise, and some women are facilitating this climb.
Women have been placed at the forefront of far-right movements across Europe and the US, and this is not a new phenomenon. Today, Marine Le Pen leads the far-right National Rally in pursuit of the presidential chair in France. Her campaign is massively anti-immigrant, blaming the recent riots and subsequent “violence on immigration and the left wing“. Additionally, in 2025, Maria Steen was favoured by the conservative public in her running for candidacy in the Irish presidential election, and her previous campaigns against abortion and same-sex marriage drove her popularity. The “far-right woman” is a persistent anomaly that feminists and left-wing activists struggle to reason with. Their gender and their values are strongly paradoxical. What drives a woman to align with regressive politics?
Many right-wing politicians, including women, have a misconception about left-wing values. This drives a sense of hatred and fear for what is unbeknownst to them. Notably, the far right see modern-day feminism as a man-hating militaristic agenda which aims to conscript young women into misandry. They often reject the image of the modern working woman. Maria Steen crusaded against the alteration of the Irish constitution’s 39th amendment on the family in 2024. This alteration sought to replace heavily gendered language referring to women’s roles within the home with a genderless approach to homemaking. The far right fear change even if remaining the same is regressive. What is contradictory to many female leaders of conservatism is that they pontificate about traditionalism yet do not practise it themselves. A woman running for president? That seems like a product of feminism to me.
Additionally, online discourse allows far-right mentalities to spread and multiply, especially in youths. Social media has become a battleground for individuals to debate on nonsensical topics that the average person in real life would deem irrelevant — it’s 2026, are you really trying to convince me that women belong in the kitchen? Well, that is precisely the aim of many conservative influencers. The term “tradwife” is widespread, and its aesthetic facade has certainly coincided with increased far-right rhetoric. It wrongfully portrays traditional homemaking as a duty as opposed to a choice. It romanticises a lifestyle that is not only equally as laborious as many other jobs but is a position that many women were forced into due to conservative politics. When these values are painted aesthetically on social media, it creates an illusion that we should go back to when women could not work. This type of rhetoric floods apps like Instagram and Tiktok; terms like “girl math” and “girl dinner” aid the conservative campaign by infantilising women and influencing girls that life would be easier if we went back to good old traditionalism. When the image of a “crazy, undesirable feminist” becomes associated with the left, it does not take much for impressionable girls on social media to align with the right.
Furthermore, in the midst of worldwide political instability, polarised political parties tend to play a game of “pass the blame” in order to pinpoint who is responsible for controversial systemic issues. Combatting crime and making countries ‘safer again’ is a recurring theme in political campaigning. Far-right parties tend to associate this with immigration rather than government corruption. Immigration is a huge talking point in politics, and this topic invokes women into the conversation. Immigration has been repeatedly presented as an attack on women’s safety; far-right rhetoric paints immigrants as the sole threat endangering women although statistics deny this theory. Recently, we have seen strong female political figures on the right arising, and immigration lies at the heart of their campaign. In Germany, Alice Weidel has gained notoriety for her strong views on the subject, claiming in 2025 that she would orchestrate “large scale repatriations“ of immigrants. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party of which she belongs profits off of fearmongering by describing immigrants as the public’s largest threat. Fear reoccurs as a motivator towards political ideology here. Far-right regimes appear to act in the public and thus women’s favour in order to disguise their full throttle racism. In this sense they appeal to women by appealing to their weak point which is often fear for their safety. The far right uses propaganda to lure the misinformed youth to their side.
It seems jarring to see a rise in those subscribed to the far right. Further analysis can make sense of this rise as we note the right’s tactic of fearmongering and aesthetics. Women have long been at the forefront of extreme political campaigning; this dates back to female supporters of the Nazi regime and the Ku Klux Klan. Tactically, women are often broadcasted in campaigns to influence other women onto their side but are also the first to be discarded in times of struggle. Pam Bondi served as Attorney General under Trump and took the brunt of the blame for the mishandling of the Epstein files, yet was still fired by the President earlier this year. Cases like these lead people to contemplate whether women fully subscribe to far-right and conservative regimes or whether they are simply indoctrinated and end up in scapegoat positions.
Arguably this standpoint perpetuates a sense of misogyny similar to that of the politics we critique. Minimising the power of female politicians and their influence is a powerful trap which allows the public to brush over their influence until it is too late. We can recognise certain female conservatives as scapegoats and victims to the system whilst acknowledging that today they behold an immense amount of political power and their gender does not excuse them of this. Excusing Nazi apologists like Alice Weidel solely because she favours a system which inherently works against her absolves her of blame whilst also denying her her own political power.
Yes, media and misinformation can drag young women down the wrong path. Yes, women can be clouded by the influence of their male counterparts. But ultimately, we cannot absolve the women on the far right of guilt when they act against their gender and choose wrong over and over again, even in certain circumstances where the resources are there for them to choose right. Education is the only way forward, and when education becomes influenced by political agendas, we fall into a slippery slope which blends political campaigning with propaganda. The question remains: how do we educate our women while also giving them agency to choose for themselves?
