Born and Bred: Women in the British and American Far-right From 1982 to Present

Abstract

After World War II, American and British conservative politicians sought to distance themselves from the stain of fascism while maintaining relevancy in the liberal democratic system. This required coalition building among anti-communist groups, including the far-right. Into the 1970s and 1980s, the rise of right-wing politics in both the US and UK built upon the anti-communist rhetoric of the postwar period. The success of mainstream conservatism gave room for the far-right and its racialized anti-communist rhetoric in the political mainstream. This paved the foundation for a new movement of far-right politics focused on anti-immigrant and white supremacist messaging. As such, the far-right in both nations appealed to a considerable number of white, women voters along the right-wing spectrum who perceived themselves as under attack from non-white, hypersexual, and criminal males. These concerns permitted the far-right to position themselves as the last defenders of women’s freedom in the cultural war against the communist threat (i.e. racial equality).