RIGHT-WING WOMEN, HEAR THEM ROAR
IIT history professor chronicles “women power” in Chile, the world
If your vision of a woman activist is someone liberal-minded, pro-choice and anti-war, you may be missing a trend that is sweeping the world, including here in the United States. There’s a growing chance she’s conservative, tied to right-wing causes and hardly a “puppet” of her male counterpart.
A pair of new books, authored by an Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) professor, paints a very different picture of women activists of the new millennium. Dr. Margaret Power’s research found that so-called “Right-Wing Women” have fast become a force to be reckoned with across the world.
“Right-wing women use passionate appeals to mobilize other women into action,” Power said. “We should care about this because in general, society is unaware of the political power these women accumulate and use.”
Power, an IIT assistant professor of history, has just published two books on the subject, Right-Wing Women in Chile (Penn State Press) and Right-Wing Women, From Conservatives to Extremists around the World, (Routledge).
From Chile, Power documents the growth of ‘Feminine Power,’ a grassroots political force that helped pave the way for the 1973 military coup of then-President Salvador Allende. Research in Power’s second book points to similar examples in other parts of the world.
“The trend among women in the U.S. is also toward the right,” Power said. “We’re seeing women’s growing support for President Bush’s conservative social agenda and militaristic foreign policy. Women across the world are also mobilizing to uphold conservative ideas about race, gender roles and sexual orientation.”
An often-neglected subject, Power found right-wing women a critical component in understanding the many racist, fascist, and anti-feminist movements of the 20th century; political actors in their own right, with varied interests and demands.
“Both books convincingly illustrate that large numbers, in many places the majority of women, support conservative causes and uphold right-wing ideologies,” Power said. “This research dispels the myth that activist women have a strictly liberal agenda.”
Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting technological university awarding degrees in the sciences, mathematics and engineering, as well as architecture, psychology, design, business and law. IIT’s interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum prepares the university’s 6,200 students for leadership roles in an increasingly complex and culturally diverse global workplace.
