“We are just normal women”: Narratives of far-right women members of the AfD and FPÖ

Over the last two decades, far-right parties have gained more influence in Europe and routinely disregard and/or misuse gender equality for a racist agenda. From a feminist viewpoint, it seems illogical that a diverse range of women support these parties. I shed light on women’s active support for the far-right parties Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (FPÖ). My main aim is to explore how women narrate their support/membership of the far right in Austria and Germany. My work is socially and politically motivated because the AfD and FPÖ present a major obstacle to antiracism and feminism. I address my topic with three research questions: How do women narrate their paths to active support/membership in both parties? What are far-right women’s narratives about feminism/gender? How do far-right women make sense of their roles and spaces in what are male-dominated parties? In analysing narratives of active women members my research addresses a scholarly lacunae. So far, research on women in the far right in Austria and Germany mainly draws attention to individual women leaders and to anti-gender/antifeminist ideologies. I conducted 25 interviews with women members (local members/career politicians) and collected data from social media accounts (career politicians). Using narrative research, I investigate how participants construct their understandings of their party membership. I discovered a diversity of individual membership stories. My outcomes show that women’s participation in the far right is not illogical but part of the parties’ success. Far-right women are not acting against their interests because the far right is not against all women. Most participants presented themselves as ‘normal’ women following their common sense. Finally, using Puwar’s (2004) concept of ‘space invaders’, I illustrate that because women are not the norm in these parties, they are required to navigate different roles to fit into male-dominated spaces.