For the Triumph of the ‘Natural Order’: At the Ideological Roots of a Nationalist Feminine Groupuscule

This master’s thesis focuses on a French feminine extreme right and nationalist groupuscule. By looking at the articles it publishes on its website and interviewing members to ask about their understanding of nationalism, religion, gender and femininity; the goal is to study the movement’s unique features. To what degree and in what ways do nationalist ideals and traditional views on femininity intersect within the discourse of this movement? Attention to the movement’s ideas reveals that the movement's doctrine is grounded in the ‘natural’ an all-encompassing concept built in adherence to three dimensions: the biological, the traditional and the Catholic. The ‘natural’ has a role, it articulates laws that French society ought to follow. These findings highlight the movement’s authoritarian approach to politics and its fascist inspirations while also considering how extreme right women make sense of gendered norms in opposition to modern understandings of gender and femininity. This research project will be of interest to researchers interested in women’s involvement in the extreme right, interested in these spheres’ framing of gender and femininity and more widely interested in nationalist and fascist discourses in today’s France.