The ambivalence of a far-right feminism: political strategy or ideological reconfiguration of the gender question? A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Rassemblement National

The far-right parties have been described as macho organisations, exalting virility and reducing women to the role of mothers, and they present themselves as promoters of women's rights against Islam and immigration.
Firstly, my research aims to interrogate the far-right parties with regard to the gender issue as conveyed in their discourses, an area little studied by the literature (Latif et al. 2020). The aim is to identify the variables that influence and determine the definition and interpretation of certain terms or issues relating to gender in a critical discourse analysis approach (speakers, audiences, places, periods or themes addressed). For this research, the speeches collected and analysed are public speeches, party programmes, press releases, press conferences, interventions in institutions and bills. In the speeches of the far-right parties, women are reduced to housework or the role of mother. Besides that, women also refer to cultural values: equality, freedom and emancipation from men. The aim of this first stage of my critical discourse analysis is to present a grid of interpretation and representation of the gender issue as conveyed by the far-right parties: discursive argument or ideological issue, biological or cultural interpretation, social, psychological, political, philosophical or legal framework. "Feminism", "gender" and "woman" are studied as empty signifiers (Laclau, Mouffe 2001 ; Laclau 2018).
Secondly, I want to meet women actors in the field to conduct interviews in order to listen to their background, their representation of gender and feminism but also to study their actions within the parties they belong to. This approach, which is not limited to an image of women but to giving them a voice, is a position neglected by the literature (Sjobberg, Gentry 2016). The focus is mainly on men, while women are assumed to be outside the far right parties or manipulated (Blee 2020). However, more and more women are now members and representatives of these parties. The aim is to examine the place and functions of these women and the discourses they produce, the themes they address, and the power relations that emerge.
Thirdly, the decisive objective of this research is to analyse the discourses of far-right parties and the discourses of their representatives and to compare them. By interviewing female representatives of historically misogynistic parties, I will obtain new elements of response that will allow me to better identify and question the political strategies and ideological configurations linked to the gender issue within far right political parties.
Fourthly, in a transversal way, my research study far right (but also of xenophobia and misogyny) and the evolution of its ideologies and its discourses in the 21st century. The research pursues a societal vocation by questioning far-right parties, gender representations within society, but also the promotion of certain values by these parties and their instrumentalisation.