In the Name of Women's Rights: The Rise of Femonationalism

by Sara R Farris

Overview

Sara R. Farris examines the demands for women's rights from an unlikely collection of right-wing nationalist political parties, neoliberals, and some feminist theorists and policy makers. Focusing on contemporary France, Italy, and the Netherlands, Farris labels this exploitation and co-optation of feminist themes by anti-Islam and xenophobic campaigns as “femonationalism.” She shows that by characterizing Muslim males as dangerous to western societies and as oppressors of women, and by emphasizing the need to rescue Muslim and migrant women, these groups use gender equality to justify their racist rhetoric and policies. This practice also serves an economic function. Farris analyzes how neoliberal civic integration policies and feminist groups funnel Muslim and non-western migrant women into the segregating domestic and caregiving industries, all the while claiming to promote their emancipation. In the Name of Women's Rights documents the links between racism, feminism, and the ways in which non-western women are instrumentalized for a variety of political and economic purposes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822369745
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	04/28/2017
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Sara R. Farris is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London, and the author of Max Weber's Theory of Personality: Individuation, Politics, and Orientalism in the Sociology of Religion.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations  ix
Acknowledgments  xi
Introduction: In the Name of Women's Rights  1
1. Figures of Femonationalism  22
2. Femonationalism Is No Populism   57
3. Integration Policies and the Institutionalization of Femonationalism  78
4. Femonationalism, Neoliberalism, and Social Reproduction  115
5. The Political Economy of Femonationalism   146
Notes  183
Bibliography  229
Index  253

What People are Saying About This

White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race - Gloria Wekker

"In the Name of Women's Rights is an important and timely book. It lays out the hijacking of feminism by the 'unholy trinity' of far-right nationalism, certain prominent factions of feminism, and neoliberalism in the service of an anti-Islam agenda in France, Italy, and the Netherlands. Foregrounding the concept of 'femonationalism'—the ideological formation by which the West is always already superior to the Rest—Sara R. Farris draws on ongoing colonial knowledge formations."

Joan W. Scott

"How and why did the unlikely combination of right-wing political parties, some feminists, and neoliberal policy makers converge in campaigns for non-western (especially Muslim) migrant women’s rights? In this compelling and rigorous book, Sara R. Farris insists that political economy provides an answer: in the face of the privatizing of social welfare provisions, non-western migrant women perform an increasingly important strategic role in social reproduction through care and domestic labor. They have become a regular army of labor, indispensable for the workings of western European neoliberal capitalist economies. The range of empirical and theoretical materials is impressive and the relevance of the book to current debates about Islamophobia and the 'immigrant question' in western Europe is invaluable. Farris is a scholar to reckon with and appreciate."

Editorial Reviews

"Brilliant. . . . Through [Farris's] careful analysis of the political economic dimensions of femonationalism, certain elements of our contemporary landscape are illuminated with startling and disturbing clarity."

Jadaliyya - Catherine Rottenberg

"[Farris's] reading of 'femonationalism' as a symptom of neoliberal capitalism gives little hope that a quick or effective solution is possible for the crises at hand. So we are left without certain answers, and that’s as it should be."

The Nation - Joan W. Scott

"In the Name of Women’s Rights is a timely book with an impressive scope and rich theoretical diversity. . . . A must-read for anyone concerned with the appropriation of feminism or the operation of Islamophobia in contemporary Europe."

International Feminist Journal of Politics - Julie E. Dowsett

In the Name of Women’s Rights is an important and timely contribution to the fields of sociology, gender and women studies, and migration studies. Highly recommended."

Refuge - Maya El Helou

"An incisive intervention in how we understand rescue narratives of Muslim and non-Western migrant men as perpetrators of violence against Muslim and non-Western migrant women. . . . An important contribution to a range of fields including but not limited to critical race theory, transnational studies, gender and sexuality studies, political science, and sociology."

Feminist Formations - Sasha A. Khan

"Farris’s book is comprehensive, thorough, and masterly in accomplishing her key objective, which is, to draw feminist attention toward a new political economic configuration in which neoliberal conditions, feminist politics of gender equality, and right-wing nationalism coalesce to sustain exploitative ideological and material relations between western and nonwestern women. It is indeed a timely and needed study of the political and ethical costs to feminism of the concurrence of civilizational politics and neoliberal economics and thus has applications beyond the European context."

Amina Jamaln Journal of Sociology

"A highly readable, insightful and alarming account of the deployment of a discourse of women’s rights by racist and nationalist movements in Europe. . . . This is a work that deserves to be widely read."

Ethnic and Racial Studies - Gargi Bhattacharyya

"The pertinence of Farris’s volume, especially in the development of immigration policies, is undeniable."

Cultural Sociology - Visnja Krstic

"Welcome and invigorating."

The Immanent Frame - Peter Coviello

"A brave monograph."

Monthly Review - Judith Whitehead

"A complex and insightful analysis of the improbable alliance of right-wing nationalists, feminists, and neoliberals around demands for women’s rights."

Reading Religion - Mary Beth Yount

"Farris’s book is comprehensive, thorough, and masterly in accomplishing her key objective, which is, to draw feminist attention toward a new political economic configuration in which neoliberal conditions, feminist politics of gender equality, and right-wing nationalism coalesce to sustain exploitative ideological and material relations between western and nonwestern women. It is indeed a timely and needed study of the political and ethical costs to feminism of the concurrence of civilizational politics and neoliberal economics and thus has applications beyond the European context."

American Journal of Sociology - Amina Jamal

"[Farris's] reading of 'femonationalism' as a symptom of neoliberal capitalism gives little hope that a quick or effective solution is possible for the crises at hand. So we are left without certain answers, and that's as it should be."

--Joan W. Scott "The Nation" (9/20/2017 12:00:00 AM)

"In the Name of Women's Rights is a timely book with an impressive scope and rich theoretical diversity. . . . A must-read for anyone concerned with the appropriation of feminism or the operation of Islamophobia in contemporary Europe."--Julie E. Dowsett "International Feminist Journal of Politics" (4/18/2018 12:00:00 AM)

"In the Name of Women's Rights is an important and timely contribution to the fields of sociology, gender and women studies, and migration studies. Highly recommended."--Maya El Helou "Refuge" (1/1/2018 12:00:00 AM)

"A brave monograph."--Judith Whitehead "Monthly Review" (2/1/2018 12:00:00 AM)

"A highly readable, insightful and alarming account of the deployment of a discourse of women's rights by racist and nationalist movements in Europe. . . . This is a work that deserves to be widely read."--Gargi Bhattacharyya "Ethnic and Racial Studies" (10/2/2018 12:00:00 AM)

"An incisive intervention in how we understand rescue narratives of Muslim and non-Western migrant men as perpetrators of violence against Muslim and non-Western migrant women. . . . An important contribution to a range of fields including but not limited to critical race theory, transnational studies, gender and sexuality studies, political science, and sociology."--Sasha A. Khan "Feminist Formations" (9/1/2018 12:00:00 AM)

"Brilliant. . . . Through [Farris's] careful analysis of the political economic dimensions of femonationalism, certain elements of our contemporary landscape are illuminated with startling and disturbing clarity."--Catherine Rottenberg "Jadaliyya" (2/12/2018 12:00:00 AM)

"Farris's book is comprehensive, thorough, and masterly in accomplishing her key objective, which is, to draw feminist attention toward a new political economic configuration in which neoliberal conditions, feminist politics of gender equality, and right-wing nationalism coalesce to sustain exploitative ideological and material relations between western and nonwestern women. It is indeed a timely and needed study of the political and ethical costs to feminism of the concurrence of civilizational politics and neoliberal economics and thus has applications beyond the European context."--Amina Jamal "American Journal of Sociology" (9/1/2018 12:00:00 AM)

"The pertinence of Farris's volume, especially in the development of immigration policies, is undeniable."--Visnja Krstic "Cultural Sociology" (1/1/2018 12:00:00 AM)

"Welcome and invigorating."--Peter Coviello "The Immanent Frame" (5/18/2018 12:00:00 AM)

From the Publisher

"In the Name of Women's Rights is an important and timely book. It lays out the hijacking of feminism by the 'unholy trinity' of far-right nationalism, certain prominent factions of feminism, and neoliberalism in the service of an anti-Islam agenda in France, Italy, and the Netherlands. Foregrounding the concept of 'femonationalism'—the ideological formation by which the West is always already superior to the Rest—Sara R. Farris draws on ongoing colonial knowledge formations."

White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race - Gloria Wekker