“A Woman’s Place: Gender and Misogyny on the Extreme Right”

On every measure we have available—rising propaganda, numbers of hate groups and hate crimes, violent plots foiled by the FBI, terrorist violence and deaths, and hate crimes, the past decade has seen exponential growth in the far right. There has been a flurry of attention to the root causes and potential strategies to interrupt and prevent the violence (congressional hearings, a White House summit, policy reports, etc.), but there has been little formal attention paid to the gendered dimensions of violent extremism. Cynthia Miller-Idriss argues that gender and misogyny are foundational to the extreme right and its violent outcomes, exploring some of the ways women challenge and support these modes of thinking.

Cynthia Miller-Idriss is a professor in the School of Public Affairs and in the School of Education at the American University in Washington, D.C., where she is also the founding director of the Polarization & Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL). She regularly testifies before the U.S. Congress and briefs policy, security, education, and intelligence agencies in the United States, United Nations, and other countries on trends in domestic violent extremism and strategies for prevention and disengagement. She is the author, co-author, or co-editor of six books, including her most recent book, Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right (Princeton University Press 2022). Cynthia writes frequently for mainstream audiences, as an opinion columnist for MSNBC and in other recent bylines in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, Politico, USA Today, The Boston Globe, and more.