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  1. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WOMEN IN WHITE POWER MOVEMENT

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WOMEN IN WHITE POWER MOVEMENT

Before exploring the various roles women play in white power movements, I must express the difference in white women’s actions in perpetuating systemic racism both in and outside of these movements. White women, particularly white mothers, have largely shaped how racism is expressed through political, social, and economic institutions in America through their political activism.

After the Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954, white segregationists rushed to interfere in forced integration. White parents turned towards private schooling, administrators closed schools, and white women and children took to the streets in protest. White women formed new organizations, such as the Paul Revere Ladies and Women for Constitutional Government (WCG), to combat integration and the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Suffering repeated legislative defeat, segregationists knew that they could not win by challenging racial issues head on. The WCG marked the turning point of southern politics, marrying segregationist views and conservatism to form color-blind politics that emphasized constitutional issues and property rights (McRae 2018). The WCG opposed the mainstream media, communism, sex education, and public childcare while supporting free economic enterprise, a strict constitutional government, and international US dominance. Without explicitly mentioning race, the WCG supported policies that had racist outcomes and helped sustain a Jim Crow nation (McRae 2018). These color-blind politics that champion conservative values, economic and international political dominance, and small government have become the foundation for the modern Republican party platform. Through their activism, white women have preserved white supremacist ideology in mainstream politics.

While white women have taken the lead in organized racism in broader society, they have been relegated to more passive and supportive roles in extreme white supremacist organizations. White nationalist groups structure themselves in a variety of ways, but most if not all have some form of gendered hierarchy. The most significant role that white women play are wives and mothers continuing and rearing the next Aryan generation. They are especially valued for their capacity to bear and raise as many white children as possible to ensure Aryan survival. To safeguard their racial future, however, white women must strictly adhere to conventional gender norms. Supportive wives enable white Aryan men to maintain their racial activism instead of focusing their energy on homelife (Blee 2002). Traditional wives help unify the white family and produce children believing in white supremacist values. In white power circles, this traditional family unit is the only acceptable way to counter the population decline of white people, or white genocide, as they call it. Women performing white motherhood in an appealing way can help legitimize the movement in the eyes of the mainstream public (Belew 2018). Depicting rallies as events where women with babies care and school children together and serve food to attending families normalizes the activities of extremist groups (Blee 2002). As wives and mothers, women can protect members and secure the longevity of an intergenerational racist movement.

“While white women have taken the lead in organized racism in broader society, they have been relegated to more passive and supportive roles in extreme white supremacist organizations.”

White women also play a more operative role in white power movements. While leadership positions are limited, they often exercise leadership informally. Women are key to the social integrity of the movement, serving as the gatekeepers of white supremacy. They homeschool children, help create inspiring rallies and meetings, and forge bonds between families. These same tactics were used by white women in the era of segregation to enforce the color line in their communities (McRae 2018). Their recruiting strategy often involves forming personal connections with potential new members and easing them into racist life. They maintain and strengthen social groups that provide support to potential new members, which can make the group seem more appealing. New recruits are more open to joining the group if they are invited in, instead of having white power literature forcefully presented by angry men at rallies. White women effectively nurture sustained commitment to the cause, making them critical to recruitment efforts (Blee 2002)..

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