Two Gendered Pathways of Right-wing Populism: Femonationalism and Deinstitutionalization

This article examines how and why right-wing populist actors develop differentiated anti-gender discourses and policies by drawing on the concepts of deinstitutionalization and femonationalism. The study employs Kurt Weyland's theoretical framework of populism to analyze the strategic variations in question. The argument is developed that right-wing populism does not engender a uniform or ideologically fixed gender agenda; instead, gender politics functions as a contextual and rational instrument shaped by the opportunities and constraints of specific political systems. The study utilizes a comparative discourse analysis of multiple cases to demonstrate that, despite the convergence of right-wing populist actors around anti-gender narratives, these narratives are mobilized in distinct ways depending on the regime structure. In illiberal or authoritarian contexts, populist leaders engage in anti-gender deinstitutionalization, dismantling existing equality mechanisms and weakening liberal-democratic checks and balances. In contrast, within liberal democracies, the deployment of femonationalist exclusion is observed, with gender equality discourses being instrumentalized for the legitimation of anti-immigrant, nativist, and xenophobic agendas. The article contributes to the expanding literature on gender and right-wing populism, both in terms of conceptual and theoretical development.