This event is sponsored by the Political Theory Workshop, The Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy, and the Political Science Department at Swarthmore College

Please join us for a lecture by Sara Farris, which draws on her recently published book, "In The Name Of Women's Rights: The Rise of Femonationalism" (Duke University Press, 2017). In her book 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.