Marine Le Pen on Feminism

Marine Le Pen seeks to reposition the far-right by consciously employing her femininity and adopting select feminist themes, though she stops short of claiming the feminist label herself. This strategy, often termed 'femonationalism' by critics, involves presenting herself as a modern, successful woman—a lawyer and mother—to create a 'kinder, gentler extremist' image, contrasting sharply with her father's more overtly misogynistic past. Key evidence of this tactic includes highlighting her personal stances, such as supporting existing abortion legislation, and using issues like street harassment to appeal to female voters, while simultaneously using gender equality rhetoric to justify anti-immigration and anti-Islamic stances, arguing that certain cultural practices threaten women's rights.

This appropriation of feminism has been met with considerable resistance, with activists labeling it as 'fake feminism' designed primarily as a vehicle for xenophobic and anti-immigrant politics. While her use of gender successfully closed the party's traditional gender voting gap and contributed to the normalization of the Rassemblement National, critics argue that her party's core platform remains antithetical to broader feminist goals of challenging patriarchal power dynamics. Her discourse racializes sexism by blaming migrant communities, rather than fundamentally challenging sexism within French society itself.