‘Daughters of Europe’: The Psycho-Cultural Motivations of Young Women Joining Generation Identity.

Abstract

In the last few years, we have experienced not only a rise in the popularity of far-right movements, but also their significant renewal, evidenced in shifts in style, discourse, aesthetic, and membership composition – often captured by the term ‘alt-right’. A notable such shift is the increased female membership, including the presence of young women in important roles and leadership positions in several of these movements, something that remains underexplored. This article aims to contribute to an understanding of the factors that attract young women to the contemporary far right by focusing on Generation Identity (GI), a group that has been active and influential in Europe. Drawing on psycho-cultural theory, we conduct discourse analysis of data from interviews with female GI members, GI social media, and other material related to the group, to uncover and understand the factors that are most important to young female ‘identitarians’.