Gender, the extreme right and Flemish nationalist women's organisations in interwar Belgium

Abstract

. This paper deals with the two main interwar Flemish nationalist women's organisations of the extreme right in Belgium: the Katholieke Vlaamsche meisjesbeweging (Catholic Flemish Girls' Movement) and the Vlaamsch-Nationaal Vrouwenverbond (Flemish National Women's League). Drawing on Karen Offen's distinction between ‘relational’ and ‘individualist’ feminism it is argued that they were not uniformly anti-feminist: they drew on a ‘relational’ tradition to justify women's public and political participation. Women were attracted to these organisations which appeared to denigrate their rights, because in neither were they treated as mere objects of discourse. They actively engaged in the production of a nationalist discourse of their own, they felt empowered and had opportunities for agency. Their public adherence to the values of motherhood and married life did not imply private ascription to them. Finally, the impact of the ‘pillarisation’ (verzuiling) of Belgian society on Flemish nationalist gender views is looked into, and compared to other European countries.