The Terrifying Return of the Nazi Housewives: How a New 'Womanosphere' Is Fueling the Far Right

2025-09-21 18:00:22.617

In 1980, Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, a former leader of the Nazi women’s bureau, described her role as “influencing women in her daily lives”. She promoted “the cradle and the ladle,” emphasizing reproductive and household duties as essential to national strength. This messaging, amplified through women's magazines and Nazi associations, resonates with the current far-right's focus on traditional gender roles. Historians draw parallels between Nazi Germany's manipulation of women and the current American far-right. Theorists like Theodor Adorno and George Lakoff highlight the paternalistic nature of authoritarian regimes, where women's subservience supports a hierarchical structure. The Trump administration's policies, including restrictions on reproductive rights and immigration, echo Nazi Germany's pronatalist agenda and racial selectivity. The article introduces the "womanosphere," a digital network of online creators promoting normative femininity, anti-queerness, white supremacy, and traditional maternalism. Influencers like Alex Clark and Candace Owens promote this ideology, often subtly through lifestyle content. This "reactionary feminism" emphasizes women's commitment to the home and family, downplaying their political disenfranchisement. The womanosphere often glosses over the complex realities of financial dependence and the burdens of unpaid labor. Historians highlight how authoritarian regimes utilize women's unpaid labor to compensate for state failures. Mussolini's Italy, for example, used propaganda to mask food shortages and rely on women's ingenuity. Similarly, the Trump administration's cuts to social services place greater burdens on women, who become de facto teachers, farmers, and medics. The article concludes by warning of the dangers of this manipulation, emphasizing the potential for women to be exploited and harmed by a system that promises security in exchange for their autonomy and rights.