Women and Anarchism: The Anarcha-Feminism Movement in Europe and the United States

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Abstract

As an ideology, anarchism has many currents formed through its symbiosis with various socio-political philosophies, including feminism. In the modern world, due to the growing support for feminism in Western countries, the study of anarcha-feminism as one of the most active anarchist movements seems to be useful for understanding the socio-political situation in Europe and the United States. The article examines the position of women in the anarchism ideology upon the development of the anarcha-feminist movement from the 19th century to the present day. Based on the works of the classics of anarcha-feminism (E. Goldman, W. De Claire) and modern research (D. Koval, M. Rachmaninova), the author conducted a comparative retrospective analysis of the relationship between anarchism and feminism within a single socio-political trend. The study revealed that despite the ideological similarity of anarchism and feminism in matters of equality and attitude to power, in classical anarchism women were assigned a rather insignificant, and even deprived, role. The fusion of feminism and anarchism, which came as a response to the unfair position of women in society, led to a change in the status of women in the understanding of anarchists, and also gave impetus to the development of modern anarcha-feminism (La Rivolta!, Eskalera Karakola, Wemoon’s Army, Radical cheerleading) including more and more men in the movement.

About the authors

Gleb S. Brekhov

Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University)

Author for correspondence.
Email: 1042200137@rudn.university
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5723-4957

postgraduate of Political Science, Department of Comparative Politics

Moscow, Russian Federation

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