The question is particularly controversial because women’s political participation was not simply granted. In Brazil, for example, women gained the right to vote and be elected in 1932 after decades of mobilization for political participation. The Brazilian Chamber of Deputies describes the achievement as a result of the feminist movement of the time.
Yet, women have never formed a politically uniform group. Throughout history, women have also participated in movements that opposed feminist demands. And this is not entirely new. What has changed is the visibility of women who actively use political institutions, social media and organized movements to challenge feminist ideas and, in some cases, rights associated with feminist activism.
So, how controversial is the growing presence of anti-feminist women in politics?
Women have been part of anti-feminist movements before
The phenomenon has historical roots. In Brazil, women participated in the Brazilian Integralist Action (AIB) during the 1930s. Known as the “Blusas Verdes” (Green Blouses), these women were part of an organized political movement that promoted conservative ideas about women’s roles in society.
A 2024 study published in Plural, a journal from the University of São Paulo, analyzed the Blusas Verdes as a women’s countermovement to feminism. According to it, the group competed with contemporary feminist movements over how women’s role in Brazilian society should be understood, responding to feminist demands with conservative ideas about women’s duties and social roles.
This is important because it shows that women opposing feminist movements are not a recent political invention!
In the United States, the same pattern can be found in the history of conservative women’s activism. Political scientist Ronnee Schreiber has studied organizations and activists who opposed feminist movements and causes such as the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and abortion rights. Her research describes conservative women as active political participants rather than simply supporters of male-led movements.
The phenomenon, therefore, isn’t about women suddenly becoming involved in politics. It’s about what political causes women choose to advance once they have access to political power.
Women on the frontlines of anti-feminism
Feminist movements fought for women to become political subjects — people who could vote, run for office, organize and influence public policy. When women who occupy these spaces actively oppose feminist causes, they are using that political agency to challenge some of the ideas and achievements associated with the movement that helped expand women’s political participation.
Schreiber’s research on conservative women in the United States found that politically active conservative women generally didn’t identify as feminists, but were nonetheless important actors in debates about women’s issues and political representation.
Another study in The Oxford Handbook of U.S. Women’s Social Movement Activism argues that women’s participation in anti-feminist and anti-ERA movements can give conservative causes legitimacy because these positions are being presented by women themselves and framed around women’s interests.
That creates a significant political tension: when opposition to feminism is expressed by women, it can’t simply be dismissed as men speaking on behalf of women. The women themselves are active participants in the political argument.
From political participation to opposing feminist gains
When anti-feminist ideas become part of political discourse, their impact can go beyond the individual women who promote them. They can influence how other women understand equality, gender roles and the social changes associated with feminism.
The presence of women in these debates can also make anti-feminist arguments appear less distant from women’s own experiences. Instead of being presented only as opposition coming from outside the feminist movement, these ideas can be framed as another way of understanding what women need, what their role in society should be and what equality should look like.
That is what makes the phenomenon politically significant. Anti-feminism is not only expressed through criticism of feminism; it can also become a political identity, a form of activism and a way of influencing public debate.
The controversy, then, lies not simply in women disagreeing with feminism, but in the growing visibility of women who actively organize around that opposition.
Brazil’s contemporary example
Brazil provides a particularly direct example of anti-feminism becoming part of a woman’s political identity.
A 2024 study published in Plural analyzed federal congresswoman Chris Tonietto‘s political communication on Instagram. The researchers identified an anti-feminist agenda as a central element of her political discourse, particularly through opposition to abortion rights. They argue that her content doesn’t simply respond to debates about abortion, but actively seeks to mobilize and politically educate an audience opposed to women’s reproductive rights.
Tonietto is one individual case, rather than evidence that all conservative women share the same political agenda, but the study demonstrates how anti-feminism can become more than a personal opinion: it can become part of a politician’s public identity and political strategy.
And this phenomenon exists beyond Brazil. Research on conservative women in the United States has similarly examined how women activists and politicians have organized around opposition to feminist causes, including the Equal Rights Amendment.
Why is this so controversial?
The controversy is not simply that women disagree with feminism.
Feminism itself contains different movements, theories and political positions. A woman can reject the label “feminist” without necessarily opposing every right associated with gender equality. The controversy becomes sharper when opposition turns into organized political action against women’s rights or feminist achievements.
This distinction matters. There is a difference between saying, “I don’t identify as a feminist”, and campaigning for policies that would restrict reproductive rights, limit protections against gender discrimination or reinforce political inequalities between men and women.
It’s the second situation that makes the phenomenon politically significant.
At the same time, women’s participation in these movements shouldn’t be reduced to the idea that they are simply being controlled or manipulated by men. Research on conservative women’s activism shows that they can have their own political motivations, organizations and strategies.
Understanding the phenomenon therefore requires taking their political agency seriously — while also examining the concrete consequences of the policies they support.
The paradox of political freedom
Feminist movements fought to expand women’s political agency. Today, that agency allows some women to become politicians, activists and public figures who oppose feminism or challenge policies associated with women’s liberation. That doesn’t erase the history of feminist activism or the role it played in expanding women’s political rights.
Instead, it reveals one of the complicated consequences of political equality: once women gain political rights, those rights can be used to defend very different visions of women’s place in society.
The question, then, is not whether women should be allowed to disagree with feminism. Political freedom necessarily includes disagreement.
The more difficult question is what happens when women who occupy political spaces made possible by previous struggles for women’s rights use that power to oppose some of the rights and advances those movements fought to achieve.
That is what makes the rise of anti-feminist women in politics so controversial, because it’s a story about who gets to define women’s rights, what equality should mean, and what happens when the political freedom won through feminist struggles is used to challenge feminism itself.
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The article above was edited by Fernanda Rhomberg.
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