When conservative women are featured in the media, it is usually because they have rejected the oppressive, patriarchal system that they have been forced to live under and have begun to challenge gender stereotypes instead. This is something that joins together the heroines from countless movies such as Sonia in A Price Above Rubies and Ruth in Fried Green Tomatoes. Less often is there ever any focus on the conservative women who firmly choose to remain within the misogynistic confines of their belief systems, particularly if this is a choice they make confidently. For every woman who stands up for reproductive rights, equal pay, women’s right to education, and freedom from the strict social boundaries that gender can impose upon a women’s place in society, there may be another woman who believes that these are non-issues and that the feminist agenda is pushing society to ruin. But why do these women support systems that deny them rights and even actively fight against the feminist cause? The answer is very complex and multifaceted, and it most likely varies greatly between different women. There is more than one school of thought on the matter, but I believe that it is necessary to analyze this question without falling into the trap of automatically blaming men for every non-progressive thought a woman has; women have minds of their own and they can come to problematic conclusions on their own.
One of the prominent voices in the conversation about conservative women’s motives is the radical feminist Andrea Dworkin; her stance in her book Right-Wing Women: the Politics of Domesticated Females is a good starting off point. According to Dworkin, women resort to conservativism due to the fact that the constant threat of male violence has left them with deep-seated fears. Women cling to conservative values because they feel that they promise them safety, order, rules, and the protective love of a man. While these feelings of fear and uncertainty may be one of the many factors that contribute to the overall issue, I hesitate to characterize all conservative women as people who have simply given up and become subservient to men as a path of least resistance. I would argue that women have much more agency than Dworkin gives credit for, particularly when she things such as “neither men nor women believe in the existence of women as significant beings” (Dworkin 21) and “women cannot be responsible for pregnancy, in the sense of acting to prevent it, because women do not control when, where, how, and on what terms they have intercourse” (Dworkin 77). We need to shift the narrative away from women’s thoughts and desires being insignificant or even nonexistent if we want to truly understand a women’s thought process when she decides to stand for anti-feminism. Additionally, the scope of consideration of these “right-wing women” should not be limited to just the United States culture, as there are other cultural viewpoints that play important roles in turning women to conservativism. Some other reasons I posit for a woman remaining within a conservative system include her sincere belief in her religion and a genuine, selfless commitment to her family.
To begin considering the effect that religious beliefs can have on a woman’s anti-feminist views, a comparison of the two main female characters in A Price Above Rubies can give some insight into how women with the same conservative background can greatly diverge in their ideals. In this film, Sonia and Rachel come from the same small Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, yet they end up with radically different outcomes. While Sonia accepts Sender’s job offer, she chooses to reject the Orthodox beliefs that women should remain in the home and focus on motherhood. Conversely, Rachel appears to embrace this role, and she often attempts to push Sonia towards accepting her role as a Hasidic woman more readily. She reassures Sonia that she shouldn’t overthink giving her son over to be circumcised and tries to convince her that her feelings of misery and panic are simply because of the stress of moving to a new neighborhood. When Rachel realizes that Sonia is beyond bringing back into her previous quiet acceptance of her traditional role, she quickly turns on her sister-in-law. She refuses to hand over Sonia’s son Shimmie because she claims that he needs to be in a healthy environment. By healthy, Rachel means is referring to the conservative idealization of the perfect stay-at-home mother. As someone who does not believe in the necessity of this conservative role for women, Rachel immediately became the movie’s villain to me in this moment. However, from Rachel’s perspective, Sonia may have been the true villain, as she put her son’s development at risk due to her perceived neglect. I disagree highly with Rachel’s behavior, but immediately rejecting her as a brainless automaton acting as a helpless slave to the patriarchy does no justice to this character.
Sadly, Rachel does not get much screen time, so it is challenging to analyze her actions and views. However, from what I can surmise, I believe that the one thing that differentiates Sonia from Rachel is true, unconditional religious belief. From the very beginning of the film, Sonia is shown to be skeptical of Judaism; as a young child, she questioned her faith’s view that loving your family above God is a sin, and she characterizes her skepticism as a fire inside her that continues getting hotter and hotter. Her disbelief is an integral part of her character just as Rachel’s staunch beliefs in the validity and necessity of her role as a mother are part of her. Rachel adopts a motherly role even towards Sonia, a grown woman. The only time she breaks from this role is when she begins to feel that Sonia is a bad mother who is putting her son at risk; at this time she shifts her motherly attentions towards Shimmie. Sonia finds her passion and drive by being an excellent jeweler, but Rachel seems to find her passion in defending her children and her faith without question. When Sonia comes back for her son, Rachel seems to hold a powerful, vicious indignation towards her behavior, and I think that this level of disgust can only be achieved by someone who truly believes that Sonia was acting in horrible sin. There was no fear to be seen.
This film is, of course, a work of fiction. However, it must be noted that Sonia’s story – a woman leaving the insulation of a Hasidic lifestyle in order to find freedom – is one that has many nonfiction counterparts in modern society. Notably, there have been full books written on the topic of rejecting religious orthodoxy such as Unorthodox: the Scandalous Rejection of my Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman and Becoming Un-orthodox: Stories of Ex-Hasidic Jews by Lynn Davidman. There is even a nonprofit organization based in New York City called Footsteps that exists to offer support to ex-Orthodox Jewish men and women (Brodesser-akner), because cases of leaving the Hasidic community do not always end as The Price Above Rubies did. Not everyone receives the kind support that Mendel offered Sonia. Instead, they are usually completed cut off from contact with any family members, so exiting the faith is not an action to be taken lightly. Many women leave these communities because they find cutting ties with family members worth escaping the Orthodox restrictions on a woman’s role, but it should also be noted that other women willingly convert to Orthodoxy. These female converts aren’t born into the restrictive faith, and their perspective is important to consider.
The motivations of some female who have converted to Orthodox Judaism as well-documented by Lynn Davidman’s 1991 book Tradition in a Rootless World: Women Turn to Orthodox Judaism. Davidman notes how the communities that these women were joining held rigid standards for women role in the nuclear family, and she quotes a rabbi as asserting that “people in the world are seen as being almost incomplete when they’re not married…the essence of woman is a creation from man so they can be combined into union again” (Davidson, 154). In the case of female converts, this traditional role was actually one of the factors that encouraged them to join. Many of these women expressed that they had felt a lack of identity and belonging when they attempting to navigate through the modern, increasingly secular world, and they felt that “an understanding of their place in the community and in relation to God and the cosmos was a significant aspect of the new identity” that could help combat feelings of disorder (Davidson, 153). A desire for order in a world full of chaos in a trait that Dworkin also noted as a strong motivating factor for right-wing beliefs, but Davidson’s focus here in less on the negative effects of male supremacy and more on the positive effects of community in finding self-identity. These women believe that they are significant beings and that their need for identity and love are real and valid. Like Rachel, they can find self-actualization through the creation of a nuclear family. This lifestyle is not for everyone, but it isn’t one that women are necessarily forced into because they have no better, safer option.
So far, this discussion of conservative women has been very limited, as only American Jewish women have been considered. To begin expanding this analysis, I would like to examine a Muslim, non-American angle. I find that the 2016 Israeli film Sufat Chol– Sand Storm, in English- has many parallels with A Price Above Rubies in the sense that it also features two female characters that are navigating a small, orthodox community in very different ways. Comparing the opposing ways that the mother, Jalila, and her daughter, Layla, choose to live within their Bedouin culture and Muslim faith not only helps give further consideration to the role that religious practices play in conservative values, but also in how family values can influence women when they are deciding whether or not to rebel. Religion and culture provide the basis for many of the choices these two women make, but ultimately it is their strong family values form the backbone of their actions.
In order to properly understand the dynamics in this film, some background knowledge of the Bedouin culture that is portrayed in this film is helpful. Bedouin means “desert people”, and they are a group of Arabs, typically Sunni Muslims, living in small communities with very traditional values. Marriage, which is considered to be a necessary practice for all men and women, is usually restricted to being within the extending family. Cousins commonly marry one another, and polygamy, although not as common, is allowed (Hays). Addtionally, according to the Qu’ran, “Righteous wives are devout and guard what God would have them guard in their husbands’ absence. If you fear high-handedness from your wives, remind them [of the teachings of God], then ignore them when you go to bed, then hit them” (The Qu’ran, 4:34). Therefore, Layla and Jalila are restricted in their societal roles both on the grounds of their Bedouin culture and their religion.
Understanding the importance of marriage customs and gender roles in this context is critical to understanding the role that marriage plays in this film. Both Layla and Jalila are struggling to deal with the ways that Bedouin marriage culture is negatively affecting them. Jalila must face the fact that her husband has just married his second wife and he is constantly abandoning their family together in favor of building a new home with his younger wife. Layla, who is receiving an education, owns a cellphone, and is learning how to drive, yearns to leave the community in favor of marrying the outsider that she has fallen in love with. According to their culture, Jalila must happily accept her place as a second wife and Layla must marry the man that her father selects for her. However, Jalila is silently hurt and enraged by her husband’s actions, and Layla secretly plots to run away with her boyfriend once she realizes that her father cannot be swaying into accepting her choices.
Jalila, like Rachel, is an interesting character to consider due to the fact that she very rarely rebels against the conservative values that she is oppressed by. She also takes every opportunity to encourage Layla not to step out of line. When she discovers that Layla is being called by her boyfriend, she takes away her phone and laments her daughter’s scandalous choices. She discourages Layla from going to school, as she doesn’t see the value in her education if it is only going to force her to neglect her duties to help her with household duties and her responsibility to help care for her younger siblings. But why does Jalila stand behind the traditional values that very clearly make her and her daughter miserable? In this case, Dworkin’s perspective that she remains within the boundaries of conservative rules because she fear male violence seems the most fitting. Jalila’s husband, Suliman, at first seems to be a subversion of the typical patriarch because he teaches his daughter how to drive and encourages her to become educated. However, when Jalila learns that Layla’s boyfriend has come to ask Suliman to marry Layla, she immediately orders him to leave, and her fear of her husband’s reaction is clear. Jalila may not be happy about her situation or even believe in Islam with the same fervor that Rachel believes in Judaism, but she values the safety of her others from her husband’s wrath over all else, so she strategically remains within the boundaries of what is expected of her.
While Jalila’s choices do not usually conflict with Dworkin’s ideas, the end to Layla’s story provides another example of a woman who decides to remain in her conservative world for reasons far more complex and selfless than a simple fear for one’s individual safety. Layla spends the majority of the film actively showing that she does not want to submissively fall into her role as the wife to the man of her father’s choosing, but she eventually decides to do just this. Her choice initially feels completely out of character, as she had spent the entire film showing her resolve to make a marriage to her love a reality, and she goes as far as to steal her father’s car and drive most of the way towards a life of freedom with her love. However, she stops, turns around, and gets married instead. But why? Why would an educated, liberated woman return to a system that forces her to a live of obedience? In this situation, it wasn’t fear that motivated Layla, but bravery. She knew that she could turn her back on her family, but she also knew that her mother would be the one to take the punishment for her actions if she left. Her mother faced permanent banishment for advocating for Layla to be married to a deserving man, and it was Layla’s love and respect for her mother that made her prioritize her family values over her individual freedom. Women who willingly adhere to restrictive, traditional values as a sacrifice for their family are definitely worth considering; rather than assuming the worst of those who follow patriarchal ideals, we should stop to think about what may have led them to that point. Perhaps Jalila was like Layla at a time, but she, too, found herself in a place where she would have been forced to choose freedom over her loved ones. There’s no way to know for sure, but that is the interpretation I would rather take.
It is very likely that women who live in situations similar to that of Layla and Jalila do exist in real life, but it is also important to examine nonfictional women in Middle Eastern culture in order to have a complete view of the potential contributing factors to their attitudes. One very intriguing case of a Middle Eastern anti-feminist is well documented in Azza Karam’s chapter “Islamism and Feminisms in Egypt” in the book Right Wing Women: From Conservatives to Extremists Around the World. Karam discusses some powerful female activists, Zaynab Al-Ghazali and Heba Ra’uf, who fought against the Western notion that women should have the freedom to choose a path other than motherhood. Zaynab is not easy to characterize as seeking safety out of fear of male violence, as she refused to back down with the work with the Muslim Women’s Association to the point that Nasser threw her into prison and tortured her. At the same time, however, Al-Ghazali can be quoted as believing that “women’s role in society is to be a mother, to be a wife…the West has lied and fraudulently claimed that they have liberated women…women’s skill in the rearing of her sons and preparing them for their leading and productive roles in society is far more valuable and useful” (Karam 228). As for Ra’uf, her reasons for strongly advocating against the adoption of Western values- namely women moving away from home-making roles- were motivated by a complex assortment of different things. Like the Orthodox converts I discussed previously, holding traditional Islamic views helped give Ra’uf a sense of identity during a time that she suffered from religious discrimination as a student at a German school. It was also a source of comfort against the anger she felt for the way she was being treated, particularly when she was not allowed to wear a head scarf (Kazam 238). Overall, women who act as outspoken leaders against their own freedom may appear to be completely contradictory in their ideas, but they truly do seem to believe in what they are fighting for, and they have put real thought into the choices they make. I might not agree with what they say, but I also don’t think that men put these ideas into their heads.
By this point, I have been focusing on religion as one of the main factors influencing these women to hold conservative views. My overarching belief is that we shouldn’t blame men entirely for women’s conservativism, but it cannot be ignored that all of the religious texts that dictate the strict rules by which women should live their lives have been written by men. With this in mind, you could easily say that if women believe in strict gender roles because of their religious views, then they themselves can’t really be blamed for their actions. The systems have been created by and for the benefit of the patriarchy, so perhaps the women who follow these practices are simply complicit because it is the path of least resistance in a male-dominated world. However, I think that viewing women as helpless against male forces does no justice to feminist causes. I don’t believe that I need to be take a husband and be obedient to him in order to please a God figure, but it is possible that other women hold opposing views for reasons that are just as complex and diverse as the many different women who hold them. Whether or not these women have been motivated by their own desires for self-identity or by their desires to be a part of a family, there are certainly facets of women’s decisions that have absolutely nothing to do with men.
For a final example of a different group of radically conservative women, I would like to move away from women who are motivated by religious ideals and instead focus on women whose right-wing values are rooted in hate. There are many women who are willing, enthusiastic members of the Ku Klux Klan despite the fact that this racist group views women merely as breeders, greatly limits female participation, and consists of men who refuse to treat women as intellectual equals (Blee 107). The official stance on female Klan membership on the Klan’s website is even written by a woman, Julie, who states that “as a white Christian woman, I have made it my mission to take a stand for our people. I hope one day that I will be a wife and a mother and I will then be able to pass this on to my own children” (Julie). Her focus on producing a new generation of white children is very representative of Klanswomen attitudes towards their role in society.
It takes more than a statement from a single Klanswomen to truly understand the factors that influence a woman to join the Klan and accept a lesser position within the organization and society as a whole. One film that I believe helps illustrate the experience of a Klanswoman is 2018’s Blackkklansman. While the movie is the story of a black man who infiltrates the Klan by posing as a white man on the phone, a side character named Connie shows the perspective of a woman with radical, racist ideals. Connie is the wife of Felix, a prominent Klansman, and she is not treated well by the Klansmen who use her house as their primary meeting location. Despite the fact that she is reduced to a mere servant who brings the men beer and snacks at regular intervals, she continues to prioritize the ability to act upon her hateful views over demanding better treatment. Of all of the Klan members depicted in the film, Connie is the one who seems the most motivated out of all of them to take violent action against the black people in their community. But why does she adopt these prejudiced beliefs so strongly at the expense of her freedom and dignity?
One could argue that white supremacy, like religion, is a construct created by white men, and thus Connie and other Klanswomen’s adherence to the Klan’s tenets have little to do with their own personal biases as opposed to ones that they have been taught by men. These women have grown up in a society that teaches them to fear the perceived violence nature of black men, so you could say that women who join the Klan are doing so because the organization offers them a solution to this fear. Still, there is much more nuance to female Klanswoman than just a single factor. Connie, for instance, completely subverts this female stereotype of fearfulness and passivity when she actually puts herself at risk in order to deliver a bomb to the house of Colorado College’s Black Student Union president. Although she is entirely enthusiastic about the plan, she was still in a position where she couldn’t act on her desire to bring harm upon people she has chosen to hate until her husband told her she could do so. If it was her hatred of minorities rather than her fear of them, why does she put up with these restrictive conditions?
Historically, there are many things that have drawn women to the KKK. Back in the 1920s, women were brought into the Klan by the promise of answers to a multitude of societal issues at the time, namely the high rates of gambling, prostitution, alcohol consumption, and promiscuous behavior. The tactic for KKK propaganda during that time was to “assert their credibility by focusing on issues of general public concern, then move these in a racist direction” (Blee 109). This method is still alive and well today; the KKK more recently tends to blame the poor state of the American education system on the presence of racial minorities and the actions of the so-called Jewish-controlled government, and thus garner followers who feel disturbed by this issue. In some ways, it isn’t so much fear that drives women to the KKK, rather, it is outrage. These women feel wronged, and they come to genuinely believe that they need to mobilize as a race against the changes occurring within society. The conclusions that they have been led to believe by KKK propaganda are horrible, illogical, and wrong, but that doesn’t mean that the conclusions that Klanswomen have come to about the state of the world are not their own.
After looking at more than one group of conservative women, I have come to conclude that women’s right-wing ideals come from a huge variety of different places, and it would be nearly impossible to try to name just one simple reason why women accept subordination within their community. Not all of the reasons that women become conservative are inherently negative, however. I believe that if you come to accept a stereotypically female role in society out of a genuine appreciation for the mother’s value in the home, a strong belief that this role will bring you closer to your God, a desire to be a part of a community, or out of a selfless desire to put your family’s needs above yours, there is little use in fearing these women, looking down on them as helpless and sad, or denying that they have agency in their decisions. However, other women’s reasons for becoming conservative are incredibly negative, such as the racism found in the KKK, or any situation in which a man is forcing them accept traditional values. Additionally, any woman who tries to force her own conservative ideals upon other women is where the true problem lies.
Works Cited (in MLA)
Blackkklansman. Directed by Spike Lee. Focus Features, 2018.
Blee, Kathleen M. “The Gendered Organization of Hate”. Right Wing Women: From Conservatives to Extremists Around the World. Ed. Paola Bacchetta, Ed. Margaret Power. New York City: Routledge. 101-114.
Brodesser-akner, Taffy. “The High Price of Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Life.” The New York Times, The New York Times Company, 30 Mar. 2017, http://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/magazine/the-high-price-of-leaving-ultra-orthodox-life.html.
Davidman, Lynn. Tradition in a Rootless World: Women Turn to Orthodox Judaism. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1991.
Dworkin, Andrea. Right-Wing Women: the Politics of Domesticated Females. Women’s Press, 1988.
Julie. “For Women”. The Knights Party: the Premier Voice of America’s White Resistance. The Knight’s Party, 2018, https://kkk.bz/for-women/
Hays, Jeffrey. “BEDOUINS.” Facts and Details, 2013, factsanddetails.com/world/cat52/sub331/item1988.html.
Karam, Azza. “Islamism and Feminisms in Egypt”. Right Wing Women: From Conservatives to Extremists Around the World. Ed. Paola Bacchetta, Ed. Margaret Power. New York City: Routledge. 225-241.
A Price above Rubies. Directed by Lawrence Bender. Miramax Film Corp., 1998.
The Qu’ran. Trans. By Abdul Haleem, Quran.com, 2016.
Sand Storm. Directed by Elite Zexer. 2-Team Productions, 2016.