Women on the Right in U.S. History: Intellectual, Economic, and Political Power
February 26-27, 2026
UC Berkeley
Please register here (free and open to the public)
This conference seeks to extend our currently limited understanding of women’s role in building conservative power in the United States. From the Loyalist women in the eighteenth century through the War of 1812, to those who were pro-slavery, anti-suffrage, pro-segregationists, pro-KKK, anti-Civil Rights, anti-Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), anti-abortion, anti-#MeToo, and pro-Make America Great Again (MAGA), women have shaped and launched conservative and right-wing movements, despite the fact that some alliances suppressed the rights of women. This seemingly paradoxical underlying current in US history has been neglected. The conference will examine the roles of conservative and right-wing women in the United States in shaping economics, politics, and culture through the lenses of gender, race, religion, sexuality, and more.
The conference will foster the exchange of intellectual thought among seasoned experts, early-career scholars, and policy-makers from all political perspectives.
Sponsored by: Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies
Co-sponsored by: Departments of Sociology, History, and Gender & Women's Studies, and Center for Race and Gender
Keynote Speakers
Kathleen Blee, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh; author of Women of the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s
Jennifer Burns, Edgar E. Robinson Professor of United States History, Stanford University; author of Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right
