From Out of the Shadows: Understanding Women’s Experiences of White Supremacist Deradicalization

From the Ku Klux Klan to neo-Nazism, women have been on the front lines extending the reach of white supremacist violence for centuries. While prior research has addressed women’s roles in white supremacist groups (e.g., Blee, 2002, 2005, 2018), few studies have investigated the phenomenological experiences of women exiting such groups (see Latif et al., 2020). None, to our knowledge, have investigated their experiences becoming anti-hate activists. Thus, in the present investigation we used interpretative phenomenological analysis to understand the lived experiences of women who left white supremacist groups and became anti-hate activists. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews with seven former white supremacist women, we explored why and how they left their hate groups and why they chose to speak out against their former racist ideologies. Our analysis identified five themes: (a) protecting children from the movement, (b) experiencing misogyny and abuse, (c) developing/maintaining supportive relationships, (d) cultivating positive identities through introspection and self-healing, and (e) identifying motivations toward and drawbacks from public activism. Participants rebuilt post-exit identities, struggled to reintegrate into society, and eventually became activists to expose the threat of white supremacist women. We also discuss the implications of our findings for deradicalization prevention and intervention efforts.